Prof. Dr.  Harald Kunstmann

Prof. Dr. Harald Kunstmann

  • Kreuzeckbahnstr. 19
    82467 Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Deputy Director of KIT-Campus Alpin, Full Professor (W3)
Chair for Regional Climate and Hydrology at University of Augsburg in joint appointment with KIT

University of Augsburg

Publications

Fields of Research

  • Impact of regional climate and land use change on terrestrial hydrology
  • Dynamical and statistical downscaling of meteorological fields
  • Fully coupled regional atmospheric and hydrological modeling
  • Modeling and observation of joint water- and energy fluxes
  • Use of commercial microwave links (CMLs) for precipitation quantification
  • Geostatistical merging of hydrometeorological variables
  • Seasonal predictions

Community Services

  • 2017 - 2021 President International Commission of the Coupled Land Atmosphere System (ICCLAS) of the International Association of the Hydrological Sciences (IAHS)
  • Convener and co-convener at EGU and IAHS conferences
  • Scientific Steering Committee HGF-TERENO (Terrestrial Environmental Observatories)
  • 2009-2015: Associate Editor Journal of Hydrology
  • 2020-2021: Guest Editor Hydrological Processes, special issue Coupled atmosphere-hydrological processes: novel system developments and cross-compartment evaluations
  • Alexander von Humboldt - Stiftung: Selection Committee Internationales Klimaschutzstipendienprogram

Awards and Honors

  • Kavli Frontier of Science Fellow, 2014
  • Keynote Speech, United Nations Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation UNSGAB+5 Conference, 12.2.2021
  • Water Resources Prize, Rüdiger Kurt-Bode Foundation – Stifterverband, 2021

Curriculum Vitae

Since 2021 Founding Director, Center for Climate Resilience, University of Augsburg
09/2018-01/2019  Honorary Research Associate, Environmental Change Institute, School Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford
Since 2015 Deputy Director of KIT-Campus Alpin
Since 2009    Full Professorship (W3) and Chair for Regional Climate and Hydrology at University of Augsburg in joint appointment with KIT-Campus Campus Alpin, Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Since 2004 Head of Department Regional Climate Systems at KIT-Campus Campus Alpin
Since 2001 Head of Research Group Regional Climate and Hydrology at KIT-Campus Alpin
Since 1999  Scientist at Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research (KIT-Campus Alpin)
1996, 1998 Guest scientist at Institute of Groundwater Studies, Bloemfontein, University of the Free State, South Africa
1998 Postgraduate Course Developing Countries, ETH Zurich (Certificate)
1995-1998  Dissertation in Environmental Natural Sciences, ETH Zurich (PhD)
1989-1994 Study of Physics in Marburg, Virginia/USA and Heidelberg (Diploma)

Selected Publications

Chwala, C. and Kunstmann, H. (2019) Commercial microwave link networks for rainfall observation: Assessment of the current status and future challenges, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water, Volume 6, Issue 2, doi: 10.1002/wat2.1337

Kunstmann, H., Stadler, C. (2005) High resolution distributed atmospheric-hydrologic modeling for Alpine catchments, Journal of Hydrology, 314, pp. 105-124

Lorenz, C. and Kunstmann, H. (2012) The Hydrological Cycle in Three State of the Art Reanalyses: Intercomparison and Performance Analysis. Journal of Hydrometeorology, doi:10.1175/JHM-D-11-088.1

Lorenz. C., Portele, T., Laux, P., Kunstmann, H. (2020) Bias-corrected and spatially disaggregated seasonal forecasts: a long-term reference forecast product for the water sector in semi-arid regions, Earth System Science Data, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2020-177

Sylla, M. B., Pal, J. S., Faye, A., Kangbeni, D., Kunstmann, H. (2018) Climate change to severely impact West African basin scale irrigation in 2 °C and 1.5 °C global warming scenarios, Nature Scientific Reports, Volume: 8, Issue: 1, Pages: 14395, doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-32736-0