EU cooperation project "DIRT-X" approved - IWS takes part

On the part of the faculty, the Department of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management (IWS-LWW) of the Institute for Modeling HJydraulic and Environmental Systema is involved in the project. The other project partners are:

• Leibniz Universiy Hannover,
• Norwegian University of Science and Technology/NORWAY,
• University of Innsbruck/AUSTRIA,
• University of Utrecht/NETHERLANDS und
• Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute/SWEDEN (lead).

The DIRT-X project (Evaluating sediment Delivery Impacts on Reservoirs in changing climaTe and society across scales and sectors) deals with the question of the extent to which future changes in climatic and socio-economic conditions will affect water resources and the available storage volume of reservoirs. This is done by a comprehensive integration of climate projections, impact models and an analysis of the resulting changes in the system. To this end, stakeholders from relevant areas are involved. In addition to the cross-sectoral aspects of climate change, the project also investigates the effects of climate change across scales, both spatially and temporally. DIRT-X considers hydrological and hydro-morphological processes on spatial and temporal scales to simulate current and future environmental systems. Thus, a better understanding and a more accurate quantification of the impacts and uncertainties associated with climate impact assessments will be achieved. This will increase the quality, reliability and usability of the models for climate services. The Climate Impact Indicators developed in this project are based on the latest Representative Concentration Pathways. Furthermore, hydrological process modelling will be integrated with economic models in order to assess water demand, cross-sectoral conflicts and energy systems and to investigate the economic consequences of hydrological changes. In addition, the project will further develop and improve models to analyze the interactions and economic value of water use in different sectors and to assess their response to changes in discharge and storage volumes.