Urban Water Management & Process Engineering: realignment of engineering acitivites at Eawag
25 August 2008
Almost two years ago, in view of the imminent departure of four distinguished Eawag engineers but also the increasingly competitive nature of the environmental engineering field worldwide, Eawag’s engineering departments launched an intensive process of strategic planning. The broad-based discussions have now culminated in a strategy paper, which was approved by the Directorate at the beginning of the July. In future, engineering activities at Eawag will be focused on two thematic priorities: process engineering and urban water management. Two departments are to be established with different, clearly defined research topics.
The Process Engineering (Eng) department, led by Hansruedi Siegrist, will be concerned with the development, dimensioning, modelling and optimization of new and existing processes in the wastewater and--together with the department Water Resources and Drinking Water--drinking water sector. In the past, there was a sharp separation between drinking water treatment processes and wastewater treatment processes. In future, however, as the recycling of wastewater will become much more important, it will not be possible for these treatment processes to be so clearly distinguished from one another. The challenge here will be to decide what process can be best applied to what situation – centralized large-scale or decentralized small-scale facilities, industrialized or developing countries. In this extremely dynamic field, with a profusion of new technologies, the department will concentrate on its internationally recognized strengths.
The second department – Urban Water Management (SWW) – will be headed up by Max Maurer. It will focus on the sustainable further development of urban water management. As well as elaborating new concepts for the management of drinking water and wastewater systems, it will investigate pollutant flows in urban catchments. The time frame for the implementation of management concepts in this area is considerably longer, since decisions on infrastructure relate to periods of several decades.
Max Maurer comments: «We hope that this realignment will not only increase our visibility but also lead to a stronger focus on high-quality, practice-oriented research. In addition, new thematic priorities have been set, which will become increasingly perceptible in the coming years.»
In organizational terms, the implications of this realignment are minimal – a number of people will be transferred to a different department. The open discussions which preceded the decision and the thematic focus will help to ensure that this reorganization is widely supported.