Head:
Address:
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Institute of Water and River Basin Management
- Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management -
Kaiserstrasse 12
76131 Karlsruhe
Phone: +49 (0)721 - 608-44418
Email: wasserbau∂iwg.kit.edu
Visiting address:
The challenges facing water managers and engineers nowadays are manifold, complex, and require cross disciplinary approaches. These challenges include the safety of hydraulic natural and built systems, ageing infrastructures, pollution, guarantee of energy and food security, sustainable development and safety of urban environment, ecological feedbacks and an uncertain future
Our group develops research towards engineering solutions for the design, the planning and the implementation of sustainable water infrastructures prepared for global change. We investigate the mechanics of flowing water and its interaction with key elements of a river basin such as sediments, dissolved matter, gases, living organisms and people. More specifically, the group is committed to develop research on four main topics: sustainable and secure water for supply, food and energy; adaptive and multi-functional hydraulic systems; healthy rivers; and geophysical processes in rivers and lakes.
The institute has a long portfolio in engineering and water management projects, which benefits the education of engineering, provides relevance for the scientific activities and inspires fundamental research. This was accomplished thanks to an excellent infrastructure which includes the world renown Theodor-Rehbock hydraulics laboratory and modern numerical means.
The group aims at continuing the tradition of excellence in hydraulic engineering and water resources management brought by its former directors for more than 100 years: Prof. Franz Nestmann (1994-2021), Prof. Peter Larsen (1983-1994), Prof. Emil Mosonyi (1965-1982), Prof. Heinrich Wittmann (1934-1965) and Prof. Theodor Rehbock (1899-1933).
At the invitation of the Lions Club Karlsruhe-Baden, Dr. Peter Oberle on December 7th in the Schlosshotel Karlsruhe the current flood strategy of the state of BW.
The flood disaster of 2021 showed that the current design values for protective measures need to be reconsidered and that the intensities of historical events must be used as a basis, especially for alarm and operational planning. The results of a simulation study (in cooperation with Hydron mbH) for the Neckar Valley are presented, in which the precipitation from the 2021 flood was projected onto the catchment area there. The discharges in the Neckar Valley are comparable to the historic flood of 1824, with devastating consequences for the industrial sites located in the river valley. The BW state government provides comprehensive information (including hazard maps, forecasts) and tools in order to be prepared for such extreme events. The lecture ends with an appeal to the municipalities and each individual to take advantage of the offers and face this challenge.
Hydraulic structures, such as dams fulfill many societal functions including water supply, flood mitigation and generation of hydropower.
Their safety is paramount and a failure can be catastrophic.
The design of hydraulic structures must therefore be conducted with the highest technical standards using state-of-the-art measurement approaches.
The seminar video is online now
Link to the seminar PDF file
The Seminar aims at presenting aspects relevant for flood data collection and fast modelling of flood events.
The seminar video is online now
Link to the seminar PDF file
As team from the Department of Water and River Management from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) together with partners from the Georgian Technical University (GTU) and Tbilisi State University (TSU) we organized a joined workshop with the title “Towards Sustainable Sediment Management of Catchments and Reservoirs”.
The workshop took place from 24.09-28.09.2023 in Postko Esteri in direct vicinity to the Enguri Dam. We (Andreas Kron, Stephan Hilgert and Klajdi Sotiri) presented a global perspective on reservoirs in the context of sediment management, State-of-the-Art sediment detection methods, hydrodynamic modeling approaches and we organized a field trip including a bathymetric and seismic surveys on the Enguri reservoir as well as hydrometric measurements at the Enguri River.
The workshop took place in the frame of the DAMAST-Transfer project and was supported by the DAAD. Further information about the workshop and the project can be found at https://www.damast-caucasus.de/
“Mega-rivers” are defined as those having an average annual discharge much larger than 10000 m³/s.
Following this definition, there are 10 mega-rivers on the Earth: Amazon, Congo, Orinoco, Yangtze, Madeira, Negro, Brahmaputra, Japura, Parana and Mississippi.
The seminar video is online now
Link to the seminar PDF file
In July 2023, Michael Ritzmann celebrated 40 years of service at KIT.
On this occasion, Mário Franca presented him with the certificate of thanks signed by Ministerpräsident Winfried Kretschmann.
The entire institute congratulates.
