Floodings 2021: Identifying Innovation opportunities for flood management in the present and future (German)

Christian J. Illing is the scientific head of THW’s Living lab for AI in civil protection, project coordinator for the DAREnet project and currently also deputy head of the research department. He is employed by the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) at the THW headquarter in Bonn.
He has a broad experience in the field of civil protection due to his engagement for almost 20 years with the German Red Cross in different fields and all command levels. He is specialized in coordination, command & control and water rescue. He is also a trained intermediate EMT and active as trainer in leadership courses.
Prior to his position at the THW he was a researcher in the field of fossil energy resources.
He received a doctoral degree in natural sciences from the University in Münster, Germany. During his academic training he studied and researched at the university of Cologne, the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources in Hannover, the University of Münster and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

Ronald Nippold has been working at the Institute of Transportation Systems at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) since 2007, where he is the head of the group “Simulation of Mobility Systems”. This working group develops the open-source traffic simulation software "SUMO" (Simulation of Urban MObility), which, in addition to analysing everyday traffic, also enables the study of the mobility of people or logistics operations in special situations such as public mass events or natural disasters. 

Mr Alexander Fekete is Professor of Risk and Crisis Management at TH Köln – University of Applied Sciences since December 2012. His present research focuses on studying the systemic interrelations of natural, technical and man-made hazards with social vulnerabilities and critical infrastructures. Interdisciplinary disaster risk management, risk governance, urban resilience, risk and crisis communication, and target levels of safety and security are recent research and educational activities.
Alexander Fekete previously worked from 2009-2012 as a Project Officer at the German Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance in the field of Critical Infrastructure Protection. From 2005-2009 he was Research Scholar at the United Nations University – Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU- EHS), conducting research on social vulnerability to floods and climate change adaptation. As a consultant he worked for WHO, the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), and the German Committee for Disaster Reduction (DKKV). He has carried out fieldwork and workshops in Armenia, Iran, Japan, Sri Lanka and Switzerland. Alexander Fekete holds a diploma degree in Geography from the University of Würzburg a doctorate (Dr.-Ing.) from the University of Bonn and a Habilitation at University of Würzburg.

 

Rob Testelmans is crisis manager for the city of Geel and two surrounding towns. In 15 years time he managed and coordinated several major incidents not only in his own city but also in the wider Antwerp region. He has a post graduate degree Crisis Management (University of Antwerp) and he is a volunteer member of the provincial/federal crisis management support team. As board member of the Belgian safety and security cluster (Cidss) he has a broad network within the field of safety and security. The city of Geel is a partner in the Darenet project. Rob Testelmans represents his organization within this projects.