Helmut Habersack

Helmut Habersack researches processes in rivers worldwide. Habersack heads the Institute for Hydraulic Engineering, Hydraulics and River Research at Boku Vienna and holds the UNESCO Chair for River Research. It is thanks to his initiative that a globally unique research environment will open at Brigittenauer Sporn in Vienna in 2024. At the heart of the hydraulic engineering laboratory is a channel that can carry 10,000 litres of water from the Danube per second, enabling model experiments on a scale of up to 1:1. Habersack is also the initiator of the World’s Large Rivers initiative – a global framework for researching the condition and future of the 300 largest rivers on Earth – and president of the UNESCO National Committee for Geo/Hydro Sciences at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW).