All Posts By

Andrea

MedECC

A research initiative about climate change and environmental degradation in the Mediterranean Region

The initiative “Mediterranean Experts on Climate and Environmental Change” (MedECC) is committed to ensuring that the risks associated with environmental and climate change in the Mediterranean region are presented in a transparent and scientific way, thus providing a basis for political decision-making. The MedECC network consists of more than 600 scientists from 35 countries.

Our Centre is actively involved in this initiative with Dr. Marianela Fader as part of the Steering Committee, author of MedECC publications, and supervisor of educational activities (mainly Master theses in topics of interest to the initiative).

This initiative has been highly successful in the past, publishing an assessment report in 2020 (see below), winning the North South Prize 2020 of the European Council and being accepted in 2021 as member of the Mediterranean Commission for Sustainable Development (MCSD), a multi-stakeholder advisory body to the parties to the Barcelona Convention, under the auspices of UNEP / MAP. MedECC also directly contributes to the Flagship Initiative for the Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development (MSSD), Objective 4 (Addressing climate change as a priority issue for the Mediterranean). It recommends “the establishment of a regional science-policy interface mechanism (…) with a view to preparing consolidated regional scientific assessments and guidance on climate change trends, impacts and adaptation and mitigation options”. Additionally, for the period 2022-2026, Plan Bleu, which hosts the MedECC secretariat, has been accepted as a member of the European Topic Centre on Climate Change Adaptation. MedECC will mainly contribute to this by further developing a science-policy interface and adding case studies to the Climate ADAPT platform.

MedECC will continue working in the future by compiling special Reports on a) Coastal risks , b) The climate-water-energy-food-ecosystems nexus, and c) Environmental change, conflict and human migration.

Full MedECC Report (www.medecc.org)MedECC booklet, PDF, 35 p., 3,2 MB (www.medecc.org)Information about the MedECC Initiative (www.medecc.org)Download the paper “Climate change and interconnected risks to sustainable development in the Mediterranean” (www.nature.com)

Hydrology Day 2021

Potsdam, August 30 – September 01, 2021

This year’s Hydrology Day (HD) was held – exceptionally in summer – in Potsdam on the Griebnitzsee campus under the motto “Hydrology – linking environmental spheres and disciplines”. Initially, the conference that is traditionally held around the World Water Day on 22 March, was supposed to begin in spring 2020. At that time however, only a reduced online-event was feasible.

The issues of the sessions were taken over from 2020, but for topical reasons supplemented by a further session on the flood disaster in Germany:

  • multisdiciplinary case examples
  • interdisciplinary methodological innovations
  • interactions between spheres
  • hydrological extremes and risks
  • analysis of the current flood and drought events in Germany

Overall, about 165 experts from federal and provincial administrations, universities, large-scale and departmental research as well as companies and associations attended the event in person under strict hygienic conditions. The lectures from science and practice were highly topical and showed latest findings at a high level, even on the current extreme events. The participants noticeably enjoyed being in personal contact once again to engage in professional and personal discussions. Congratulations not only to the lecturers and exhibitors, but also to the organization team led by Prof. Dr. Axel Bronstert.

As in previous years, ICWRGC and the Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG) attended the HD each with their own booth, with ICWRGC presenting their most recent activities. During the poster session, the IHP/HWRP working group “FRIEND-Water/ERB” supported by ICWRGC and headed by Prof. Britta Schmalz, presented their current work on “Hydrological impacts of drought in the period 2018-2020 – analysis of lysimeter data and monitoring in small catchments”.

During HD, the elections for the Chair of the German Hydrological Society (DHG) were held. We most warmly congratulate Prof. Dr. Britta Schmalz on being elected new President, Prof. Dr. Axel Bronstert on being elected Vice-President as well as the further members of the managing and enlarged Board. We thank you for your commitment to hydrology in Germany. Mr. Harald Köthe, Director of the ICWRGC, and Ms. Petra Herzog, Head of Department for Quantitative Hydrology in BfG, attended the meeting of the Executive Board as guests.

