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Andrea

Newly appointed Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) takes up work

Presided by Prof. Dr. Mariele Evers, the new SAB of the IHP/HWRP National Committee and ICWRGC realigned its activities in Koblenz at the end of January 2020. Mr. Achim Schkade, Head of the Division for Climate and Environmental Foreign Policy at the Federal Foreign Office (AA) and new Chairman of the German National Committee, introduced himself to the SAB and outlined the demand for water foreign policy consulting from AA’s perspective in relation to ICWRGC. The Director of the ICWRGC, Harald Köthe, explained ICWRGC’s alignment until 2030, based on the results of the recent evaluation in 2019.

There was general consensus on the strong diversification of the water sector at national and international levels. Moreover, one agreed on the fact that there is huge potential for improved cooperation and communication among the players in politics and science. Here, ICWRGC takes centre stage. Specific recommendations have been prepared for the National Committee.

ICWRGC presents recent scientific advance at EGU meeting

Date: 3 – 8 May 2020
Venue: Vienna, Austria


Two scientists of the ICWRGC will attend the general assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) in Vienna, to present and discuss their scientific advances in the field of hydrology.

Renee van Dongen will give a lecture on “El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) controls on mean streamflow and streamflow variability in Central Chile” in the session Understanding the links between hydrological variability and internal/natural climate variability (https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2020/session/35542). Understanding hydrological extremes is becoming increasingly important for future adaptation strategies to global warming. Her presentation shows the effect of ENSO on the mean values of precipitation, temperature and stream flow as well as on streamflow variability in Chile. Large-scale climatic phenomena like ENSO affect catchment hydrology through anomalies in precipitation and temperature.

Renee will also co-convene the session Novel Approaches in Geochronology: Quantifying Geomorphological Processes and Landscape Dynamics (https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2020/session/37492) and organize the short course Crowd-solving problems in Earth Sciences (https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2020/session/36416)

Robert Reinecke will present “Changes of groundwater recharge at different global warming levels: A global-scale multi-model ensemble approach” in the session How to assess climate change impacts on groundwater? (https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2020/session/35618). Billions of people rely on groundwater as an accessible source for drinking water and irrigation, especially in times of drought. Robert will showcase the results of a multi-model ensemble approach incorporating eight global hydrological models and four global circulation models to show the impact of global warming on global groundwater recharge. Also, he is co-author in the presentation “The global freshwater availability and water use model WaterGAP 2.2d” by Hannes Müller Schmied et al.

The exact time and place of the presentations will be updated as soon as the final EGU programme has been released.

Why not become a hydrology expert with WMO?

Following last year’s reform of WMO, the new structures are being reinvigorated. In his letter of 27 January 2020 to the member states (see link), the Chairman of WMO’s Hydrological Assembly, Jan Danhelka from the Czech Republic, extends an invitation to apply as hydrology expert with WMO.

For Germany, Dr. Birgit Esser, Director of the BfG, and Harald Köthe, Head of ICWRGC, are the hydrological advisors to the Permanent German Representative (PR) to WMO. The President of the DWD (German Weather Service), Prof. Dr. Adrian, takes on the role as German PR. Prof. Dr. Adrian, who assumed the presidency of the WMO along with its reform, is the first German President ever in the history of WMO.

Hydrology Experts (PDF)

GEMS/Water Regional Workshop for West Asia

Date: 16 – 18 December 2019  
Venue: Amman, Jordan

The last GEMS/Water Regional Scoping Workshop for the time being, titled “Ambient water quality: monitoring for management and SDG Indicator 6.3.2 reporting”, was held last December in Amman, Jordan. It was organised by the GEMS/Water Capacity Development Centre (UCC College, Cork) and implemented with the assistance of the regional office of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Bahrain. Hence, the remaining region West Africa was eventually covered.

The workshop aimed at exploring the training requirements in the field of water quality monitoring in the region, to present the reporting procedure in terms of SDG Indicator 6.3.2, and to establish a more intensive exchange with the national contacts of the GEMS/Water Programme in the countries involved.

22 water quality experts from 11 countries in the West Asian region and the Arabic-speaking part of Africa attended the workshop and gave an interesting insight into the situation of water quality monitoring in their countries.

Dmytro Lisniak represented the GEMS/Water Data Centre in the Workshop and gave lectures on data management, the reviewed procedure for submitting water quality data and GEMS/Water. He also introduced the report template for the condition of water bodies within the scope of indicator 6.3.2.

Workshop Report

PDF, 34 p., 1,4 MB

New scientific officer part of ICWRGC

Robert Reinecke joined the ICWRGC team on 01.01.2020. As Research Scientist, he represents the scientific tasks of Dr. Marianela Fader during her parental leave.

Robert was awarded a bachelor and a master degree in computer science by the Technische Universität Darmstadt. At the end of 2019, he completed his thesis with the distinction “Summa Cum Laude” in geography at the Universität Frankfurt. He specialized in the topics global groundwater, modelling and sensitivity analysis. His PhD was funded by a scholarship from Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. An essential outcome of Robert Reinecke’s thesis is the groundwater model G³M. Further information on the model is available at globalgroundwatermodel.org. Robert is currently working on the uncertainty analysis of global hydrological models, the impact of climate change on groundwater recharge and groundwater within the context of the SDGs.

Internship work: The Importance of Cooperation Between Transboundary River Countries

Internship work: The Importance of Cooperation Between Transboundary River Countries – 2019

This work was composed during an internship at the International Centre for Water Resources and Global Change (ICWRGC), during a span of 3 months, from May to August in 2019. Taking up the publication from Molnar, Kata, et al. (2017), this internship work focuses on cooperation between countries. It points out the importance of cooperation especially within transboundary river countries using the Nile and the Rhine River as examples where cooperation has developed over time.

