Heribert Nacken

Competence-based and game-based capacity development for sustainable water management in Germany

Sustainable water management is one of humanity’s most important challenges—today and in the future. Germany does not face a significant water shortage problem, but it has three main challenges: protection of water quality, ensuring public water supply and public wastewater disposal, and protecting the public and infrastructure from floods. Capacity development is a key issue to overcome the challenges of water resources in any country including Germany. Engineers, technicians, and mechanics need to upgrade their knowledge on a regular basis to deal with the complex management and rapid technological developments. In order to create efficient training schemes, the Vocational Training Working Group of Global Water Partnership (GWP), part of the GWP Capacity Development Task Force, has worked on the definition of fundamental job profiles for the Water and Sanitation Sector (WASS). To cover all technical functions of the industrial water cycle, it was necessary to identify around thirty occupations. Then, a competence-based training approach was adopted. Additionally, an assessment approach was also developed based on comparing the level of competence of the workers to a standard level of competence for each job. The RWTH Aachen University with its partners have developed another game-based approach (SeCom2.0) based on serious gaming technology to enable water professionals dealing with flood risk management to be trained on different flood situations in a virtual environment. SeCom2.0 has three main components that are connected by a database layer. In addition to the serious games component, there is a collaboration component and a learning management system. For nearly 100 members from the flood competence centre (HochwasserKompetenzCentrum) in Cologne, Germany gave input to simulate the real flooding scenarios, and the learners will have to deal with a flood scenario by protecting the city in a given time and using a given resources and tools. This work concluded that both competence-based and game-based approaches could be significantly improved by blending both approaches. This will improve the process of training; for example, the competence-based approach can be enriched by using game-based simulation by introducing the trainees to a simulation of different technologies in water utilities. This can save resources and money and enrich the training. More importantly is modifying the game-based approach using the approach of competence-based to focus on specific competencies and to make use of the competence standards in its assessment component. The first section of this introduces and categorizes water challenges in Germany. In the second and third section, the two approaches are introduced in details. The competence-based approach is introduced to the WASS while the games-based to the flood risk management. Finally, a conclusion and recommendations are illustrated.

Water research in Germany: from the reconstruction of the Roman Rhine to a risk assessment for aquatic neophytes

Germany does not only have a long tradition in water research, but a very active community of scientists and practitioners working on a vast range of “water topics.” This thematic issue, which was initiated by four water-related research associations (German Hydrological Society; German Limnological Society; Hydrological Sciences Commission within German Water Association; Working Group Hydrology within German Geographical Society), is a testimony of both the quality and diversity of the water research currently undertaken by Germany’s scientific community. Key topics include hydrology and hydromorphology; water quality; aquatic and riparian ecosystems; water in agriculture and forestry; and water management and supply. The manuscripts contained in this thematic issue do not only cover a period of more than two millennia, but also address all types of water resources and a multitude of both established and newly developed methods that help us to better understand the processes governing the hydrological cycle, aquatic ecosystems and the management and operation of various water infrastructures.

Exploring the application of a flood risk management Serious Game platform

Based on the experience gained with SeCom2.0, we will explain the impact of game-based learning and provide an overview of the current use of Serious Games in teaching flood risk management in Germany. SeCom2.0 is a collaborative learning platform, which deals with a flood situation in Cologne. The use of Serious Games in flood risk management is still limited due to many factors. The article will give a deeper insight into the SeCom2.0 project, explaining the pedagogical design and the development. We will cover the pitfalls and possible suggestions for further development to facilitate wider use of such games by adapting the settings to local conditions. This article will also describe how a Serious Game can support lifelong learning for students and employees involved in flood risk management. The key components, design patterns and structure of or SeCom2.0 are described, along with ideas to implement selected topics in flood risk management in an engaging gaming environment.

Serious Gaming für das Hochwasserrisikomanagement

Die nächste Generation der Studierenden gehört den sogenannten „Digital Natives“ an. Sie sind mit dem Einsatz von Computern, der Nutzung des Internets, Spielekonsolen und sozialen Netzwerken aufgewachsen und sozialisiert worden. Die Herausforderungen, Chancen und neuen Lösungen, die dieser Wandel für die Ausbildung im Bereich des Hochwasserrisikomanage ments mit sich bringt, werden anhand des Serious Gaming skizziert.