Further information (German language):

Tag der Hydrologie an der Uni Potsdam (www.uni-potsdam.de)Beitrag der Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde zum TdH (www.bafg.de)Deutsche Hydrologische Gesellschaft (www.dhydrog.de)

Nutrient Loads in South Africa

Blanca Torres Vara from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) stayed at the ICWRGC from 15.10.2018–14.04.2019 to write her Master’s thesis dealing with “Nutrient Loads in South Africa”. She successfully completed this thesis in May 2019.

Cultural eutrophication is caused by the increase of anthropogenic nutrient loads and is one of the main water quality issues in the world, threatening biodiversity and human development. South Africa is especially vulnerable to the effects of eutrophication due to its reliance on reservoirs to supply water. The estimation of nutrient loads has been proved a powerful tool in the environmental management of nutrient pollution but it has yet not been implemented in South African environmental policy.

This Master’s thesis takes this opportunity and assesses spatial and temporal variability of total oxidized nitrogen and orthophosphate loads in South Africa from 1990 to 2018. It has the following threefold goals:

  • To improve the knowledge about the water quality status in South Africa with respect to nutrient loads, their influencing factors, such as land use or precipitation, and its future development.
  • To provide a tool for the environmental management of nutrient river loads. It identifies the areas most severely affected within the study area, allowing a better allocation of resources.
  • To serve as a pilot project for the development of integrated data products in the framework of the Global Terrestrial Network – Hydrology (GTN-H).

The study shows that the nutrient status in South African rivers has a strong seasonal component, 70% of the annual nutrient load is exported during the wet season. The segments assessed are split between nutrient sinks and nutrient sources for nitrogen and phosphate. The Limpopo, Vaal and Berg rivers have been identified as priority areas with regards of nutrient loads, mainly due to intense agriculture and urban development. The natural retention capacity shown in other river segments could provide an economical and environmental friendly nutrient management measure for such areas. The implementation of measures involving the estimation of river nutrient loads in South Africa is achievable with the data available and can contribute to ensure the water quality of South Africa in the future.

If you are interested in reading the entire pdf of the master thesis, you may contact Ms. Torres Vara at:

German UNESCO Commission Celebrates 70th Anniversary of its Founding

The accession of the Federal Republic of Germany to UNESCO in 1951 was a major step for reintegration into the international community. As an interface between UNESCO, civil society and government, the German UNESCO Commission (DUK) has pursued UNESCO’s founding idea ever since: „to anchor peace in the human mind“.

On this occasion, a 2-hour celebration was held at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn on 25 August. Der recorded livestream can be relived under https://youtu.be/NfjFDJQFA_4.

After words of appreciation from the UNESCO Director, Ms. Audrey Azoulay (Paris), the Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, Ms. Michelle Müntefering, and the Chair of the DUK, Prof. Dr. Maria Böhmer, the event was entirely dedicated to music. Music, through its tremendous uniting power across all boundaries, is at the heart of the cultural heritage of mankind and thus a UNESCO issue per se. The invited musicians made their art heard in great variety, and talked about it. What they all have in common is that they transcend borders in their art, in the best sense of the word, mix different styles and cultural influences or create something new by improvising. The music of the Hamdelaneh duo even made reference to water.

The Secretary General of DUK is i.a. member of the National Committee of the German Secretariat to the UNESCO Water Programme (IHP) at the ICWRGC.

Concurrently, DUK published its yearbook 2020-2021. Data can be downloaded here: https://www.unesco.de/sites/default/files/2021-08/DUK_70Jahre-Jahrbuch_20-21_bf.pdf

UNESCO is a specialised agency of the United Nations for education, science and culture. It has 193 member states. Its headquarters are in Paris. It is the only UN-organisation with a worldwide network of National Committees.

