ACO: How a smart water storage tank defies Hamburg's extreme weather
In the Cross Innovation Class, interdisciplinary teams of students developed solutions for the Resilient City.
In the Cross Innovation Class, a team of students developed a smart water storage tank together with ACO.
The challenge
Climate change means extreme weather. For Europe, this means long periods of drought, which will be followed by increasingly severe storms in the future. For the drainage system of a city like Hamburg, heavy rain means that sudden masses of water overload the pipe system. There is simply not enough storage space for the water. The sensible storage and utilisation of water is one of the greatest challenges facing a resilient and sustainable city. The ACO Group therefore asked itself how the urban drainage infrastructure can be protected with foresight using smart systems.
Output
The winning team in the "Jury Prize" category of this year's Cross Innovation Class developed a smart water storage tank with a digitally controlled pump and a public water dispenser. The location, availability and water quality can be checked via an app. The storage tank drains and purifies rainwater, measures the quality of the water and later makes it available again as drinking water. Depending on the local conditions, the water storage tank can be installed above or below ground.
Team: Clemens Bettenhausen (HCU), Simon Katzmair (HCU), Janos Wartig (FH-Wedel), Alexander Konstantinidis (FH-Wedel), Jannis Bock (AMD), Ummo Kadar (AMD)
"Working with the group of students was inspiring in many ways. The result makes our company's claim 'we care for water' visible to the public"
Format & method
In the Cross Innovation Class, students from three to six different universities work in interdisciplinary teams on the practical challenges of the project partners.
- The process follows the logic of design thinking: in iterative feedback loops with the partners, the teams approach a solution step by step.
- The entire process is managed by the Cross Innovation Hub team and supported by trained facilitators.
- Prototypes can be created and tested in the workshops of the partner universities.
Cross Innovation Class #4 took place in the summer semester 2022 on the topic of Resilient Cities.
Our partner: ACO
The ACO Group is a global family business that is one of the world market leaders in the Water-Tech segment. founded in 1946 in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, it operates as a transnational network in over 50 countries. With the ACO WaterCycle, ACO supplies systems with which water can be collected and channelled, cleaned, stored and ultimately reused. In this way, ACO contributes to the preservation of clean groundwater as a vital resource and makes a contribution to the world of tomorrow. ACO emphasises durability, reusability and the CO2 footprint for all materials used.
