RiskAware - Development of a generative planning tool on heavy rainfall risk-aware urban planning
Project Data
| Duration: | 01.03.2025 - 29.02.2028 |
| Lead: | Siegen University, Chair of Hydromechanics and Hydraulic Engineering |
| Partners: | Okeanos, Smart Data Solutions GmbH |
| Project Management: | Ingrid Althoff, Jorge Leandro |
| Project Team | Dr. Ingrid Althoff, Leonie Müller, M.Sc., Univ.-Prof. Dr. Jorge Leandro, Dr. Henning Oppel |
| Project Funding: | Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Action and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, EFRE/JTF program |
| Funding Program: | GreenEconomy.IN.NRW |
| Further Information: |
Aim and content of the project
At the current time, heavy rain hazard maps (RHM) provide information on areas with an increased risk of flooding/inundation. Thus, they can be used to protect the population or objects and for spatial planning purposes. However, these maps only consider the existing buildings at the time of drawing up and can no longer accurately represent the risk in the case of structural changes.
Hence, in the frame of the RiskAware project, a generative tool is being developed that aims for dynamisation of these static RHM. Using AI-based technology, inundation-relevant features (terrain model, buildings, roads, etc.) are extracted from remote sensing data, from which an associated RHM will be created. For this purpose, existing RHM are used as training and target values. As a result of the innovative learning strategy (learning based on inundation-relevant features), transferability to any area and continuous updating is guaranteed. This makes the direct impact of objects and spatial planning on the risk of heavy rain visible for the first time, making a major contribution to water-sensitive planning and climate-resilient design. In addition, transferability and continuous updating allows the drawing up of new maps and features, which can also transferred to digital city twins, thus integrating the topic of environmental risk.
Project progress
2. Workshop
The second workshop within the RiskAware project took place on March 20, 2026. This was held at the University of Siegen, in the conference rooms at Lower Castle. Representatives from various municipalities and district administrations, representatives from different fire departments and disaster relief organizations, the Arnsberg district government, representatives of water associations/cooperatives and of the Cologne Flood Competence Centre (HKC) as well as a representative of the project executing organisation in Jülich (she had to cancel due to scheduling conflicts) were invited to the workshop.
The workshop served both to introduce the project in general and to present first results regarding the AI models to be developed. A key aspect of the workshop was the discussion and exchange of information with the participants about their needs and about additional data that can be provided for training the AI models, which are not available on websites. The project attracted great interest, as could be seen from the discussions, not only during the workshop, but also during the coffee and lunch break. The demand for the presentation slides also demonstrated the interest in the project and its first results. The slides were made available to the participants after the workshop.
RiskAware at the "Day of Hydrology
The RiskAware project was presented at the conference "Day of Hydrology" in Kassel, which took place from March 4th to 6th, 2026. Doctoral candidate Leonie Müller presented first project results to participants from research and praxis regarding the development of heavy rainfall hazard maps using generalized data-driven models. The subsequent discussion demonstrated the strong interest in this topic.
Kick-off workshop
On 16 July 2025, the kick-off workshop for the RiskAware project took place in Bochum, at the premises of Okeanos Smart Data Solutions GmbH. In addition to the two project partners, the Chair of Hydromechanics and Hydraulic Engineering at the University of Siegen and Okeanos, representatives of the associated project partners from the cities of Bochum and Lüdenscheid as well as the district of Recklinghausen also participated in the workshop. Furthermore, the project manager (Fraunhofer IOSB-INA) and the project partners of the ERDF project “IoT4 RGK” (Improving heavy rain hazard maps using real-time data) participated in the workshop. A representative of the Emschergenossenschaft joined the event online. Due to the beginning of the vacation season, representatives of the Jülich project management agency were unable to attend.
After the official welcome and a short round of introductions of the participants, the RiskAware project was presented in general terms, including the background and objectives of the project. This was followed by a presentation of the individual work packages, from the potentially required data to AI development in remote sensing and AI development for the creation of heavy rain hazard maps to the implementation of the project results. The IoT4SRGK research project, which aims to improve the informativeness of heavy rain hazard maps using real-time data, was also presented.
As a result, it can be noted that there was lively discussion and interfaces for potential cooperation in both ERDF projects were identified. The extent to which these can be expanded and pursued further will become clear in the course of the project. The associated partners of the RiskAware project confirmed their willingness to help with data collection. In addition, the problems in early warning based on the existing heavy rain hazard maps were discussed and recommendations were made for improving these maps.
Kickoff Meeting: Project executing organisation
On 11 April 2025, the kickoff meeting of the project executing organisation Jülich (Research and Society NRW, Energy, Technology, Sustainability Environment and Climate Protection (ETN 2), which had invited the project partners to an online meeting, took place. The meeting served to provide information about the framework conditions relevant for the implementation of the project.
Kickoff meeting: Project Partners
On March 27, 2025, the project partners successfully held their kickoff meeting at the University of Siegen. In the frame of the meeting the schedule, changed project coordination, and methodological approaches for achieving the project's initial sub-goals were discussed.