MoU signed between IHE Delft (The Netherlands) and ICWRGC (Germany)

In the spirit of the new UNESCO IHP IX Strategic Plan (2022 – 2029) “Science for a Water Secure World in a Changing Environment”, the two UNESCO Category 2 Water Centres of the Netherlands and Germany signed a MoU to complement their different profiles and activities to strengthen their work and products together with the UN and UNESCO water family for the benefit of all. The future cooperation of both centres also aims at supporting water programmes of other UN organizations intending to implement the goals of the UN Agenda 2030, the Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG 6 and its nexus to the other SDGs.

A better understanding of the earth´s system, the global water cycle and its changes under drivers such as climate change, socio-economic changes, globalization, limited natural resources etc. needs more and more interdisciplinary efforts. In this sense, the MoU is looking for synergies among the two centres. The agreement focuses on the following four key areas of cooperation:

  • Scientific research and innovation
    by collaborating in MSc/PhD student supervision and research, staff exchange and mutually hosting students working on various topics in the field of water resources management.
  • Water Education and Capacity Development
    Development and sharing of methods and tools based on new practices by the scientific community to translate scientific information into a format facilitating education, decision-making and policy formulation;teaching and learning materials on water-related matters for formal, non-formal andinformal education.
  • Bridging the data-knowledge gap
    Improve collection and quality assessment methods for water quality data (surface water and groundwater); disseminate best practices on data collection and use (i.e. data products) by developing Open Educational Resources on these topics; implement the work of GTN-H Global Terrestrial Network-Hydrology (ICWRGC responsible for water quality, IGRAC for groundwater, ISMN for soil moisture) in education and capacity development, in collaboration with other organizations such as UNESCO, WMO, UNEP, FAO, GEO (possibly within the framework of UN-Water).
  • Providing scientific support to water governance
    Support water diplomacy on transboundary aquifers with scientific products.

Aligned with the ninth phase of UNESCO IHP IX Strategic Plan (2022 – 2029), the MoU will be backed up with a working plan being tracked and adapted.

If you have any further questions about the MoU, please contact: Dr. Marianela Fader

Dr. Marianela Fader interviewed by JUNIA magazine

Dr. Fader, Deputy Director of ICWRGC, was interviewed within the scope of an article on a growing shortage of water resources. She discussed possible causes such as climate change and its impacts like a rising occurrence of extreme weather events, drought, decreasing precipitation and more frequent torrential rainfall that cannot be absorbed by the soil. Further reasons for water scarcity are increasing agricultural and tourism activities entailing extensive water consumption, especially in arid regions, which in turn results in an overuse of groundwater.

A further problem addressed by Marianela Fader is groundwater pollution by fertilizers, also in Germany. For years, Germany has been exceeding the nitrate threshold for groundwater, just like other EU member states.

Another reason for worldwide water shortage is a rising world population associated with an overuse of groundwater resources caused by extensive agriculture. Subsequently Dr. Fader explains the water footprint of products (the amount of water needed to produce goods) and makes suggestions how to save water. E.g. by entirely dispensing with products requiring a lot of water for their production or by cutting back on private consumption. Dr. Fader explains that water use has to be adapted to climate change, going along with climate protection by sustainable water resources management, e.g. the use of process water instead of drinking water in industry and agriculture.

„Women and Water“ is another essential topic of the interview. Water scarcity has very bad impacts on girls and women. In sub-Saharan Africa, girls and women often have to walk for hours to fetch water. In Latin America and Asia girls and women are also concerned by a lack of sanitation and access to clean water. „If you have to walk for hours to reach a water well, you can’t attend school”, says Marianela Fader. “And bad water causes health problems. This jeopardizes the economic independence of women and girls and promotes gender inequality“

Junia Interview (PDF, 2 p., 744 KB)www.kfd-bundesverband.de

World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought

The impact of extreme droughts is increasing. Worldwide approximately 55 million people suffer from its consequences year after year. Overall, even 40 % of the world population (about 3.2 billion people) are affected by water scarcity in various ways. It is to be expected that droughts will cause up to 700 million people to flee by 2030. To raise public awareness for the international efforts to fight desertification and droughts, the World Day is commemorated each year on June 17. It was inaugurated in 1994 in addition to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. Its objective is preventing desertification and land degradation as well as reducing the impact of droughts on jeopardized population groups.

