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Solutions
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Water analysis Conducting and evaluating physical-chemical and microbiological water testing in accordance with the German Drinking Water Ordinance and other relevant legal regulations.
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Testing of products and devices Initial testing of products and materials in contact with drinking water. Our Test Centre is accredited for more than 200 different product standards according to DIN EN ISO 17025. Test and develop UV technology.
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Treatment technologies Develop sustainable water supply concepts. Implement, monitor and optimise new technologies. Test and further develop existing treatment methods.
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Micropollutants and microorganisms Develop and improve the method of determination using cutting-edge equipment. Investigate the presence, behaviour and retention of inorganic and organic micropollutants in the water cycle and drinking water treatment.
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Network management and drinking water installation Microbiological quality change, deposit formation and cleaning and optimisation of the distribution network operation. Evaluate and analyse corrosion damage.
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Risk management Support for water supply companies to establish a Water Safety Plan. Benefit from our extensive expertise.
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Environmental biotechnology and contaminated sites Evaluation of the decomposition potential at contaminated locations. Development of sustainable ways to eliminate pollutants from the environment. Employ a combination of microbiological and technical methods.
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Research
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Resource protection Protection of water resources, risk management in water catchment areas
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Environmental biotechnology Technical and biological methods for the elimination of microorganisms, microbiological degradation processes
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Microorganisms Developing and applying reliable and sensitive detection methods, evaluating disinfection and treatment measures
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Micropollutants Determination of micropollutants, transformation products and microplastics reliably and sensitively, investigate behaviour in the water cycle, qualified risk assessment
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Waste water and water cycle Use of biological decomposition, developing integrated water supply and waste water management concepts
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New technologies and products Testing and optimizing processes and products to treat, disinfect and post-process drinking water for efficiency, security and robustness
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Asset management and infrastructure Development of management strategies and innovative tools to evaluate the condition of the supply network and its components
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Safety and security, digitalisation and management Digital transformation in public drinking water supply, increase the safety and security of drinking water supply
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- Projects
- About TZW
- Information

Resource protection
The sustainable protection of water resources is the first pillar in the multi-barrier system for a safe drinking water supply. We therefore focus our research projects on managing hazards and risks in water catchment areas. This concerns groundwater and spring waters as well as rivers, bank filtrates, lakes and reservoirs. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), various state ministries, the EU, the DVGW and water utility companies support the national and international practical research projects. In general, water supply companies or local authority districts are involved in the projects as practice partners as well as pilot or model areas.
Research areas
Security and safety in drinking water supply
We develop new risk management concepts in water supply according to DIN EN 15975-2 and consider how the WSP (Water safety Plan) concept of the World Health Organisation (WHO) can be implemented for Germany’s water supply in practice and in line with regulations. From the catchment area to the distribution point, all process steps are analysed to assess the criticality of water supply systems.
Management of raw water resources
We develop innovative solution and planning tools for the risk management of water protection areas and using models, we investigate the impact of climate change on the water supply. New approaches to clarify the hydrochemical process should help to better understand the contamination sources of geogenic or anthropogenic pollutants and micropollutants such as chromate and pesticide metabolites as well as microorganisms. This knowledge can be incorporated in the management of raw water resources.
Agriculture and groundwater protection
High nitrate concentrations in the groundwater or watercourse pollution by pesticides are a result of intensive agriculture. We explore the boundary conditions that lead to pollution and how contamination can be reduced. This generates new strategies to control emissions and success in groundwater protection and concepts for soil monitoring. By means of field trials, lab trials and model calculations we simulate the transfer, for example of nitrate and micropollutants into the groundwater. We investigate how cleaning up polluted groundwater can be achieved by using certain agricultural practices.
Bioenergy and water resource protection
Biomass generation is often viewed critically from a water protection perspective. We investigate the sustainability of biomass cultivation and the potential to sustainably produce biogas as well as the use of waste materials for biogas generation. Our research into watercourse protection focuses particularly on the output of fermentation residues.
