News

In order to protect lakes from chronic diseases and threatening conditions and to heal them, strategies similar to those used in human healthcare should be applied: Prophylaxis, regular screening, treatment and mitigation on a local to global scale.

A new IGB manual makes knowledge about the construction methods and authorisation requirements for Vertical Wetlands publicly available to interested parties.

At around 380 kilometres, the Spree is not one of Germany’s longest rivers, but it is one of its most famous. As the capital’s river, it is representative of water bodies in Germany and around the world that are under increasing pressure. While private and commercial interests in its water resources continue to grow, it is also clear that there will be significantly less water available in the future. What needs to be done to counteract this is the subject of controversial debate.

Although lots of rain has reached the ground, the groundwater has not yet returned to the state it was in before the dry year of 2018. Moreover, in 2023, a year with high precipitation, a particularly large amount of water evaporated due to high temperatures. So, no reason to sound the all-clear?

The IGB has provided research-based feedback on a draft legislation to regulate the reuse of municipal wastewater for agricultural irrigation.

In an EU consultation, IGB researchers emphasise that the practical implementation of the Nitrates Directive has so far been inadequate.

Between 1975 and 2020, the known total cost of invasive aquatic plants to the global economy totalled more than 32 billion US dollars. This was calculated by a team led by IGB and the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen's University Belfast in Ireland. 

In July and August 2022, a man-made environmental disaster occurred in the in the Oder River: a mass die-off of fish, mussels and snails that started in the Polish section of the Oder and then continued downstream until it reached the border Oder. The immediate cause of their death was a toxin-producing (planktonic) brackish water alga, scientifically known as Prymnesium parvum, which was able to grow en masse due to high salinity, high solar radiation, and low water flow. An IGB Fact Sheet summarises the current state of scientific knowledge.