Download (PDF, 2019, 14 S., 1MB)
Diesen Beitrag drucken

URSACHEN Project

Kickoff Meeting URSACHEN Project

On 02.12.2019, the Kickoff Meeting of the URSACHEN project took place at the ICWRGC. This collaborative project between the ICWRGC and the Federal Institute of Hydrology has a duration of 3 years and focuses on the spatial and temporal uncertainties in river load calculations.

The URSACHEN project specifically concentrates on the uncertainties in suspended sediment loads, chemical substances (e.g. heavy metals) and nutrients. Besides a case study in the Rhine river, the project will deal with the uncertainties in global load estimations, i.a. based on the data in the GEMStat database. The project team comprises 6 postdoctoral and doctoral students with expertise in sediment transport and water chemistry. Planned products include an analysis tool for the uncertainty estimation of loads in rivers and a “best practice” report.

Iran’s Regional UNESCO Centre on Urban Water Management (RCUWM) launched its 3rd phase

 

The 3rd period of RCUWM’s activities (2019 to 2024) was launched on the occasion of its 10th Governing Board (GB) meeting in Tehran, at the Iran International Conference Center on 5 December 2019. The GB consists of representatives at the state level, from 15 countries in the wider region: Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tajikistan and Turkey. Germany was invited in addition, to serve as a permanent GB member to support solutions for water problems. Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schultze nominated Harald Köthe, the director of the German UNESCO Category 2 Water Centre ICWRGC in Koblenz, to be the German representative. Several international organizations were also present and will contribute to the GB and RCUWM´s programme.

The broad and high level composition of the GB offers a big opportunity to promote and expand relations on transboundary water- related issues among the countries in the region. Climate change, water scarcity, severe drought trends and water quality are main drivers in all these countries. Led by the GB’s chairman, the Iranian Minister for Energy Dr. Ardakanian, the GB agreed on three main themes for long-term activities of the Centre (2019-2024): 1. Training and Capacity Development, 2. Joint Research and Technology Transfer, and 3. Networking and Information Sharing.

For the Centre’s medium-term programme (2019-2021), the following main themes were concluded: 1. Publishing Books and Producing Multimedia Presentations, 2.Joint Scientific Research on Water Issues in the Region, 3. Sharing Information and Technology Transfer, 4. Documenting Best Practices and Lessons Learned, 5. Conducting Training Courses and Technical Workshops and 6. Utilizing Information and Communication Technology. 11 projects were concluded within the scope of this programme.

Along with the GB meeting, a water and wastewater exhibition was held at the Iran International Conference Center, which was well received by the attendees of the GB meeting. The GB also met with H.E. Mr. Jahangiri, the Vice President of the Islamic Republic of Iran at Saadabad Palace, to discuss water-related issues and options for mutual cooperation.

The next GB meeting of RCUWM will be hosted by Tajikistan on 17 June 2020 in Dushanbe.

Foto 1: 10. VR-Sitzung im Iran International Conference Center, Teheran, 5.12.2019 (Quelle: RCUWM)

Photo 1: 10th GB meeting at the Iran International Conference Center, Tehran, 5th December 2019 (source: RCUWM)

Foto 2: ICWRGC-Direktor Harald Köthe gratulierte dem Direktor des RCUWM, Ali Chavosian, zu einem sehr gut organisierten und erfolgreichen Start der 3. Phase von RCUWM

Photo 2: ICWRGC director Harald Köthe congratulated RCUWM director Ali Chavosian for a very well organized and successful launch of the 3rd phase of RCUWM (soucre: RCUWM)

Uncertainty Quantification Framework for Nutrient Load Estimation

Bruno Bezerra Bluhm from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) stayed at the ICWRGC from 13 May – 12 November 2019 to write his master’s thesis on the topic “Uncertainty Quantification Framework for Nutrient Load Estimation”. He successfully defended his thesis at TUM on 5 December 2019.

Nutrient loads, such as phosphorus and nitrogen, are a key indicator of water quality monitoring, management and assessment, particularly regarding eutrophication. Although flow data is commonly available in continuous forms, monitoring programs often sample concentration following low-frequency policies, which hinders flux calculations. This consequently limits purposes of load estimations, since, in order for the metric to be used in evaluations, its uncertainty must be within an expected threshold. This Master’s thesis conceives an uncertainty quantification framework to be used by an existing load estimation algorithm from GEMStat. The framework calculates expected errors by matching a target station, i.e. scarce data, and a reference station, i.e. continuous data. Brazil, a major GEMStat partner, has been selected as a case study to define the target station baseline. By performing Monte Carlo Simulations and credibility-based assessments, the framework evaluates which estimation algorithm is most suitable and what are the expected levels of uncertainty, given in three forms: credible interval, relative absolute error, and classification (under or overestimation). Expanding the current database to include a greater range of reference stations is the main challenge to improve the framework’s usability in the future.

If you are interested in reading the entire pdf of the master thesis, you may contact Mr. Bluhm at:

Germany re-elected: four more years in the Council of UNESCO’s IHP Water Programme

The 40th General Conference of UNESCO from 12 – 27.11.2019 in Paris, passed decisive resolutions. The composition of the IHP Intergovernmental Council, among other things, has been newly resolved. The IHP was launched in 1974. Membership in the limited group of participants of the IHP Intergovernmental Council automatically ends after 4 years. This year, this was the case for Germany and a number of other states. Germany counts among Region 1 of the six UNESCO regions.

The re-election is an appreciation of Germany’s active role in the technical and political support of the IHP. The content of Phase 9 of IHP (IHP IX), with a term from 2022 to 2029, is just being prepared and agreed.