At the Urban Drainage Modelling Conference (UDM) in Innsbruck, Dr Schütze presented ifak's work on the automated generation of high-performance sewer network models that are suitable for use in digital twins and for model-predictive sewer network control. The UDM is one of the world's most important conferences on sewer network modeling, with approximately 300 participants.
Dr Schütze's conference presentation illustrated the practical application of the method developed at ifak to the sewer network of the city of Hanover. The methodology, which was awarded the Aquafin Prize, allows simplified models with short simulation times but yet with sufficient accuracy to be automatically created from detailed sewer network models (which are in use by many municipal drainage companies). These simplified models are ideal for use in digital twins and for model-predictive real time control of urban drainage systems.
The resulting simulation model has been implemented using the Simba# simulator; it forms an integral part of a digital twin that was developed in the BMFTR-funded project ‘ZwillE’ ("Digital twin for AI-supported management of extreme water events in urban areas", together with other partners for Germany's third-longest sewer network in the city of Hannover.
In addition, Ms Helieh Abasi (INRS in Québec City) was awarded the Best Poster Award at this conference for her poster on simulation-based planning of sponge city elements. She spent several months conducting research at ifak in 2023.
29 September 2025
