Transfer and Sustainability

Research at the ZWU addresses one of the greatest social challenges of our time - ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation facilities for all (UN Sustainable Development Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation). There are multiple possibilities for linking the three future strategic research fields of the ZWU (water quality, biodiversity and urban water cycle) and the initial topics at the FutureWaterCampus (membrane research, algae research and photocatalysis), and thus the possibility of developing holistic solutions for future sustainable water management with a focus on urban spaces.

The ZWU makes an essential contribution to increasing the efficiency of water use by developing coupled methods, processes and technologies along value chains. One example is the planned use of innovative technical membranes, which, with its far-reaching areas of application, is explicitly highlighted in the Environmental Economic Report NRW 2015 as a future key water-management technology.