Dr. Thomas Kalbacher
Stellvertretender Departmentleiter und Arbeitsgruppenleiter Hydroinformatik
Department Umweltinformatik
Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung - UFZ
Permoserstr. 15
04318 Leipzig, Germany
Tel. +49 341 6025 - 1093
Research Interests
I am interested in the development of OpenGeoSys (OGS) software and related analysis tools to study the sustainable use and protection of natural groundwater systems and their quantitative and qualitative impact on surface waters.
Earth Science - Hydrogeology
Our soils and the underlying rocks have many functions. Humus, mineral soil and rock, i.e. the upper layers, protect the groundwater from substances of all kinds, filter it and thus keep it clean.But also the deeper rock layers that are home to our aquifers sustainably purify our groundwater, which then feeds our lakes and rivers again or serves us directly as drinking water resources. The shallow and deep underground is habitat, water reservoir, water filter and basis for our nutrition. But, like everywhere else in life, use and protection are often in conflict with each other and in face of climate change it will require adaptation in almost all sectors of water management (TiM4Water: Transitions in Water Management). Therefore, it is important to create robust future projections (IP RobustPics) to preserve the multi-functionality of our landscapes so that the right conclusions can be drawn and adjustments made.
Computer Science - Simulator & Workflows
In the age of digitization, near real world models, so called digital twins, could help to tackle the above tasks. Nowadays, we have the technical capabilities and IT infrastructures with modern high-performance computers that allow us to study much larger and much more complex systems. Furthermore, the integration of spatially and temporally high-resolution observation data from technically new and advanced monitoring stations and airborne / satellite observations in such models, brings great opportunities but also great scientific and technical challenges for model-driven system and scenario analyses. This applies to data collection, data integration, and data processing, as well as to model simulations and result evaluation (e.g. uncertainty analyses). The digital workflows, data pipelines and simulators for these tasks are complex and time-consuming, and must therefore be developed in a goal-oriented manner, but should also be fundamentally object-oriented , to provide sustainably extendable and maintainable system analysis tools.
HYDROINFORMATICS
In the working group Hydroinformatics, we develop such software solutions, currently for regional groundwater quantity modelling (LandTrans), in cooperation with the working group Research Software Engineering and Visualization.
Publications: [arranged in alphabetical order]
- Bilke, L., Flemisch, B., Kalbacher, T., Kolditz, O., Helmig, R., Nagel, T. (2019):
Development of open-source porous media simulators: principles and experiences
Transp. Porous Media 130 (1), 337 - 361 10.1007/s11242-019-01310-1 - Boog, J., Kalbacher, T. (2021):
Point to space: Data-driven soil moisture spatial mapping using machine-learning for small catchments in Western Germany
EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021
EGUsphere
Copernicus Publications, EGU21-16308 10.5194/egusphere-egu21-16308 - Boog, J., Kalbacher, T., Nivala, J., Forquet, N., van Afferden, M., Müller, R.A. (2019):
Modeling the relationship of aeration, oxygen transfer and treatment performance in aerated horizontal flow treatment wetlands
Water Res. 157 , 321 - 334 10.1016/j.watres.2019.03.062 - Boog, J., Kalbacher, T., Nivala, J., van Afferden, M. (2020):
Reactive transport modeling of an innovative nature-based solution for domestic sewage treatment
EGU General Assembly, EGU 2020, Online, 4-8 May 2020
EGUsphere
Copernicus Publications, EGU2020-22563 10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-22563 - Boog, J., Kalbacher, T., Nivala, J., van Afferden, M., Müller, R.A. (2019):
Modeling dynamics of organic carbon and nitrogen removal during aeration interruption in aerated horizontal flow treatment wetlands
Water Sci. Technol. 80 (3), 597 - 606 10.2166/wst.2019.304 - Boog, J., Nivala, J., Kalbacher, T., van Afferden, M., Müller, R.A. (2020):
Do wastewater pollutants impact oxygen transfer in aerated horizontal flow wetlands?
