Funded by the DAAD from funds of the Federal Foreign Office:

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Dynamic Flood Catcher

Summer School Neckar Now: Transformative approaches for a sustainable future

16.08.20 - 21.08.20

Heidelberg is one of the most historical stu-dent cities in Europe, therefore looking for a solution to the flooding problem that takes place mostly in the Spring season must be a priority to all Heidelbergers.

Here we come up with a solution that is dy-namic in nature, addressing this challenge in a not-invasive way for the traditional old town and the Heidelberg’s beautiful histori-cal landscape.

The idea is to implement a structure at the riverbank that contains moveable panels. As a result, this temporary pa-nels avoid the water coming towards the city, and consequently, protecting it from floods.

The hydraulic mechanism lift-up the bar-riers (panels) by using the water pres-sure created when the river increases its flowrate.

Some things that need to be considerred in the future are: improvements in the engineering design, efficient selection of sustainable and resistant materials and identification of potential areas for implementation of other dynamic flood catchers.

The panels act as a multifunc-tional structure for the city. Besides of its protection pur-pose, its surfaces can be used for advertisements, tourist in-formation or even for garde-ning projects.

MOHAMED ALMETWALLY, ADITI DAS,

HELENA FIGUEIREDO, KWAKU KARIKARI,

JOHN LUGONGO, SUPRIYA MOHALKAR,

LUCÍA MORALES, AJEESH NELLIKUNNEL JOSE,

YOGESH KUMAR

Dynamic Flood Catcher

Keine Sandsaecke mehr an der alten Bruecke, besser ein Zusammenspiel aus Strukturen.

No more sand sacks in the Alte Brücke, better a symphony of barriers

Mohamed Almetwally, Aditi Das, Helena Figueiredo, Kwaku Karikari, John Lugongo,

Supriya Mohalkar, Lucía Morales, Ajeesh Nellikunnel Jose, Yogesh Kumar

Engineering Images Design and 3D printed prototype: Maximilian Probst

Photoshop Image: Helena Figueiredo, Belen Zevallos

Previous conditions

Impacts and Challenges:

The positive impact of this project in Heidelberg will be vast when addressed. What it needs to

be carefully addressed is the engineering design so this cannot create damages to the

environment surrounding the area. Therefore, the project needs a deep research about the river

behaviour in Spring in order to analyse the water pressure and the worst-case scenario to design

these temporary barriers suitable each location which prone to flooding.

General Information

1. Regarding material selection

https://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/hygiene/plumbing10.pdf

2. Flow conditions in the Neckar during different time periods of the year

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257047161_Projection_of_low_flow_condit

ions_in_Germany_under_climate_change_by_combining_three_RCMs_and_a_region

al_hydrological_mode

3. Example of an implemented flood management technique

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGD5i5ocW_s