News from the Institute – Retrospective
November 2024 1. Workshop on the PROWAVE Project
Together with Harzwasserwerke, we had the pleasure of hosting the first workshop on the project "PROactive Control of Water Distribution Systems" funded by the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU). Experts from water associations and research institutions gave insightful presentations and discussed the future of reservoir control. The main focus was on achieving more efficient reservoir management under climate change conditions using data-driven models.
June 2024 Victory at the Battle of Water Demand Forecasting 2024
Congratulations to our colleague Gregor Johnen! Together with Jens Kley-Holsteg, Florian Ziel, and Björn Sonnenschein, he won the “Battle of Water Demand Forecasting” held during the WDSA-CCWI 2024 2024 in Ferrara, Italy.The data science competition aimed to find the most accurate water demand forecast. Participants were required to create four 168-hour forecasts for ten different pressure zones. With the overall most precise forecast of the competition, the team outperformed 31 other teams from 20 countries and was awarded first place.
May 2024 Presentation of the Fish Lift VR Tour at IFAT
The Institute presented its virtual tour of the fish lift system at Baldeneysee at IFAT in the DWA Digital Corner. This tour offers in-depth insights into the system and allows users to navigate through it while learning about its functions. Dive in HERE and swim like the fish in the Ruhr through the fish lift system at Baldeneysee.
May 2024 KIWaSuS – AI-based Early Warning System for Heavy Rainfall and Urban Flash Floods
The institute will be represented by Karen Schulz at the HIC (International Conference on Hydroinformatics) in May and the ICUD (International Conference on Urban Drainage) in June. She will present machine learning frameworks for error detection and correction in sensor data. The validated sensor data include both conventional and low-cost rain gauges as well as low-cost flow sensors for sewer systems. The work has been developed within the BMBF joint research project KIWaSuS.
April 2024 PROWAVE: Smart control of reservoirs – forecasting water availability and demand
The Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management at the University of Duisburg-Essen will act as the project coordinator over the next three years in the pioneering project PROWAVE (“Proactive Control of Reservoirs and Water Distribution Networks”).
Our goal is to improve the safety and efficiency of drinking water supply from reservoirs, which is increasingly impacted by climate change. The use of AI enables more effective responses to extreme weather events, helping to ensure both water quantity and quality.
Virtual Tour of the Fish Lift at Baldeneysee
This virtual tour offers in-depth insights into the system and allows users to explore the entire structure and learn about its functions. Take a dive HERE into the lift and swim like the fish through the fish lift system at Baldeneysee in the Ruhr. (01.02.2024)
April 2024 Pilot Project “HÜProS” for Small Low Mountain Rivers
The extreme flooding in the summer of 2021 revealed gaps in flood warnings for small river catchments. The goal of the project is to address unresolved technical questions and to develop a water level forecasting system with improved spatial and temporal accuracy. The Institute for Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management at the University of Duisburg-Essen will be involved in setting up the sensor network. Additionally, it will be responsible for the automatic quality control of the water level sensors.
March 2024 DWA WaWi Courses on Drainage Systems and Water-Conscious Urban Development in Kassel
From March 12 to 14, the water management courses "Drainage Systems and Water-Conscious Urban Development" organized by the DWA were held under the direction of Mr. André Niemann. Mrs. Katharina Thielking from Hansewasser Bremen presented Bremen’s digital heavy rainfall hazard map. Mr. Michael Richter introduced a toolbox developed within the "BlueGreenStreets" project, designed to support the multifunctional design of urban street spaces. A model of a tree trench was also on display – presented by Nina Altensell from Dr. Pecher AG.
Oktober 2023 Virtual Reality in Water Management Education: A Lecture by Gregor Johnen
The advancement of digitalization offers innovative opportunities not only in industry and research but also in education and teaching. As part of the DWA expert committee BIZ-9, Mr. Gregor Johnen presented the benefits of Virtual Reality (VR) for education in the field of water management. Regular use in actual teaching settings allows students to experience complex processes in an immersive and interactive way, significantly enhancing their understanding. In this way, VR paves the way for practice-oriented and innovative teaching methods.
Learning video for the DWA quality model developed in cooperation with ZIM
As part of the teaching optimization for the course Water Quality Modelling within the international degree program Transnational Ecosystem-Based Water Management, a learning video was developed in collaboration with Dr. Christoffels (IBC Engineers) and the Center for Information and Media Services (ZIM) for the DWA water quality modeling software. This video allows users to follow each step of the modeling software in detail and gain a solid understanding of the fundamentals of water quality modeling. (18.09.2019)