News
- 06.06.2024: Stakeholders from the regional water management sector present current topics and job profiles. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg Felmeden invites external speakers from the water industry to the lecture "Basics of Water Management".
Climate change, demographic developments and land use changes are just some of the current challenges for which the water industry must develop and implement sustainable solutions. At the same time, the shortage of skilled workers in Germany is also noticeable in the areas of water supply, wastewater and water management. Against this background, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg Felmeden invited external speakers from the water industry to the lecture "Basics of Water Management" for the third time on 06.06.2024. The speakers gave the 4th semester civil engineering students an insight into the diverse tasks and institutions of water management in the OWL region.
- 05.06.2024: Collaboration with VHS Detmold: Lecture and campus tour of TH OWL for participants in the VHS educational vacation program “Exploring Lippe's Waters by Bike”. Lecture topic: wasser^plus OWL and NRWasserwende: Current and future challenges of the water sector in OWL, inter- and transdisciplinary partnerships to tackle challenges and raising community awareness on water issues.
- 25.05.2024: TH OWL Open House Day on the Detmold campus: The Detmold team had a booth for the Water Engineering Track and the wasser^plus OWL project. There was a wasser^plus OWL wheel of fortune with questions about interesting water facts and prizes. Books purchased from the Water Pressure exhibition at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg were also on display (https://www.mkg-hamburg.de/ausstellungen/water-pressure). The little ones had fun with the “mud table” provided by the City of Detmold.
- 21.05.2024: Excursion to Hamburg: Students from the Department of Civil Engineering-Detmold campus and University of Florida had the opportunity to visit the interdisciplinary exhibition Water Pressure, which is currently on display at the Museum für Kunst & Gewerbe in Hamburg. They then visited the old Elbe Tunnel, where they learned about its history and technical features. In the afternoon, the group took part in an informative city tour of Hamburg's Elbe promenade, which focused on urban planning and technical and architectural solutions for flood protection.
- 13.-17.05.2024: Students from the Water Engineering Track at the Department of Civil Engineering visit Munich. Exhibition booth of the Integrated Regional Water Management Division in the IFAT 2024 trade fair. The Division of Integrated Regional Water Management was present at the joint booth of the German Water Partnership. This was a good opportunity to promote the wasser^plus OWL project and create networking opportunities for the project and our students.
- 06.-24.05.2024: Summer Academy. University of Florida students visit Detmold. Highlights: Digital Service Engineering workshop (Prof. Thomas Wittkop), Digital Construction Lab (Prof. Nikolai Gerzen), joint excursion to Munich and IFAT 2024 with water engineering students from the Department of Civil Engineering, excursion to Hamburg's Museum für Kunst & Gewerbe-Water Pressure exhibition, city tour on Hamburg's urban planning and architectural solutions for flood protection. Pressemitteilung.
- 25.04.2024: Girls' Day at TH OWL: Five girls between the ages of 12 and 15 took part in this year's Girls' Day at the Department of Civil Engineering. The program included activities in the fields of geotechnics, water management and digital construction.
- 25.04.2024: Drinking fountains for Detmold - student competition launched: The City of Detmold is planning to build drinking fountains in the city to give all citizens access to drinking water in public spaces, especially on hot summer days. Students of the TH OWL have the opportunity to take part in a two-stage ideas competition and develop a concept for drinking fountains in the Detmold.
- 22.03.2024: World Water Day TH OWL strives for "Tap Water Friendly" award. Since 1992, World Water Day is held annually on March 22nd. This day is a reminder of this essential resource and draws attention to current and future challenges in dealing with water. The Divisions of Integrated Regional Water Management, Water Engineering, and Water Management at the University of Applied Sciences OWL (TH OWL) on the Detmold campus have also taken up the cause.
In light of the German government's decision in 2022 that drinking water from the mains network must be freely available in as many public places as possible in the future, and that local authorities should install drinking fountains in parks, pedestrian zones and shopping arcades, for example, the water management experts at TH OWL have suggested launching the Detmold Water Quarter in Detmold city center. Together with the "a tip:tap" association, the City and Stadtwerke Detmold, as well as other stakeholders from the region, the Water Quarter raises awareness of drinking water through various events and campaigns and demonstrates the benefits of tap water for the environment and climate protection. But it is not only in the Detmold and the OWL region that the TH OWL's water team wants to promote the "most important substance in the world".
