Instream River Train­ing is a form of river engineer­ing in which the flow is modified by induc­ing one or more secondary currents in a way that bank and bed erosion is prevented. The steer­ing platforms used here offer bank protec­tion, cost savings and ecolog­i­cal advan­tages compared to classic longi­tu­di­nal shoring. In this PhD-project, the result­ing water­course struc­tur­ing is inves­ti­gated in order to prove the suitabil­ity of steer­ing platforms as a measure for the targeted creation of varied habitats in urban watercourses.

The European Water Frame­work Direc­tive requires that all water­bod­ies achieve a good ecolog­i­cal status until 2027. In urban environ­ments the restricted spatial condi­tions and differ­ent inter­ests cause problems in river restora­tion. The present highly regulated rivers only offer uniform and monot­o­nous habitats for fauna and flora. In contrast to that, natural water­courses are charac­ter­ized by flow diver­sity and thus a large variety of hydraulic depths and river widths.

Instream River Train­ing is a method of river engineer­ing, in which the current is seen as the cause for bank erosion and bed erosion. Conse­quently, it is modified by induc­ing secondary flow. In order to achieve this, micro groins (submerged vanes) are installed in the river bed.

In this doctoral project, the changes of the bed struc­tures are to be examined by labora­tory exper­i­ments and field obser­va­tions in order to quantify the suitabil­ity of micro groins as a mean to create diversely struc­tured habitats in urban environ­ments. The fluid mechanic princi­ples will be devel­oped in cooper­a­tion with a project in Vietnam funded by the Federal Ministry of Educa­tion and Research.

The aim of this doctoral project is to give specific recom­men­da­tions concern­ing the design of micro groins and their measure­ments in order to maximize the ecolog­i­cal benefits of this construc­tion method. The appro­pri­ate bank protec­tion and econom­i­cal crite­ria will be consid­ered as well. The project is super­vised by Hector Fellow Franz Nestmann.