Prof. Dr. Frank Wendland

Research group

The research group Modelling and management of catchments develops and applies models for balancing and forecasting water and nutrient fluxes on the level of Federal States and river basins. We give scientific support for the emerging issues of water policies in Germany and beyond.

Research focus

For the implementation of the EU Nitrate Directive as well as the EU Water Framework Directive, quantitative data on the sources and spatial distribution of nitrogen and phosphorus inputs are needed to enable an effective planning of counter measures. To this end, the research group Modelling and Management of Catchments is developing simulation models to determine the nutrient input into soil, groundwater and surface waters for both, diffuse nutrient inputs from agriculture and point nutrient inputs from urban systems. With a focus on diffuse nutrient inputs, the models are used to determine the N and P inputs via six different discharge pathways taking into account the main retention and degradation processes in soil and groundwater.

We have completed stand-alone nutrient models for nine Federal German States including NRW, all of which are based on the models mGROWA-DENUZ-WEKU-MEPhos developed in the research group Modelling and Management of Catchments. Since 2022, the research focuses on a project in which a Germany-wide monitoring system for assessing the impact of the German Fertilizer Ordinance on groundwater and surface waters (impact monitoring) is being developed.

(Selected) ongoing projects

RELAS: Modeling regional agricultural nitrogen fluxes as a basis for developing and optimizing agricultural policy measures to achieve climate protection goals (BMEL)

GROWA+-NRW2027: Further development of the NRW model system for representing N and P inputs to groundwater and surface waters (LANUV).