A lot is also happening within the university: since the first tap water dispenser was purchased in the Department of Civil Engineering last year, the entire TH OWL at its Detmold, Lemgo and Höxter campuses now wants to take a further step towards being awarded the title of "tap water-friendly educational institution". This is awarded by "a tip:tap". (https://atiptap.org/beratung/leitungswasserfreundlich/)
In the coming summer semester, drinking water dispensers will be set up at three TH-OWL public points - canteen, foyer - where students, employees and visitors can obtain fresh drinking water. The use of the water dispensers is to be recorded and documented. The data generated on water consumption, CO2 savings and waste avoidance will be shown on information displays at the water dispenser locations.
If you have any suggestions or questions on the subject of water, please contact the TH OWL water management team by email at wasserwesen@th-owl.de.
- 14.03.2024: Cooperation platform and actors on the move, press release on the occasion of the last network meeting (only in German).
- 04.03.2024: Our project website wasser^plus OWL is now online: Projekt-Website
- 24./25.01.2024: University Information Days at TH OWL, Lemgo. As part of the "wasser^plus OWL" project, the Integrated Regional Water Management Division of the Department of Civil Engineering-Detmold campus had the opportunity to raise awareness on the topic of water among interested high school students and present the wide range of career opportunities in the field of water.
"With the help of the DVGW experiment kit, we were able to demonstrate to the students very well how the different areas of water management relate to each other and how environmental influences affect our water system," says Irem Yavuz, research assistant in the department, as she describes the use of the experiment kit. In particular, the illustration of groundwater pollution using food colouring and the effects of heavy rainfall events on our groundwater captured the attention of the young people, who were able to develop a new understanding of the hydrological interrelationships.
- 16.01.2024: Founding of the DVGW University Group. Students of the Water Engineering Track from the Department of Civil Engineering, the Department of Environmental Engineering, and the Department of Applied Computer Sciences founded the 21st DVGW university group. This was celebrated and officially sealed with an excursion to the Berlebeck-Ort waterworks and a tour of the Strate Brewery, which included a meal and drinks. The members of the DVGW East Westphalia-Lippe district group supported the students as sponsors during the foundation.
- 14.11.2023: Detmolder Conference Week: Lecture by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg Felmeden “Water crises - what can we learn from them for the future?” In his lecture, Prof. Jörg Felmeden gave an overview of global water conflicts and illustrated the current challenges facing the water industry, which arise in particular as a result of climate and demographic change. He showed possible solutions for transforming the existing, traditional water infrastructure by collecting, discharging and treating wastewater partial flows separately and by extensive closure of material and water cycles. Finally, he drew attention to current projects of the Department of Integrated Regional Water Management in the OWL region that deal with knowledge transfer and transformation processes.
- October 2023: Second Network Meeting of wasser^plus OWL. The wasser^plus OWL project, funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (MKW NRW), is a cross-sector network that aims to prepare the East Westphalia-Lippe water sector to meet increasingly complex challenges in the future. It was launched in early July with a kick-off meeting where the partners involved laid the groundwork for their collaboration. The second network meeting took place in Detmold on 19.10.2023. Pressemitteilung
- September 2023: Founding of the Detmold Water-Quarter => Pressemitteilung
The Divisions of Integrated Regional Water Management, Water Engineering, and Water Management of the Department of Civil Engineering, are part of the “Detmold Water Quarter” partner network, which on 16.09.2023 attracted visitors to Detmold Castle Gardens with an interactive hands-on stand.
- 22.06.2023: Joint regional water management excursion. Students from the Divisions of Environmental Engineering, Environmental Engineering and Modeling from Höxter and the Division of Civil Engineering from Detmold went on a joint excursion under the direction of Prof. Dr. Martin Oldenburg, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Joachim Fettig and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg Felmeden. The destination of the excursion was the Warburg Wastewater Treatment Plant and the Aabach Dam Association.
Under the guidance of Ms. Niggemeyer and Mr. Höster from the Warburg municipal utilities, the students were able to see the implementation of new technologies, such as an ozone plant for the elimination of anthropogenic trace substances and a solar sludge dehydrator. In addition, an extensive and informative tour of the wastewater treatment plant in Warburg took place, prompting an engaging Q&A session.
After a short lunch break, the students were given an insight into the treatment facilities at the Aabach Dam Waterworks under the expert guidance of Managing Director Rainer Gutknecht. The visit was rounded off with an excursion to the water catchment of the adjacent dam.
Our students returned to Detmold and Höxter with great impressions from the detailed and enthusiastic facility tours.
June 2023: Polish students learn about environmental protection in Ostwestfalen-Lippe => Pressemitteilung
- 26.04.2023: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Felmeden receives a grant for the cooperation platform wasser^plus OWL from Minister Ina Brandes MKW NRW. Pressemitteilung
- 22.03.2023: World Water Day campaign held at the Detmold campus => Pressemitteilung