Department Urban Water Management
Water Infrastructure Transition (WIT)
As the world’s population grows and climate change accelerates, traditional centralized water infrastructure is becoming increasingly inadequate. This group’s research examines the transition from centralized systems to hybrid networks that add decentralized elements. By decentralizing, cities can strengthen infrastructure resilience, enable appropriate water reuse, and reduce risks from disasters, climate change, and population growth.
The group takes a systems perspective on cities’ entire water management. Current and future research focuses on two questions:
- Under what conditions are hybrid systems superior? (-> See, for example the article: “Are hybrid systems sustainable or does winner takes all?”)
- How do we monitor and maintain hybrid system performance? (See, for example: Several small or single large? Quantifying the catchment-wide performance of on-site wastewater treatment plants with inaccurate sensors”
Other research activities include water infrastructure management, Urban Living Labs Bern/Viererfeld and Innovationspark Zürich, and integrating blue-green infrastructure into cities.
