Progress through research
Substance flow assessment in river basins
- Establishment of reliable substance input inventories based on coherent monitoring strategies and model applications
- Validation of substance inputs under consideration of water-internal substance turnover processes
- Addressing relevant substance input pathways (nutrients, heavy metals, micropollutants)
- Identification of mitigation strategies for contaminants in water
Anthropogenic micropollutants in the water cycle
- Development of innovative monitoring strategies for recording of micropollutant inputs from diffuse pathways
- Design of automatised systems for monitoring of event-specific micropollutant inputs into water bodies
- Measures for retention of micropollutants in residential and non-residential areas
Innovative monitoring strategies
- Design of in-situ passive collectors for recording diffuse substance inputs from the landscape
- Investigation of sediments in rivers with regard to habitat suitability
Near-natural wastewater tretment technique
- Development of planning tools for dimensioning retention soil filters
- Increasing the efficiency of retention soil filters through construction features
- Optimisation of the performance of retention soil filters by improvement of the hydraulic feeding system
Advanced wastewater / stormwater treatment
- Retention soil filter as 4th treatment step (RSFplus)
- Elimination of heavy metals using the ion exchange process
Future water cities (Blue City)
- Intelligent systems for storage of water resources in urban areas
- Hygiene relevance of alternative water sources in settlements
Water Re-use
- Increasing the options for the use of alternative water sources through decentralised measures
- Near-natural water treatment for the development of new utilisation options
Substances in the water cycle
- Origin and fate of water pollutants
- Degradation of substances in water bodies
Further development of water quality modelling
- Administrative and technical support for users of the DWA water quality model
- Optimization of the hygiene module in the DWA water quality model
- Optimization of the iron module in the DWA water quality model