Motivation

Groundwater is the most important source of drinking water worldwide. Its quantity and quality is threatened, e.g. by unsustainable use, diffuse input of anthropogenic pollutants, and anthropogenic changes of biogeochemical conditions.

It is now well accepted that groundwater protection requires considering the coupled terrestrial hydrosystem at catchment scale, including atmospheric and land-surface processes, surface-water bodies, and processes in the unsaturated soil zone and in the aquifer. The related process descriptions are uncertain; they are affected by heterogeneity, and undergo change.

Sustainable management of groundwater resources under climate and land-use change requires predictive models simulating all relevant hydrological and (biogeo)chemical processes as coupled systems, explicitly accounting for feedback mechanisms. Such physics-based coupled modelling platforms have now reached a state in which they start to get applied in quantitative water resources man-agement. Extensions to water quality, however, are still in their infancy and face particular challenges on the conceptual level and in upscaling to the catchment scale.

Characteristics

The IRTG gives 10 doctoral candidates and a postdoc the opportunity to advance flow and reactive-transport models for coupled hydrosystems in a unique environment:

• Every doctoral candidate is supervised by a team of three researchers: a professor of the participating German universities (Tübingen and Hohenhem), a junior researcher, and a professor at the Canadian partner University of Waterloo.
• The 3-year doctoral program includes a 6-month research stay at the Water Institute of the University of Waterloo, a leading institution in water resources research.
• Exchange among the partner institutions and training of the doctoral candidates is fostered by fall- and spring-schools, alternating between Germany and Canada.
• The IRTG has funds for a visiting-researcher program. This allows inviting specialists in the fields of the PhD research conducted within the GeoEnviron seminar origanized by the doctoral candidates.
• Advanced-level classes and soft-skill courses help the doctoral candidates achieving their research goals.

Participating Institutions

University of Tübingen (Germany): Departments of Geoscience and Biology

University of Hohenheim (Germany): Faculties of Science and Agricultural Sciences

University of Waterloo (Canada): School of Earth Science