Chem. Eng. J. 383 , art. 123173 10.1016/j.cej.2019.123173 - Bouwer, L.M., Rechid, D., Fritzsch, B., Henkel, D., Kalbacher, T., Köckeritz, W., Ruhnke, R. (2022):
Evaluating the success of the Digital Earth project
In: Bouwer, L.M., Dransch, D., Ruhnke, R., Rechid, D., Frickenhaus, S., Greinert, J. (eds.)
Integrating data science and earth science. Challenges and solutions
SpringerBriefs in Earth System Sciences
Springer International Publishing, Cham, p. 131 - 143 10.1007/978-3-030-99546-1_8 - Chen, C., Sawarieh, A., Kalbacher, T., Beinhorn, M., Wang, W., Kolditz, O. (2005):
A GIS based 3-D hydrosystem model application of the Zarqa Ma'in-Jiza areas in Central Jordan
Journal of Environmental Hydrology 13 , paper 4 - Delfs, J.-O., Singh, A.K., Kalbacher, T., Wang, W., Kolditz, O. (2013):
Simultaneous flow of water and air across the land surface during runoff
In: Idelsohn, S., Papadrakakis, M., Schrefler, B. (eds.)
Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Computational Methods for Coupled Problems in Science and Engineering - COUPLED PROBLEMS 2013
CIMNE, Barcelona, p. 949 - 956 - Delfs, J.-O., Wang, W., Kalbacher, T., Singh, A.K., Kolditz, O. (2013):
A coupled surface/subsurface flow model accounting for air entrapment and air pressure counterflow
Environ. Earth Sci. 69 (2), 395 - 414 10.1007/s12665-013-2420-1 - Dransch, D., Eggert, D., Abraham, N., Bouwer, L.M., Brix, H., Callies, U., Kalbacher, T., Lüdtke, S., Merz, B., Nam, C., Nixdorf, E., Rabe, D., Rechid, D., Schröter, K., Tiedje, B., Wendi, D., Wichert, V. (2022):
Data analysis and exploration with scientific workflows
In: Bouwer, L.M., Dransch, D., Ruhnke, R., Rechid, D., Frickenhaus, S., Greinert, J. (eds.)
Integrating data science and earth science. Challenges and solutions
SpringerBriefs in Earth System Sciences
Springer International Publishing, Cham, p. 55 - 84 10.1007/978-3-030-99546-1_5 - Grathwohl, P., Rügner, H., Wöhling, T., Osenbrück, K., Schwientek, M., Gayler, S., Wollschläger, U., Selle, B., Pause, M., Delfs, J.-O., Grzeschik, M., Weller, U., Ivanov, M., Cirpka, O.A., Maier, U., Kuch, B., Nowak, W., Wulfmeyer, V., Warrach-Sagi, K., Streck, T., Attinger, S., Bilke, L., Dietrich, P., Fleckenstein, J.H., Kalbacher, T., Kolditz, O., Rink, K., Samaniego, L., Vogel, H.-J., Werban, U., Teutsch, G. (2013):
Catchments as reactors: a comprehensive approach for water fluxes and solute turnover
Environ. Earth Sci. 69 (2), 317 - 333 10.1007/s12665-013-2281-7 - Harken, B., Chang, C.-F., Dietrich, P., Kalbacher, T., Rubin, Y. (2019):
Hydrogeological modeling and water resources management: Improving the link between data, prediction, and decision making
Water Resour. Res. 55 (12), 10340 - 10357 10.1029/2019WR025227 - He, W., Beyer, C., Fleckenstein, J.H., Jang, E., Kalbacher, T., Naumov, D., Shao, H., Wang, W., Kolditz, O. (2015):
Reactive transport modeling in the subsurface environment with OGS-IPhreeqc
EGU General Assembly 2015, Vienna, Austria, 12–17 April 2015
Geophysical Research Abstracts 17
European Geosciences Union (EGU), EGU2015-9785 - He, W., Beyer, C., Fleckenstein, J.H., Jang, E., Kolditz, O., Naumov, D., Kalbacher, T. (2015):
A parallelization scheme to simulate reactive transport in the subsurface environment with OGS#IPhreeqc 5.5.7-3.1.2
Geosci. Model Dev. 8 (10), 3333 - 3348 10.5194/gmd-8-3333-2015 - He, W., Poonoosamy, J., Kosakowski, G., Van Loon, L.R., Mäder, U., Kalbacher, T. (2016):
Reactive transport
In: Kolditz, O., Görke, U.-J., Shao, H., Wang, W., Bauer, S. (eds.)
Thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical processes in fractured porous media: Modelling and benchmarking. Benchmarking initiatives
Terrestrial Environmental Sciences
Springer Nature, Cham, p. 179 - 197 10.1007/978-3-319-29224-3_10 - He, W., Shao, H., Kolditz, O., Wang, W., Kalbacher, T. (2015):
Comments on "A mass conservative switching algorithm for modeling fluid flow in variably saturated porous media, K. Sadegh Zadeh, Journal of Computational Physics, 230 (2011)"
J. Comput. Phys. 295 , 815 - 820 10.1016/j.jcp.2015.04.019 - Houben, T., Di-Dato, M., Siebert, C., Kalbacher, T., Fischer, T., Attinger, S. (2023):
Spectral analysis of groundwater level time series reveals hydrogeological parameters
EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 24–28 Apr 2023
EGUsphere
Copernicus Publications, EGU23-5635 10.5194/egusphere-egu23-5635 - Houben, T., Pujades, E., Kalbacher, T., Dietrich, P., Attinger, S. (2022):
From dynamic groundwater level measurements to regional aquifer parameters – Assessing the power of spectral analysis
Water Resour. Res. 58 (5), e2021WR031289 10.1029/2021WR031289 - Jang, E., Boog, J., He, W., Kalbacher, T. (2018):
OpenGeoSys Tutorial. Computational hydrology III: OGS#IPhreeqc coupled reactive transport modeling
SpringerBriefs in Earth System Sciences
Springer International Publishing, Cham, 103 pp. 10.1007/978-3-319-67153-6 - Jang, E., He, W., Savoy, H., Dietrich, P., Kolditz, O., Rubin, Y., Schüth, C., Kalbacher, T. (2017):
Identifying the influential aquifer heterogeneity factor on nitrate reduction processes by numerical simulation
Adv. Water Resour. 99 , 38 - 52 10.1016/j.advwatres.2016.11.007 - Jang, E., Kalbacher, T. (2018):
File description
In: Jang, E., Boog, J., He, W., Kalbacher, T. (eds.)
OpenGeoSys Tutorial. Computational hydrology III: OGS#IPhreeqc coupled reactive transport modeling
SpringerBriefs in Earth System Sciences
Springer International Publishing, Cham, p. 25 - 29 10.1007/978-3-319-67153-6_4 - Javed, R.A., Houben, T., Kalbacher, T., Attinger, S. (2023):
Investigating the spectral analysis of groundwater level fluctuations in a numerical model of the upper Danube catchment in Germany
EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 24–28 Apr 2023
EGUsphere
Copernicus Publications, EGU23-10001 10.5194/egusphere-egu23-10001 - Jing, M., Heße, F., Kumar, R., Kolditz, O., Kalbacher, T., Attinger, S. (2019):
Influence of input and parameter uncertainty on the prediction of catchment-scale groundwater travel time distributions
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 23 (1), 171 - 190 10.5194/hess-23-171-2019 - Kalbacher, T., Chen, X., Dai, Y., Hesser, J., Wang, X., Wang, W. (2015):
Richards flow
In: Kolditz, O., Shao, H., Wang, W., Bauer, S. (eds.)
Thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical processes in fractured porous media: Modelling and benchmarking. Closed-form solutions
Terrestrial Environmental Sciences
Springer Nature, Cham, p. 121 - 130 10.1007/978-3-319-11894-9_4 - Kalbacher, T., Delfs, J.-O., Shao, H., Wang, W., Walther, M., Samaniego, L., Schneider, C., Kumar, R., Musolff, A., Centler, F., Sun, F., Hildebrandt, A., Liedl, R., Borchardt, D., Krebs, P., Kolditz, O. (2012):
The IWAS-ToolBox: software coupling for an integrated water resources management
Environ. Earth Sci. 65 (5), 1367 - 1380 10.1007/s12665-011-1270-y - Kalbacher, T. (2018):
Introduction
In: Jang, E., Boog, J., He, W., Kalbacher, T. (eds.)
