UWI is an interdisciplinary research training group of engineers and natural scientists located at the Technische Universität Berlin (TUB) and the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). UWI wants to achieve a new quality of general process understanding in urban water systems by investigating urban water interfaces as an innovative research topic, our pioneering qualification concept and interdisciplinary and international collaboration.

The chief innovation of the project is the envisioned joint investigation of water systems in metropolitan areas within a unifying framework of natural and technical interfaces. We expect significant advances in understanding interface fluxes and processes by the envisaged close interdisciplinary collaborations between engineers and natural scientists at the TUB, IGB and associated national and international partner institutions.

Interface fluxes and processes in urban water systems are characterised by highly complex and coupled dynamic processes with feedback effects in heterogeneous and dynamic structures. To better understand interface processes, to develop predictive tools and to apply new knowledge in urban water management practice during the second and third period of UWI (years 4 – 9), innovations are required in three closely interlinked research foci:

Technische Universität Berlin Prof. Reinhard Hinkelmann, Chair of Water Resources Management and Modeling of Hydrosystems

urban water (systems), interfaces, modelling, urban soil, surface water, groundwater, sewer systems, biogeochemical processes, micropollutants