Research on clean drinking water

Jena. In this country, we take clean drinking water for granted. At least 4.5 billion cubic metres are used in Germany each year – equivalent to some 120 litres per person per day. More than two-thirds of this total comes from groundwater. But how secure are these essential subsurface water reservoirs in view of intensive land use, environmental pollution and climate change? Researchers at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, together with partners, are looking into this issue in the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) ‘AquaDiva’. Started in 2013, the research partnership will continue to be supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for the next four years, receiving over 9.5 million euros for the funding period to 2021. AquaDiva is one of iDiv's research platforms.
“We are pleased with the recognition of our work to date and this positive evaluation by the DFG will spur us on in tackling our next research tasks,” says Prof. Kirsten Küsel. The Director of the Institute of Ecology of the University of Jena is one of three speakers of the CRC. The aim of the research partnership is to analyse the connections between ground and subsurface habitats of plants and microorganisms, and the processes that take place in those habitats. The findings will be used to develop recommendations for the sustainable protection of these ecosystems and of the services they provide to people. As well as scientists from the University of Jena, the CRC AquaDiva also includes researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry (MPI-BGC), the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (IPHT) and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ). Read more: https://www.uni-jena.de/en/Research+News/FM170616_CRC_AquaDiva_Funding.html
& https://www.idiv.de/en/research/platforms_and_networks/aquadiva.html