Projects
Climate neutrality in drinking water supply (Carb(H2O)N)
In these days, climate neutrality is becoming a major topic and is also gaining importance in the drinking water supply sector. In the project,…
Read moreEffects of climate change on water quality (KLIWAQ)
The effects of climate change on the quality of raw water resources are investigated. In addition to the vulnerabilities of the various water…
Read moreMulti-sectoral waterdemand and regions of water shortage in Germany (WatDEMAND)
Climate change has arrived in Germany and poses new challenges for water suppliers. WatDEMAND analyses what impact climate change will have on water…
Read moreDistribution of Water in the Field of Conflict between Water and Agriculture (VERTIKAL)
VERTIKAL analyses the increasing potential of conflict between drinking water supply and agricultural irrigation. Based on this, approaches and…
Read moreResource Protection and Risk Management in Drinking Water supply (ResiTrink!)
The new EU Drinking Water Directive calls for increased resource protection and risk management in the catchment area of drinking water abstraction.…
Read moreClimate Resilience, Sanitation and Water Safety (KreATiw)
In the KreATiw project, experiences from South Africa are used to successfully adapt existing risk management approaches for drinking water supply and…
Read morePublications
Lange, F. T.; Sturm, S. et al. (2018): Minimierungsstrategie für den PSM-Metaboliten-Eintrag ins Grundwasser. Veröffentlichungen aus dem DVGW-Technologiezentrum Wasser Karlsruhe [Strategy to minimise PSM metabolites entering groundwater. Publications from the German Technical and Scientific Association for Gas and Water] (TZW) 2018 (84).
Gottwalt, J.; Abecker, A.; Brauer, F.; Fischer, T.; Riepl, D.; Rojas, V.; Sturm, S. (2018): Designing a Web-Based Application for Process-Oriented Risk Management of Drinking-Water Catchments According to the Water Safety Plan Approach. In: H.-J. Bungartz, D. Kranzlmüller, V. Weinberg, J. Weismüller, V. Wohlgemuth (ed.): Advances and New Trends in Environmental Informatics - Managing Disruption, Big Data and Open Science. Progress in IS. Springer
Sturm, S.; Villinger, F.; Kiefer, J. (2016): Neuer Ansatz zum Risikomanagement für Talsperren-Einzugsgebiete - Teil 1 [New approach for the risk management of reservoir catchments - Part 1]. In: energie|wasser-praxis, DVGW, No. 5, Part 2. In: energie|wasser-praxis, DVGW, No. 6/7
Sturm S., Fischer T., Kiefer J, Remmler F., Borgmann A. (2016): Entwicklung eines Datenbankbasierten Systems zur Gefährdungsanalyse in Wassereinzugsgebieten (DBBS) [Development of a database-supported system for the risk analysis in water catchment areas]. p. 13-24. In: TZW (DVGW-Technologiezentrum Wasser, Karlsruhe; ed., 2016): Präventives Risikomanagement in der Trinkwasserversorgung.
Abschlussbericht zum BMBF-Forschungsvorhaben PRiMaT [Preventative risk management for drinking water supply. Final report on the BMBF research project PRiMAT] (Fkz. 02WRS1279A to 02WRS1279, Publications from the Technology Centre Water, 74, ISSN: 1434-5765
Schmoll, O.; Bethmann, D.; Sturm, S.; Schnabel, B. (2014): Das Water-Safety-Plan-Konzept für kleine Wasserversorgungen in Deutschland: Ein Handbuch zur praktischen Umsetzung [The Water Safety Plan concept for small water supply companies in Germany: A manual for its practical implementation]. ed. by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) and DVGW-Technologiezentrum Wasser (TZW). Dessau-Roßlau. http://www.umweltbundesamt.de/publikationen/das-water-safety-plan-konzept-fuer-kleine-wasserversorgungen.
Erler R.; Ball T.; Kiefer J.; Dresen B.; Köppel W. (2013): Nachhaltige Biogasbereitstellung in Deutschland [Sustainable biogas provision in Germany]. DVGW energie|wasser-praxis 04/2013, 84-87
Kiefer J., Ball T., Rhode K., Selz M., Schrempp S., Müller-Sämann K. (2013): Entwicklung einer neuen Strategie zur Emissions- und Erfolgskontrolle im Grundwasserschutz [Development of a new strategy to monitor emissions and success in groundwater protection]. 44. AWBR annual report 2012; AWBR
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