Within the scope of its activities for the UN Water Programmes, ICWRGC makes various contributions to explore aridity and droughts:

GTN-H: Under the motto „From Data to Knowledge“, the cooperation of the  Data Centres of the Global Terrestrial Netzwork – Hydrology (i.a. precipitation, runoff, soil moisture, water quality) offers historical observations of the water cycle and the corresponding extremes. They thus supply essential background information on meteorological, hydrological, soil moisture and groundwater droughts (contact: Dr. S. Dietrich, GTN-H coordinator).

EURO-FRIEND: In the regional group of the UNESCO-IHP flagship initiative FRIEND-Water, it is especially the Group on low-flow and drought headed by Prof. Dr. Kerstin Stahl, who actively contributes to the scientific understanding of droughts (contact: Dr. S. Dietrich, EURO-FRIEND Co-Chair).

CO-MICC: The Project investigates freshwater-related hazards caused by climate change using climate projections and their uncertainties. A data portal and methodological manual is to inform users on the options of using their data (contact: D. Caceres).

MedECC: In the Water Chapter of its first status report, the Initiative shows that the drought risk in the Mediterranean will very likely rise due to climate change. Especially in the summer months, the risk will rise substantially and impact on low-flow events and groundwater recharge amongst other factors (contact: Dr. M. Fader, coordinator of the MedECC Water Group and member of the steering committee).

ICWRGC supports further initiatives in the field of drought:

Potsdam Summer School 2021

Online conference, Potsdam, Germany, 09–12 August 2021 (part I), 17–20 August 2021 (part II)

“Water: Our Global Common Good – The Hydrosphere across Land and Sea” is the motto of this year’s Potsdam Summer School. Water is the single most precious resource on our planet. The so-called hydrosphere creates unique habitats, and is interconnected with a wide range of components of the earth system through global water, energy or carbon fluxes.The hydrosphere provides ecosystem services to people such as food and drinking water supply, renewable energy resources, as well as benefits for health and well-being, cultural values, tourism, trade, and transport. Therefore, the hydrosphere interacts with each aspect of sustainability reflected in the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and is a major indicator for the state of our planet.

The Potsdam Summer School 2021 will inform on the influence of the state of the hydrosphere on mankind and vice versa. Local, regional and global challenges will be discussed in order to gain a better understanding of the state of the hydrosphere based on interdisciplinary knowledge and expertise.

Experts, stakeholders and guest lecturers from high-level national and international institutes and organisations will contribute knowledge and insights to the Summer School programme. On Day 5 of the Summer School, i.e. 17 August, 14:15 -15:30 hours, Dr. Marianela Fader from ICWRG will contribute to the agenda “Water-Land-Humans” within the scope of a live chat in panel by presenting the Water-Food-Energy-Nexus. In the mornings, students can listen to presentations recorded in advance (e.g. Dr. Fader’s lecture on water-food-energy, 30 minutes), while the panel discussions with the lecturers take place in the afternoon.

The aim of the Potsdam Summer School is to bring together talented early-career scientists and young professionals operating in the private sector, governmental agencies and non-governmental organisations from many different parts of the world to discuss scientific issues on future sustainable development.

www.potsdam-summer-school.org
Screenshot Video: Summer School 2021 | Dr. Marianela Fader

See or download the presentation of Dr. Marianela Fader on the nexus (30 Minutes, in English). You are free to use and distribute this video, but make sure you cite it as:

Fader, M. (2021): The water-food-energy-ecosystems nexus: importance, characteristics and methodologies. Class at the Potsdam Summer School 2021 “Water: Our Global Common Good – The Hydrosphere across Land and Sea”. Aug 9th-20th 2021.

