Prof. Dr. Harald Kunstmann
| Phone: | +49 821 598 2751 |
| Email: | harald.kunstmann@uni-auni-a.de () |
| Room: | 2024 (B) |
| Open hours: | by appointment only |
| Address: | Alter Postweg 118, 86159 Augsburg |
Research Foci
- Impact of regional climate change and land-use change on terrestrial hydrology and water resources
- Compartment crossing regional Earth System Modeling of the atmospheric and land surface water cycle
- Establishment of terrestrial observatories and observation of water-, energy- and greenhouse gas fluxes
- Use of commercial microwave links (CLMs) for precipitation quantification
- Sub-seasonal and seasonal predictions for early warning of droughts and heatwaves
- Artificial Intelligence and multivariate statistical methods in hydrometeorology
- Climate-water-health modeling for the Global South (e.g. malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa)
- Resilience of hydrological systems at landscape level
Curriculum Vitae
Since 2021? ?Founding Director?Centre for Climate Resilience at University of Augsburg
09/18-01/19? Honorary Research Assiciate at the University of Oxford
Since 2015?? Deputy Director of the KIT Campus Alpin
Since 2009?? W3 professor and holder of the Chair for Regional Climate and Hydrology at the University of Augsburg in joint appointment with the KIT Campus Alpin, Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Since 2004?? Head of the Regional Climate Systems Department at the KIT Campus Alpin
Since 2001?? Head of the research group Regional Climate and Hydrology at the KIT-Campus Alpin
Since 1999?? Research associate at the Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research (KIT Campus Alpin)
1995-1998? ??Dissertation in Environmental Natural Sciences at ETH Zurich
1989-1994??? Studied physics at the University of Marburg, Virginia/USA and Heidelberg
Honors and Awards
2024???????? German Hydrology Price, German Hydrology Society (DHG)
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2021???????? Water Resources Prize, Rüdiger Kurt Bode-Foundation (�100K)
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2021???????? Keynote speech, United Nations secretary-general’s advisory board on Water and Sanitation UNSGAB+5 Conference
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2021????????Reuters World Top 1000 Climate Scientists
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2014????????Kavli frontier of science fellow
Selected Publications
Dieng, M. D. B., Munga, S., Tompkins, A. M., Zornoza, M. G., Caminade, C., Fersch, B., Arnault, J., Khagayi, S., Schwarz, M., Kariuki, S., Bigogo, G., and Kunstmann, H.: High resolution physically based modelling reveals malaria incidence reduction by vector control measures, Scientific reports, 1, 1288, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-33539-w, 2026.
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Glawion, L., Polz, J., Kunstmann, H., Fersch, B., and Chwala, C.: Global spatio-temporal ERA5 precipitation downscaling to km and sub-hourly scale using generative AI, npj Clim Atmos Sci, 1, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-025-01103-y, 2025.
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Guug, S., Sy, S., Quansah, E., Bliefernicht, J., Neidl, F., Steinbrecher, R., Ayamba, M., Frempong, A., Davies, P., Spangenberg, I., Oussou, F. E., Diallo, B. A., Salack, S., Hackman, K., Amekudzi, L. K., Ogunjobi, K., and Kunstmann, H.: Methane emissions from rice cultivation in West Africa and compensation options from nature reserve forests, Environ. Res. Lett., 4, 44050, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/adc28c, 2025.
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Portele, T. C., Lorenz, C., Dibrani, B., Laux, P., Bliefernicht, J., and Kunstmann, H.: Seasonal forecasts offer economic benefit for hydrological decision making in semi-arid regions, Scientific reports, 1, 10581, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-89564-y, 2021.
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Fersch, B., Senatore, A., Adler, B., Arnault, J., Mauder, M., Schneider, K., V?lksch, I., and Kunstmann, H.: High-resolution fully coupled atmospheric–hydrological modeling: a cross-compartment regional water and energy cycle evaluation, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 5, 2457–2481, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-2457-2020, 2020.
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Chwala, C., and Kunstmann, H.: Commercial microwave link networks for rainfall observation: Assessment of the current status and future challenges, WIREs Water, 2, https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1337, 2019.
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Arnault, J., Wagner, S., Rummler, T., Fersch, B., Bliefernicht, J., Andresen, S., and Kunstmann, H.: Role of Runoff–Infiltration Partitioning and Resolved Overland Flow on Land–Atmosphere Feedbacks: A Case Study with the WRF-Hydro Coupled Modeling System for West Africa, Journal of Hydrometeorology, 5, 1489–1516, https://doi.org/10.1175/JHM-D-15-0089.1, 2016.
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Senatore, A., Mendicino, G., Gochis, D. J., Yu, W., Yates, D. N., and Kunstmann, H.: Fully coupled atmosphere‐hydrology simulations for the central M editerranean: Impact of enhanced hydrological parameterization for short and long time scales, J Adv Model Earth Syst, 4, 1693–1715, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015MS000510, 2015.
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Lorenz, C., and Kunstmann, H.: The Hydrological Cycle in Three State-of-the-Art Reanalyses: Intercomparison and Performance Analysis, Journal of Hydrometeorology, 5, 1397–1420, https://doi.org/10.1175/JHM-D-11-088.1, 2012.
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Kunstmann, H., and Stadler, C.: High resolution distributed atmospheric-hydrological modelling for Alpine catchments, Journal of Hydrology, 1-4, 105–124, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2005.03.033, 2005.
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Research Projects
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Current projects |
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| BRaVE | Building Climate Resilience for a Vital Environment (BRaVE): Identification of Vulnerabilities, Indicators and Implications for Actions |
| CONCERT | Greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation options under climate- and land use change in West Africa: A concerted regional modeling and observation assessment |
| Cosmic Ray Neutron Sensing | Integrated hydrological modeling and analysis of the interaction between soil moisture and the atmospheric boundary layer |
| Energy Landscapes | Sustainable energy landscapes - Modelling regional strategies for the expansion of renewable energies with special consideration of national and international climate policy |
| MiKRoNP | Microclimate in Climate Change - Refuges and Hotspots in the Bavarian National Parks |
Finished projects |
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| AtmoWater | High-resolution atmospheric water vapor based on geodetic satellite measurement, tomographic intersection and atmospheric modeling |
| BIAS1 | Local refinement and bias correction of climate projections |
| BIAS2 | Synthesis of high-resolution regionalization, multivariate stochastic bias correction and optimized hydrological model and process analysis |
| Digital Earth | Towards SMART Monitoring and Earth System Integrated Data Exploration - Implementing the Data Science Paradigm |
| Enershelf | High resolution energy meteorological forecasting for improved management of PV-hybrid systems |
| FOR2131 | Combination of observation types for precipitation (rain gauges, commercial microwave links, weather radar) to precipitation fields for use in fully coupled data assimilation systems |
| HoWa Innovativ | More accurate forecasting of floods by improving precipitation measurement using data from commercial microwave links (CMLs) |
| LandKlif TP-8 | Climate and water balance analysis for Bavaria using extremely high-resolution regional earth system modeling |
| SALDI | South Africa Land Degradation Monitor - Land-Atmosphere Interactions: Regional Assessment |
| STUDIO | STeigerwald study area: Forecasting and management system for coping with Drought perI-Ods in Franconia. |
| SYNOPSE | Synthetic precipitation time series for the optimal planning and operation of urban drainage systems |
| WASCAL | West African Science Service Center on Climate and Adapted Land Use - Implementation Phase |
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Lectures
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