OpenGeoSys Tutorial. Computational hydrology III: OGS#IPhreeqc coupled reactive transport modeling
SpringerBriefs in Earth System Sciences
Springer International Publishing, Cham, p. 1 - 6 10.1007/978-3-319-67153-6_1 - Kalbacher, T., Mettier, R., McDermott, C., Wang, W., Kosakowski, G., Taniguchi, T., Kolditz, O. (2007):
Geometric modelling and object-oriented software concepts applied to a heterogeneous fractured network from the Grimsel rock laboratory
Comput. Geosci. 11 (1), 9 - 26 10.1007/s10596-006-9032-8 - Kalbacher, T., Schneider, C.L., Wang, W., Hildebrandt, A., Attinger, S., Kolditz, O. (2011):
Modeling soil-coupled water uptake of multiple root systems with automatic time stepping
Vadose Zone J. 10 (2), 727 - 735 10.2136/vzj2010.0099 - Kalbacher, T., Schneider, C.L., Wang, W., Hildebrandt, A., Attinger, S., Kolditz, O. (2010):
Computational efficient modelling of soil-coupled 3D root water uptake for multiple root systems
In: Carrera, J., Sánchez-Vila, X., Fernández-García, D., Bolster, D. (eds.)
Proceedings of the XVIII International Conference on Computational Methods in Water Resources (CMWR 2010), June 21 to 24, 2010, Barcelona, Spain
CIMNE, Barcelona, p. 1261 - 1268 - Kalbacher, T., Walther, M., Wang, W. (2015):
Appendix B: Coupled hydrosystems. OGS#mHM
In: Sachse, A., Rink, K., He, W., Kolditz, O. (eds.)
OpenGeoSys-Tutorial. Computational hydrology I: groundwater flow modeling
SpringerBriefs in Earth System Sciences
Springer International Publishing, Cham, p. 100 - 101 10.1007/978-3-319-13335-5 - Kalbacher, T., Wang, W., McDermott, C., Kolditz, O., Taniguchi, T. (2005):
Development and application of a CAD interface for fractured rock
Environ. Geol. 47 (7), 1017 - 1027 10.1007/s00254-005-1236-z - Kalbacher, T., Wang, W., Watanabe, N., Park, C.-H., Taniguchi, T., Kolditz, O. (2008):
Parallelization concepts and applications for THM coupled finite element problems
Journal of Environmental Science for Sustainable Society 2 , 35 - 46 10.3107/jesss.2.35 - Kalbus, E., Kalbacher, T., Kolditz, O., Krüger, E., Seegert, J., Röstel, G., Teutsch, G., Borchardt, D., Krebs, P. (2012):
Integrated Water Resources Management under different hydrological, climatic and socio-economic conditions
Environ. Earth Sci. 65 (5), 1363 - 1366 10.1007/s12665-011-1330-3 - Koedel, U., Dietrich, P., Fischer, P., Greinert, J., Bundke, U., Burwicz-Galerne, E., Haas, A., Herrarte, I., Haroon, A., Jegen, M., Kalbacher, T., Kennert, M., Korf, T., Kunkel, R., Kwok, C.Y., Mahnke, C., Nixdorf, E., Paasche, H., González Ávalos, E., Petzold, A., Rohs, S., Wagner, R., Walter, A. (2022):
The Digital Earth SMART monitoring concept and tools
In: Bouwer, L.M., Dransch, D., Ruhnke, R., Rechid, D., Frickenhaus, S., Greinert, J. (eds.)
