WSA congratulates Dr. Heike Puhlmann and her team on winning the Undine Award

On June 11, 2026, the Josef Wund Foundation presented the Undine Award in Stuttgart. The Water Science Alliance e.V. was eligible to nominate candidates for this award, and we are pleased to announce that a project we nominated has been honored.

Dr. Heike Puhlmann and her team received the award for the project “Decentralized Water Retention in Forests” at the Forest Research Institute Baden-Württemberg (FVA). The project implements water retention measures in pilot trials, such as the construction of swales, evaporation basins, or infiltration ditches. In addition to implementing these measures, the project also includes informational and educational components. On the FVA website, profiles of individual measures as well as an information sheet with practical tips can be viewed and downloaded. In addition, training sessions, workshops, and field trips are held regularly, during which the measures are presented and discussed with foresters. The prize money will be used in particular to expand this knowledge transfer through display items or explanatory videos.

We hope that the findings of the project will be permanently integrated into forestry practice in the future so that the enormous potential for water retention in the landscape can continue to be harnessed. In this way, the forest can become a central component of a future-oriented landscape water management system.

We also congratulate the other award recipients Neckarinsel e.V., Anna Kubelík, and the team at imBlick Kinder- und Jugendhilfe gGmbH in Lindau on receiving the Undine Award.