Download (MP4 - 497 MB)

15th International German Summer School on Hydrology (IGSH) – Groundwater and Urbanization

Bochum, 08–22 September 2021

The 15th ”International German Summer School on Hydrology (IGSH)”, supported by ICWRGC, will be held at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) from 8 – 22 September 2021 with this year’s focus on “Groundwater and Urbanization”. The aim of IGSH is to enhance the knowledge and technical capabilities of early career professionals and academics on hydrology-related environmental issues.

The International German Summer School on Hydrology focuses on training international junior scientists and early professionals from the fields of water and the environment, engineering sciences, as well as from geography, hydrology, chemistry, etc. IGSH provides an annually varying programme of hydrological training courses. The courses serve as a platform to establish scientific cooperation and social networks, and to extend the IGSH scientific community. Generally, the Summer School courses provide knowledge transfer and exchange on hydro(geo)logical processes relevant in energy production and management. Course attendants may receive 4 Credit Points to use in their study and doctoral programmes if they pass the final examination.

IGSH Uni Bochum

Research assistant (university graduation / Master) (m/f/d)

Freshwater is a vital resource around the world. This is the main priority of the International Centre for Water Resources and Global Change (ICWRGC), hosted by the Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG). Being the scientific institute of the federal government for research, evaluation and consultation in the fields of hydrology, utilisation of water bodies, water quality, ecology and water protection, BfG advises the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI), further federal ministries, the Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration (WSV) as well as any third parties. BfG supports ICWRGC by providing its infrastructures, administration and technical expertise. ICWRGC and BfG employ committed people from a wide range of disciplines in a modern working environment.

The Federal Institute of Hydrology, on behalf of the International Centre for Water Resources and Global Change (ICWRGC) located at its premises, is looking for a

Research assistant (university graduation / Master) (m/f/d)
specializing in hydrology, geography, climatology, agricultural sciences or comparable disciplines (each with a focus on hydrology)

The place of employment is Koblenz, Germany.
Tender reference code is 20210867_9346

to take up work at the earliest possible date. The job is limited to four years.

Your tasks:

  • Coordination, management and development of an international und collaborative doctoral programme on Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in sub-Saharan Africa, within the scope of the Programme “Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management” (SASSCAL)
  • Mentoring and supervision of postgraduate students. (Co)development of the curriculum of the doctoral programme.
  • Expert contributions to Integrated Water Resources Management in sub-Saharan Africa and to the impacts of global change on water availability, -quality, and use in this region.

Your profile:

Mandatory requirement criteria:

  • University degree (university graduation/Master) in hydrology, geography, climatology, agricultural sciences or comparable disciplines, each with a focus on hydrology
  • Doctorate

Important requirement criteria:

  • A very good knowledge of hydrology, water management or hydrometeorology or associated areas of science
  • At least 2 years working experience following the doctorate
  • The ability to draft topical, interesting, well defined water-related issues for doctoral students, incl. possible methods, techniques and procedures for elaboration
  • Knowledge of water-related conditions in sub-Saharan Africa, especially Angola, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zambia
  • Organisational talent and excellent coordination skills.
  • Strong ability to work independently
  • Intercultural competence and proven practical experience in cooperating with international partners
  • Confident manner and good communication and presentation skills, also at the international level. Knowledge of structure and cross-linkage of various UN organisations
  • Negotiating skills and assertiveness
  • Willingness to travel in Germany and abroad
  • Knowledge in handling MS Office products
  • Ability for independently drafting reports and other publications.
  • Excellent knowledge of English, both orally and in writing. Further language skills are an asset, esp. French
  • High reliability and independence
  • Deep sense of responsibility and readiness for interdisciplinary team work
  • Experience in supervising students
  • Experience in teaching is an asset

See the following link for the complete task and requirement description (in German only):

www.bav.bund.de