Integrating data science and earth science. Challenges and solutions
SpringerBriefs in Earth System Sciences
Springer International Publishing, Cham, p. 85 - 120 10.1007/978-3-030-99546-1_6 - Koedel, U., Schuetze, C., Fischer, F.P., Bussmann, I., Sauer, P.K., Nixdorf, E., Kalbacher, T., Wiechert, V., Rechid, D., Bouwer, L.M., Dietrich, P. (2022):
Challenges in the evaluation of observational data trustworthiness from a data producers viewpoint (FAIR+)
Front. Environ. Sci. 9 , art. 772666 10.3389/fenvs.2021.772666 - Kolditz, O., Bauer, S., Beyer, C., Böttcher, N., Dietrich, P., Görke, U.-J., Kalbacher, T., Park, C.-H., Sauer, U., Schütze, C., Shao, H., Singh, A., Taron, J., Wang, W., Watanabe, N. (2012):
A systematic benchmarking approach for geologic CO2 injection and storage
Environ. Earth Sci. 67 (2), 613 - 632 10.1007/s12665-012-1656-5 - Kolditz, O., Bauer, S., Bilke, L., Böttcher, N., Delfs, J.O., Fischer, T., Görke, U.J., Kalbacher, T., Kosakowski, G., McDermott, C.I., Park, C.H., Radu, F., Rink, K., Shao, H., Shao, H.B., Sun, F., Sun, Y.Y., Singh, A.K., Taron, J., Walther, M., Wang, W., Watanabe, N., Wu, Y., Xie, M., Xu, W., Zehner, B. (2012):
OpenGeoSys: an open-source initiative for numerical simulation of thermo-hydro-mechanical/chemical (THM/C) processes in porous media
Environ. Earth Sci. 67 (2), 589 - 599 10.1007/s12665-012-1546-x - Kolditz, O., Kalbacher, T., Wang, W. (2010):
Programm- und Softwareentwicklung für die Grundwassermodellierung
Grundwasser 15 (3), 145 - 145 10.1007/s00767-010-0147-4 - Kolditz, O., Rink, K., Shao, H., Kalbacher, T., Kunkel, R., Zacharias, S., Dietrich, P. (2012):
Erratum to: International viewpoint and news: data and modelling platforms in environmental Earth sciences
Environ. Earth Sci. 67 (6), 1859 10.1007/s12665-012-1961-z - Kolditz, O., Rink, K., Shao, H., Kalbacher, T., Zacharias, S., Dietrich, P. (2012):
International viewpoint and news
Environ. Earth Sci. 66 (4), 1279 - 1284 10.1007/s12665-012-1661-8 - Miles, B., Kalbacher, T., Kolditz, O., Chen, C., Gronewold, J., Wang, W., Peter, A. (2007):
Development and parameterisation of a complex hydrogeological model based on high-resolution direct-push data
Environ. Geol. 52 (7), 1399 - 1412 10.1007/s00254-006-0582-9 - Nixdorf, E., Eggert, D., Morstein, P., Kalbacher, T., Dransch, D. (2022):
Tocap: a web tool for ad-hoc campaign planning in terrestrial hydrology
J. Hydroinform. 24 (2), 274 - 294 10.2166/hydro.2022.057 - Pujades, E., Kumar, R., Houben, T., Jing, M., Rakovec, O.R., Kalbacher, T., Attinger, S. (2023):
Towards the construction of representative regional hydro(geo)logical numerical models: Modelling the Upper Danube basin as a starting point
Front. Earth Sci. 11 , art. 1061420 10.3389/feart.2023.1061420 - Rink, K., Şen, Ö.O., Hannemann, M., Ködel, U., Nixdorf, E., Weber, U., Werban, U., Schrön, M., Kalbacher, T., Kolditz, O. (2022):
An environmental exploration system for visual scenario analysis of regional hydro-meteorological systems
Comput. Graph. 103 , 192 - 200 10.1016/j.cag.2022.02.009 - Rink, K., Şen, Ö.O., Hannemann, M., Ködel, U., Nixdorf, E., Weber, U., Werban, U., Schrön, M., Kalbacher, T., Kolditz, O. (2021):
A virtual geographic environment for the exploration of hydro-meteorological extremes
In: Dutta, S., Feige, K., Rink, K., Zeckzer, D. (eds.)
