Located in Switzerland, Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (eawag), is among the world’s leading aquatic research institutes. Its strengths and successes are based on a long-established portfolio of activities – research, education and consulting & knowledge transfer. The combination of natural and social scientists and engineers permits a wide range of water research, across the continuum from relatively unperturbed aquatic ecosystems to fully engineered wastewater management systems. Staff at eawag (about 450 people) benefit from a unique scientific environment, allowing researchers, specialists and students to pursue questions that yield new scientific insights and meet fundamental societal needs. Particular attention is paid to innovative transdisciplinary projects. To ensure that new findings and approaches can be translated into practice as rapidly as possible, eawag also maintains close contacts with experts from industry, government and professional associations. The Department of Systems Analysis, Integrated Assessment and Modelling (SIAM) conducts research in ecological modelling, uncertainty analysis, and decision support in environmental management.

The main tasks of eawag are to support the development of a probability network model that summarises the knowledge on the dependence of freshwater biodiversity on external driving forces in WP7, Forecasting Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Provision, and the development of a management concept for increasing the aquatic biodiversity based on multi-criteria decision analysis in WP8, Ecosystem-based Management towards Policy Objectives.  These tools are tested in the case study on the biodiversity of invertebrates and fish in Swiss rivers and applied to other case studies jointly with AQUACROSS partners.

Dr. Peter Reichert

Dr. Peter Reichert is head of the Department of Systems Analysis, Integrated Assessment and Modelling at Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology and Adjunct Professor at the Department of Environmental Systems Sciences of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH. He holds MSc and PhD degrees in Theoretical Physics from the University of Basel, Switzerland. His research focuses on methodological issues in environmental modelling, uncertainty analysis and statistical inference, on hydrological and ecological modelling, and on environmental decision support.

Dr. Nele Schuwirth

Dr. Nele Schuwirth is a group leader in Ecological Modelling at EAWAG, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology and lecturer at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich. She holds an MSc in Geology and a PhD in Hydrogeology from the Johannes-Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany. Her research in the field of ecological modelling focuses on the development of mechanistic models for freshwater ecosystems to reveal the influence of multiple stressors on community structure and ecosystem function including uncertainty assessment using Bayesian statistics. In addition, she works in the field of decision science using multi-criteria decision support methods for river assessment and ecosystem management.

Dr. Peter Vermeiren

Dr. Peter Vermeiren is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Systems Analysis, Integrated Assessment and Modelling at Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology. He holds a PhD in Tropical Ecology from James Cook University in Townsville, Australia. His research focuses on the ecological interactions between aquatic organisms (principally invertebrates) and their environment via predictive habitat modelling and food web analysis. His research is aimed at supporting environmental management via the provision of new monitoring tools, involvement of citizen scientists, and the development of bio-indicator capacities of invertebrates.

Dr. Mathias Kuemmerlen

Dr. Mathias Kuemmerlen is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Systems Analysis, Integrated Assessment and Modelling at Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology. He holds a M.Sc. in Environmental and Resource Management (BTU Cottbus, Germany) and a PhD in Biology (Goethe Universität, Frankfurt a.M., Germany). Mathias has worked on applying species distribution models in freshwater ecosystems, with a particular focus on small catchments of China and Germany. He uses ecological modeling approaches to understand how anthropogenic impacts affect freshwater ecosystems and their biodiversity. The objective of his research is to improve existing knowledge on the resilience of freshwater ecosystems by evaluating the possible outcomes of existing management strategies and future social-environmental scenarios.