Online Lecture Series: Energy and Water
10/07/2025From 14 October, the University of Würzburg will be taking part in an inter-university online lecture series on structural change and transformation. This time, the focus is on energy and water.
Structural change in the Lausitz lignite mining region, the reorganisation of water supply in the Rhine-Main region, sewage treatment plants as net energy feeders: these are three of the twelve topics that will be discussed in the inter-university online lecture series "Scientific and application-oriented perspectives on structural change and transformation" in the winter semester 2025/26.
The lectures are in German language and open to the public and can be followed via Webex. The series is being organised by Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg, RWTH Aachen University, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR) in Cottbus - and, for the first time, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU). Professor Matthias Naumann, the new head of the JMU Chair of Human Geography, will be moderating some of the lectures and will be involved in the introduction on Tuesday, 14 October 2025.
The lectures (in German language) run on Tuesdays from 16:30 to 18:00. The online access data for Webex:
ID number: 2734 240 6184
Password: P5Gw3A5ZrhU
Dates and topics
21 October 2025
Lignite mining regions: from fossil to renewable energy regions. Antonia Milbert (Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development, Cottbus)
28 October 2025
Flood risk management in the Rhenish mining area. Prof Dr Stefan Greiving (TU Dortmund University)
4 November 2025
Water scarcity and lignite phase-out: Conflicts over future visions of transformation. Prof Dr Gala Nettelbladt (HafenCity University/ Bauhaus University Weimar)
11 November 2025
Lifeworld, aesthetic and labour-ecological aspects of the chemical industry using the example of the "Bitterfeld bubble". Dr Alexander Klose, Daniel Wolter PhD, Jürgen Viet Anh Höpfel, Sophie Altmiks (Just Transition Center, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg)
18 November 2025
Water, structural change and embodied knowledge in the Mansfeld region. Dr Mareike Pampus and Felix Kolb (Agency for Awakening, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg)
25 November 2025
Subterranean transformations in southern Saxony-Anhalt: The (post-)industrial subsurface as a hydropolitical space. Dr Larissa Fleischmann, Julia Ostertag (Just Transition Center, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg)
2 December 2025
Geographies of the water transition: Spatially unequal reorganisations of water supply in the climate crisis around the Frankfurt/RhineMain metropolis. Prof Dr Tino Petzold (University of Münster)
9 December 2025
Requirements of the Federal Spatial Development Plan for flood protection in state and regional planning. Dr Klaus Einig (Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development, Bonn)
16 December 2025
How will water change with the end of opencast lignite mining in the Rhenish mining area? Prof Dr Holger Schüttrumpf (RWTH Aachen University)
6 January 2026
Water-Energy-Nexus - Wastewater treatment plants as net energy feeders? Dr Maximilian Born (RWTH Aachen University)
13 January 2026
The transformation of households at the interface of energy and data economies Prof Dr Harald Rohracher (Linköping University)
20 January 2026
Make Ma Watt! Shaping the energy transition with civic participation. Dr Daniela Karow-Kluge, Oliver Pohl (RWTH Aachen University), Sebastian Zoepp (Spreeakademie)