Serious Games im Hochwasserrisikomanagement

............................................................................................... V INHALTSVERZEICHNIS ......................................................................... VII ABBILDUNGSVERZEICHNIS ................................................................. XI TABELLENVERZEICHNIS ................................................................... XIII 1 EINLEITUNG .......................................................................................... 1 1.1 GRUNDLAGEN ................................................................................................... 1 1.2 HOCHWASSERRISIKOMANAGEMENT ................................................................. 2 1.3 ZIELSETZUNG UND VORGEHEN ......................................................................... 2 1.4 KONVENTIONEN ................................................................................................ 2 2 LEBENSLANGES LERNEN UND WISSEN ......................................... 3 2.1 VON PARADIGMEN UND THEORIEN ................................................................. 4 2.2 LERNMETHODEN ............................................................................................... 7 2.3 LERNEN STRUKTURIEREN ............................................................................... 11 2.4 LERNMOTIVATION .......................................................................................... 13 2.5 DER FLOW ...................................................................................................... 15 2.6 ELEARNING2.0 ................................................................................................ 17 2.7 LERNEN IM HOCHWASSERRISIKOMANAGEMENT ............................................ 18 3 SPIELEN UM ZU LERNEN ................................................................. 21 3.1 SPIELEN .......................................................................................................... 21 3.2 DIGITALES SPIELEBASIERTES LERNEN ............................................................ 23 3.3 SERIOUS GAMES ............................................................................................. 23 3.4 KLASSIFIZIERUNG VON SERIOUS GAMES ........................................................ 31 3.5 DER EINSATZ VON SERIOUS GAMES IN DER AUSUND WEITERBILDUNG ...... 32 3.6 SERIOUS GAMES IM HOCHWASSERRISIKOMANAGEMENT ............................... 35

Effects of water diversion and climate change on the Rur and Meuse in low-flow situations

Water scarcity is one of the problems in water management that hinders European rivers in reaching a good ecological status as defined in the European Water Framework Directive. Water scarcity often coincides with high water temperature and low water quality. High water temperatures decrease the oxygen supply and often coincide with low flows that tend to increase the load of various compounds that affect the equilibrium in the ecosystem. The river Meuse regularly encounters situations of low water flow. In these situations, the river Rur, an important tributary of the river Meuse in Germany, contributes significantly to the Meuse discharge. Climate change can lead to more frequent periods of water scarcity. Moreover, plans exist to divert water from the Rur to former brown coal quarries in Germany. This exploratory study examines the relationships between discharge, water temperature and water quality under future climate change and water diversion scenarios in low-flow situations for the rivers Meuse and Rur. The results of the study confirm that rising air temperatures as a result of climate change will lead to higher water temperatures which will negatively impact the water quality of the Meuse in particular. Despite the fact that the contribution of the Rur has a positive impact on the water quality of the Meuse, the results suggest that effects of plans to divert water from the Rur may be small on average. However, the impact of the diversion may be stronger on individual hot summer days with low water levels when the Rur contributes significantly to the discharge of the Meuse.

Rule-Based System for Morphological and Ecohydrological Decision Making

“Fish habitat is defined as those parts of the environment that fish depend on, directly or indirectly, in order to carry out their life processes” (Alberta 2003). There are basic requirements that should be available so that fish can successfully carry out their life processes; fish must have food to be able to reproduce and need cover to protect themselves from predators. The biological, chemical and physical features of water streams must be suitable for the reproduction process. Changes in the morphology of water streams are significant factors that influence the habitat quality (Hauer et al. 2006). Geomorphic characteristics, such as channel size, slope, grain size distribution, the spatial configuration of bars and riparian vegetation, strongly influence the structure of fluvial habitats and, as a consequence, the biodiversity and ecosystem function (Zah et al. 2000). Scherer et al. (2006) analyse the correlation between the structural river quality and the existing fish fauna. The study points out that there is a significant correlation between the species composition and the aggregated hydromorphological indicators for the trout and grayling regions. Montgomery (2006) indicates that the historical effects of changes in river geomorphologic processes in the US led to disturbance regimes on salmon populations. This shows the significance of the morphological structure for the ecosystem of watercourses. Over the past centuries, the ecological quality of watercourses in Europe and worldwide has been affected by human actions. Many physical alterations such as flood control measures, barrages, sluices as well as canalization and lining have significantly affected the Ecosystem mainly fish habitat. Improving the status of surface and ground water is a clear objective of the EU Water Framework Directive (EU WFD) to be achieved by 2015 (European Parliament 2000). The EU WFD committed the EU nations to carry out a characterisation of their water bodies by the end of 2004. This entailed a complete analysis of the characteristics of the surface and ground waters in each district, the review of the environmental impact of human activity (industry, farming, etc.) and an economic analysis of water use. The EU WFD also emphasizes the importance of preparing programmes of measures to achieve and maintain the good ecological status of watercourses. The German Ministry of Environment and Conservation, Agriculture and Consumer Protection of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (MUNLV) has achieved, over the past years, a significant improvement of the chemical status of the watercourses in North RhineWestphalia (NRW). The improvement of wastewater treatment and the decrease of industrial pollutants had a positive effect on the chemical quality already in 2001. Sixty