On dry land? The future of water in Berlin

Climate change, population growth and the end of mining in Lusatia, which channelled groundwater into the Spree, are already having a major impact on water levels. The drainage and draining of moors also play a decisive role in the water cycle, as they can store and release less water. So what can long-term, sustainable water management look like that avoids water crises and ensures equitable water distribution?


To explore these and many other questions, we cordially invite you on World Water Day 2025 to the second part of the event series WasserWissen | Parcours entitled ‘Auf dem Trockenen? The future of water in Berlin'.


BUA WaterKnowledge | Parcours

At the Berlin University Alliance (BUA) WaterKnowledge | Parcours, experts from science, practice and civil society share their insights and visions for sustainable water management in Berlin. Immerse yourself in an inspiring mix of lectures, artistic performances and debates that reflect on how we deal with water and look for solutions in an interdisciplinary exchange with you.

Programme

1:00 pm

Scenting owls in the bog - sustainable food art performance with tasting

In Sweden, the expression ‘owls in the bog forebode’ describes that something seems to be wrong, something ominous is threatening. During the performance, Sustainable Food Art artist Anja Fiedler serves a delicious bog dessert as a bittersweet delicacy and poses questions about this endangered landscape: Why are bogs on everyone's lips right now? How do we indirectly eat our moors? What do moors have to do with water and the future? 

1:45 (parallel programme)

Short talks: perspectives on Berlin's water scarcity

Anne-Marie Weiß and Alexander Stier (Stiftung Naturschutz Berlin): Moor/ Moor Protection (AT)Dr Thomas Vogelpohl, Humboldt University of Berlin: Berlin and Brandenburg under water stress. Why the future of the Spree is becoming a political issue.

Swamp and tap: Spree time travel – artistic workshop for children and adults

Led by the artists Ursula Seeger and Johannes Reißer, we will put together the river landscape of the Spree in the past, present and future - by drawing, collaging and writing. We will playfully explore human and animal perspectives on the changing water situation in Berlin. For schoolchildren and adults to join in!


3:30 pm

Warm Data Lab –  discuss together!

Warm Data Labs are group processes of conversations that enable people to experience interdependence and develop an understanding of systemic patterns. As a living kaleidoscope, it creates a space in which complexity and depth can unfold. By shifting perspectives in a transcontextual dialogue structure, the Warm Data Lab process enhances participants' ability to respond to difficult or wicked problems. 

5:00 pm

Panel discussion ‘The future of water in Berlin’

With Irina Engelhardt (Hydrologist, TU Berlin) and June Tomiak (Member of the Bundestag and spokesperson for water protection for Alliance 90/The Greens)

6:00 pm

Get-together and closing with drinks

PARTICIPANTS

Anne-Marie Weiß is an ecologist specializing in nature conservation and vegetation ecology and a nature conservation officer at the Flora Protection Coordination Office (Stiftung Naturschutz Berlin). She studied at the HNE Eberswalde and the University of Potsdam. She has been working in flora conservation at the Stiftung Naturschutz Berlin for six years. She lives with her family in Berlin-Mitte and explores the city's green spaces.

Alexander Stier is a nature conservation officer at the Flora Protection Coordination Office of the Berlin Nature Conservation Foundation. He studied biosciences and geoecology at the University of Potsdam. As a member of the Berlin Brandenburg Botanical Society, his main interests lie in botany and vegetation science. He is actively involved in the protection and conservation of endangered plant species.

Dr Thomas Vogelpohl is a political scientist specialising in environmental policy. Since June 2022, he has been a research associate at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, where he is researching the sustainability of water governance in Berlin and Brandenburg in the ‘Climate and Water under Change’ (CliWaC) project.

Dr Franziska Gaupp is an environmental scientist. She completed her doctorate at the Environmental Change Institute of the University of Oxford and conducted research at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). Today she works at the University of Osnabrück on the topic of ‘positive social tipping points’ in the sustainability transformation. She is trained in participatory group methods (warm data lab, Theory U, Art of Hosting).

Katharina Ulbing holds a Master's degree in Futures Studies from the Free University of Berlin. She is a communication strategist, facilitator and sauna and meditation guide. With a focus on transformative learning processes, multiple temporalities, as well as neo-materialist-feminist ontologies, she is dedicated to the question: ‘How does change happen?’. She has been an active member of the Warm Data Community since 2022 and has undergone further training in systems thinking, regeneration and participatory methods.

Prof Irina Engelhardt is Professor of Hydrogeology at TU Berlin. As head of the
Department of Hydrogeology, she coordinates the research project
SpreeWasser:N - Water Resource Management, in which she focussed on underground water storage (tbc).

June Tomiak is a member of the parliamentary group Bündnis 90/Die Grünen in the Berlin House of Representatives. She is spokesperson for constitutional protection and spokesperson for wildlife and water protection and part of the committee for environmental and climate protection.

- Free admission
- Language: German
- Venue:  Humboldt Laboratory, 1st floor