Urban water systems are at the frontline of multiple environmental, social, and infrastructural challenges—ranging from pollution and habitat degradation to increasing climate-induced stressors like droughts and floods. As cities grow and climate change accelerates, innovative and interdisciplinary approaches are needed to safeguard water quality, ensure public health, and foster resilience and sustainability. This trio of sessions addresses critical yet often overlooked aspects of urban water management, offering a platform for scientific exchange and collaborative solutions.

Together, these sessions aim to foster a comprehensive discussion on the future of urban water systems by promoting scientific exchange across disciplinary boundaries, supporting sustainable development goals, and advancing resilient, adaptive urban water management.

Session 1: Targets for a Neglected Water Body Type – Urban water bodies

Chairs: Linda Weiss and Florian Leese

Urban water bodies are unique within the framework of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD), often classified as heavily modified and subjected to a different set of ecological targets than rural water bodies. This session invites contributions exploring how development goals for urban water bodies are defined, implemented, and debated. Experts are encouraged to share successful case studies, methodologies for setting achievable targets, and insights into the ecological, hydrological, and social dynamics shaping the management of urban water bodies.

Keynotes:

Water-conscious cities of the future: ecohydrological functioning of nature-based solutions for urban climate resilience
Maria Magdalena Warter (IGB Berlin)

Lake PHOENIX, a multifunctional water body
Thomas Korte (EGLV)

Session 2: Coupling Water and Energy for a Circular Economy

Chairs: Thomas Heinze and Tobias Licha

This session investigates the integration of water and energy systems in urban environments. With rising demand for shallow geothermal systems, urban cooling, and energy recovery in water treatment, new use scenarios are emerging. At the same time, climate change and emerging pollutants pose additional stress. We seek contributions on how to manage these dynamics holistically, exploring innovations in wastewater energy recovery, the reuse of mine waters, and design principles for coupling energy and water cycles to advance circular economy models.

Keynote:

Heating and cooling of the area MARK 51°7 with mine water
Frank Peper (Stadtwerke Bochum)

Session 3: Climate-Resilient, Sustainable, and Health-Promoting Urban Transformation – Sponge City Aspects

Chairs: Valentin Klaus and Ines Mulder

Urban stormwater management is evolving from flood prevention to multi-benefit solutions that enhance climate resilience, biodiversity, and public health. This session focuses on the sponge city concept as a transformative approach to urban water retention and reuse. Presentations are invited on practical implementations, system modeling, co-benefits (e.g., heat mitigation, recreation), and challenges related to nutrient and pollutant cycles in semi-closed systems. Interdisciplinary contributions that bridge natural and social sciences are particularly welcome.

Keynotes:

The sponge city concept in municipal practice
Vera Völker (Deutsches Institut für Urbanistik, Cologne)

Nature based-solutions on private land
Thomas Hartmann, project lead LAND4CLIMATE (TU Dortmund University)

Session 4: Communicating Water Science – Opportunities and Challenges

Chair: Peter Krebs

Join us for an engaging and interactive session on the art and impact of science communication. This session, organized in a fish bowl format, will bring together a diverse panel of experts, including a representative from a ministry, a social media influencer, and speakers specializing in knowledge transfer from research institutes. Together, they will explore the challenges and opportunities in effectively communicating scientific findings to various stakeholders. They will examine how far research can and should leave their comfort zone to engage in science communication.