Prof. Dr. Lucas Menzel

Lucas Menzel first studied geology at the University of Würzburg (Germany). He graduated with a diploma (equivalent to a M.Sc.) in geography/hydrology from the University of Freiburg, Germany, and the Ph.D. degree from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, Switzerland (in 1996). His Ph.D. thesis is on the simulation of evapotranspiration at the soil-vegetation-atmosphere interface. He then continued his work at ETH as a postdoctoral researcher, where he worked on the water and energy balance of a high mountain valley and was instrumental in the creation of the evaporation map for the Hydrological Atlas of Switzerland. He then joined the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). During this time, he devoted himself intensively to hydrological modelling, especially the simulation of floods under different climatic boundary conditions and under consideration of climate change. During this time, he also led a project to quantify the water resources of the Middle East under changing climatic conditions. After working at PIK for several years, he was with the University of Kassel, where he was an Assistant Professor with the Center for Environmental Systems Research (CESR), leading the further development of the global water model WaterGAP. Since 2009, he has been Full Professor in Hydrology and Climatology with Heidelberg University, Germany. In Heidelberg, he works on numerous projects dealing with the measurement and simulation of the water balance and its components in different ecotones and climatic zones of the earth.

Research interests

• Development and application of hydrological models based on own field experiments and using different data products, e.g. from reanalysis and remote sensing
• Measurement and simulation of the water balance of various land surfaces, with a focus on evapotranspiration, energy balance, soil moisture, and groundwater recharge
• Quantification of the impact of environmental change (land use and climate change) on hydrologic dynamics and water resources
• Drought (hydrological extremes and compounding events): Climatological characterization of droughts and analysis of their impact on hydrological dynamics, in combination with heat waves
• Snow hydrology: linking information from different sources to characterize snowpack changes and their effects on hydrology
• Permafrost hydrology, with a geographic focus on Mongolia (own field experiments) and southern Siberia (data assimilation and simulation)
• Hydro-Climatology of the Middle East, especially issues related to water balance, water scarcity and its long-term changes due to land use and climate change.

Publications

• Google Scholar
• ResearchGate
• ORCID
• ResearcherID
• Scopus

Gremienarbeit, Auslandsaufenthalte, Würdigungen

• 2020-2022: Managing Director, Institute of Geography, Heidelberg University
• 2018: Founder of the conference series SnowHydro – International Conference on Snow Hydrology
• 2017: Research Fellow with the University of Waterloo, Canada (Department of Geography and Environmental Management)
• 2014-2017: Member of the presiding board, German Hydrological Society (DHG)
• 2012-2017: Dean of Studies, Faculty of Chemistry and Geosciences, Heidelberg University
• 2011-2013: Member of the scientific advisory board, IHP/HWRP national committee
• 2013: Certificate of honour from the Mongolian Government for nature and environmental protection
• 2011: Founding member, Heidelberg Centre for the Environment (HCE)
• 2022 –: Review Editor, Frontiers in Earth Science, Cryosphere
• 2020 –: Springer Nature Applied Sciences: Member of the Editorial Board (Earth and Environmental Sciences)
• 2005 –: Associate Editor, Hydrologie und Wasserbewirtschaftung (HyWa)

University teaching

I regularly offer lectures (V) and seminars (S) at Heidelberg University on the following topics (courses offered mostly in German):

• Hydrology / Hydrogeography (V)
• Climatology (V)
• Regional Hydrology (V)
• Methods of Hydrology and Climatology (S)
• Mathematical modelling of natural systems (S)
• Research seminar in hydrology and climatology (S)
• Southwest Germany (V)
• Alps (S)
• Mediterranean (S)
• Central Asia (S)
• Boreal Forests (S)

Field trips and field internships:

• Fieldwork in Hydrology and Climatology
• Fieldwork in Snow Hydrology and Climatology
• Field trips, mostly in the region of southwest Germany