Workshop on Visualisation in Environmental Sciences (EnvirVis)
The Eurographics Association, Geneva, p. 51 - 59 10.2312/envirvis.20211084 - Rink, K., Kalbacher, T., Kolditz, O. (2012):
Visual data eploration for hydrological analysis
Environ. Earth Sci. 65 (5), 1395 - 1403 10.1007/s12665-011-1230-6 - Savoy, H., Kalbacher, T., Dietrich, P., Rubin, Y. (2017):
Geological heterogeneity: Goal-oriented simplification of structure and characterization needs
Adv. Water Resour. 109 , 1 - 13 10.1016/j.advwatres.2017.08.017 - Schad, P., Boog, J., Kalbacher, T. (2023):
r2ogs5: Calibration of numerical groundwater flow models with Bayesian optimization in R
Groundwater 61 (1), 119 - 130 10.1111/gwat.13221 - Seegert, J., Berendonk, T.U., Bernhofer, C., Blumensaat, F., Dombrowsky, I., Fuehner, C., Grundmann, J., Hagemann, N., Kalbacher, T., Kopinke, F.-D., Liedl, R., Leidel, M., Lorz, C., Makeschin, F., Markova, D., Niemann, S., Röstel, G., Schanze, J., Scheifhacken, N., Schuetze, N., Siebert, C., Stefan, C., Strehlitz, B., Teutsch, G., Weigelt, C., Weiß, H., Kolditz, O., Borchardt, D., Krebs, P. (2014):
Integrated water resources management under different hydrological, climatic and socio-economic conditions: results and lessons learned from a transdisciplinary IWRM project IWAS
Environ. Earth Sci. 72 (12), 4677 - 4688 10.1007/s12665-014-3877-2 - Siebert, C., Rödiger, T., Houben, T., diDato, M., Fischer, T., Attinger, S., Kalbacher, T. (2024):
A recipe to generate sustainably maintainable and extensible hydrogeological datasets to prepare large-scale groundwater models for multiple aquifer systems
Comput. Geosci. 28 (6), 1217 - 1232 10.1007/s10596-024-10315-9 - Singh, A.K., Pilz, P., Zimmer, M., Kalbacher, T., Görke, U.-J., Kolditz, O. (2012):
Numerical simulation of tracer transport in the Altmark gas field
Environ. Earth Sci. 67 (2), 537 - 548 10.1007/s12665-012-1688-x - Steefel, C.I., Appelo, C.A.J., Arora, B., Jacques, D., Kalbacher, T., Kolditz, O., Lagneau, V., Lichtner, P.C., Mayer, K.U., Meeussen, J.C.L., Molins, S., Moulton, D., Shao, H., Šimůnek, J., Spycher, N., Yabusaki, S.B., Yeh, G.T. (2015):
Reactive transport codes for subsurface environmental simulation
Comput. Geosci. 19 (3), 445 - 478 10.1007/s10596-014-9443-x - Sun, F., Shao, H., Kalbacher, T., Wang, W., Yang, Z., Huang, Z., Kolditz, O. (2011):
Groundwater drawdown at Nankou site of Beijing Plain: model development and calibration
Environ. Earth Sci. 64 (5), 1323 - 1333 10.1007/s12665-011-0957-4 - Zehner, B., Bilke, L., Kalbacher, T., Kalbus, E., Rink, K., Rausch, R., Kolditz, O. (2012):
Mixed 2D/3D visualization of a large scale groundwater study in a virtual reality centre
In: Oswald, S.E., Kolditz, O., Attinger, S. (eds.)
Models - repositories of knowledge : proceedings of ModelCARE2011 held in Leipzig, Germany, September 2011
IAHS Publ. 355
International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS), Wallingford, Oxfordshire, p. 127 - 132 - Zschornack, L., Kalbacher, T., Dietrich, P. (2017):
Assessment of aquifer connectivity using oscillatory hydraulic aquifer tests
In: Liedl, R., Dietrich, P., Butler jr., J.J. (eds.)
Novel Methods for Subsurface Characterization and Monitoring: From Theory to Practice. NovCare 2017. International Conference, June 06-09, 2017, Dresden
Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, p. 83