24.10.2023
Due to climate change, extreme weather events are occurring more frequently and more intensively. Ammanuel Bekele Tilahun, a doctoral student at the Chair of Engineering Hydrology and Water Management, is investigating what impact this has on the water quality of rivers. As a doctoral student, he is also part of the EU-wide training network "inventWater".
Ammanuel Bekele Tilahun studied Civil Engineering, Water Science and Engineering and Hydroinformatics at the Universities of Addis Ababa' in Ethiopia and at the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education in the Netherlands from 2013 to 2021. Since October 2021, he has been doing his doctorate at the Chair of Engineering Hydrology and Water Management of Prof.'in Dr.-Ing. Martina Flörke at the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The focus of his research is on the effect extreme weather events can have on phosphorus concentrations in water bodies. Phosphorus is a limiting nutrient in water, so rivers or lakes can overturn if the concentration is too high and algal blooms form. This in turn can cause fish kills and dramatically worsen water quality. In the Möhne River, Bekele has already noticed that the water quality worsens even more after a dry period.
In addition, Bekele uses the water quality modelling tool "WorldQual" in combination with a machine learning model to develop scenarios for the water quality of the Möhne up to the year 2100.
Due to climate change, extreme weather events are occurring more frequently and more intensively. Ammanuel Bekele Tilahun, a doctoral student at the Chair of Engineering Hydrology and Water Management, is investigating what impact this has on the water quality of rivers. As a doctoral student, he is also part of the EU-wide training network "inventWater".
Ammanuel Bekele Tilahun studied Civil Engineering, Water Science and Engineering and Hydroinformatics at the Universities of Addis Ababa' in Ethiopia and at the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education in the Netherlands from 2013 to 2021. Since October 2021, he has been doing his doctorate at the Chair of Engineering Hydrology and Water Management of Prof.'in Dr.-Ing. Martina Flörke at the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The focus of his research is on the effect extreme weather events can have on phosphorus concentrations in water bodies. Phosphorus is a limiting nutrient in water, so rivers or lakes can overturn if the concentration is too high and algal blooms form. This in turn can cause fish kills and dramatically worsen water quality. In the Möhne River, Bekele has already noticed that the water quality worsens even more after a dry period.
In addition, Bekele uses the water quality modelling tool "WorldQual" in combination with a machine learning model to develop scenarios for the water quality of the Möhne up to the year 2100.
As a PhD student, he is part of the EU-wide training network "inventWater". The inventWater project is an innovative training network (ITN) within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action, an EU-funded project. It aims to provide tomorrow's water quality experts with an interdisciplinary and state-of-the-art education. In the project, 15 early-stage researchers (ESRs) from different educational institutions across Europe are developing predictive tools for the water quality of rivers, lakes and reservoirs on a regional to global scale. The increasing availability of meteorological data and modelling tools are an advantage that will be used to achieve the project goals. One of the projects (ESR2) is being carried out at the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Ruhr University Bochum. Here you can find more details.
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Last update: Dec 06, 2023
