Master's Thesis
Master's Thesis
Students can find on this page a general overview on preparing a Master's Thesis in the Chairs of Urban Water Management at ETH Zurich: information about the formal requirements, the duration, the assessment procedures and the criteria by which the practical work, the report, the final presentation and the poster will be evaluated and graded. They can also find a list of currently offered topics.
Supervisors can find on this page information on the requirements the students have to fulfil to complete a Master's Thesis in the Chairs of Urban Water Management at ETH Zurich, organizational and didactical information and the templates for the proposal of new Master's Thesis topics.
Information for Students
Are you interested in starting a thesis with the Chairs of Urban Water Management? Please refer to the Checklist for Students and Guidance document provided below. Communicate your intention to the responsible teaching coordinator and contact them for additional information.
Information for Supervisors
Would you like to supervise a thesis for the Chairs of Urban Water Management? Please refer to the Checklist for Supervisors and Guidance document provided below. Use the Thesis project call template to submit a topic to the responsible teaching coordinator. A professor will have to approve the topic before it is uploaded on this page.
Additionally, you are welcome to send us a short slide deck about your proposed topic(s). Our professors can then publicize your thesis topic during their lectures.
Contact
For inquiries or to submit a proposal, please check the Teaching Coordinators webpage and contact the coordinator responsible for Master's Theses.
Currently offered topics
Below you can see the topics currently offered by EAWAG researchers and private partners. If you are interested in one of the offered topics, contact the person indicated. Once you agree you will do your Master's Thesis with them, contact the responsible teaching coordinator to obtain the documentation form.
You can also independently find a supervisor to develop your own topic. In this case, inform from the beginning the responsible teaching coordinator and a potential supervising professor of your intention. Also, pay attention, the professor must agree to a certain topic being the subject of a Master's Thesis. Not all projects are suitable to become Master's Theses. The topics selected below have already received the approval of a professor.
The master thesis aims to explore the settling behaviors of Densified Activated Sludge (DAS) and identify ideal compositions for enhanced sedimentation. Many municipal wastewater treatment plants are facing challenges due to population growth, stringent nutrient removal requirements, and the need for energy neutrality. DAS, a hybrid system of flocs and dense granules, offers potential advantages over conventional methods. The thesis objectives include investigating the settling regimes and properties of DAS, understanding the impact of DAS compositions on settling behaviors, and exploring the stratification of DAS during settling and feeding phases. The research will involve collecting DAS samples from various WWTPs in Switzerland and employing experimental methods to characterize their settling properties. Download Read More (PDF, 605 KB)
Contact: Mengqi Zhu ()
The master thesis focuses on the practical implementation of Densified Activated Sludge (DAS) in sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) under various scenarios. Many municipal wastewater treatment plants are facing challenges due to population growth, stringent nutrient removal requirements, and the need for energy neutrality. DAS, a hybrid system of flocs and dense granules, offers potential advantages over conventional methods. The thesis aims to investigate the feasibility of sludge densification under different treatment schemes and operational conditions, and to understand the impact of microbial selection on the process. The research will involve experiments using SBR reactors with real municipal wastewater to characterize DAS properties and performance.
Download Read More (PDF, 504 KB)
Contact: Mengqi Zhu ()
Microplastic (MP) contents in surface waters are mostly determined based on sampling campaigns using mantra nets with a mesh size of 330 µm. Thus, only MPs > 330 µm are collected. However, an increasing number of MPs with decreasing particle size is expected and MPs in the lower size ranges are more likely taken up by biota. Thus, alternative sampling approaches, which allow collecting smaller MPs are urgently needed. Grab sampling and pressure filtration, two alternative sampling approaches, only allow processing limited water volumes and thus, results from such studies may lack representativeness. The drum sieve technology allows processing large water volumes and thereby offers an interesting alternative for collecting MPs from surface waters. In this study, the performance of a drum sieve, which was designed at Eawag, will be assessed. In a first step, ... Download Read More (PDF, 254 KB)
Contact: Guillaume Crosset-Perrotin ()
The project focuses on the increasing urban heat due to urbanization and climate change, which impacts human well-being. It emphasizes the need for microclimate modeling to optimize urban designs for cooling. The thesis investigates the effectiveness of Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI), such as green roofs and bioretention basins, in mitigating urban heat through shading, evapotranspiration, and albedo enhancement. Using the Urban Tethys-Chloris (UT&C) model, the study will simulate urban microclimates, incorporating eco-hydrology and vegetation impacts. The case study in Fehraltorf, Switzerland, aims to explore how climate change affects urban canyons, the potential of BGI to mitigate temperature increases, and the critical vegetation characteristics for effective heat mitigation. Download Read More (PDF, 298 KB)
Contact: Lauren Cook ()
Urban drainage models require high-resolution rainfall time series, traditionally sourced from local weather stations. However, climate change introduces shifts in rainfall patterns, such as extreme rainfall events and prolonged dry spells, rendering observed data inadequate for future urban drainage planning. While climate model outputs provide insight into these trends, their spatial and temporal scales, as well as biases, make them unsuitable for direct use. Recent advancements in convection-permitting models now offer high-resolution outputs that can better represent extreme rainfall events, but these outputs need further testing for practical applications.
This thesis aims to generate high-resolution rainfall time series using convection-permitting model outputs and validate their use in urban drainage modeling. Two approaches will be explored: applying a stochastic weather generator to create synthetic rainfall and using empirical quantile mapping for bias correction and downscaling. By testing and potentially combining these methods, the thesis seeks to identify the most effective approach for urban drainage applications. Download Read More (PDF, 363 KB)
Contact: Lauren Cook ()
The objective of this master thesis is to compare the damage potential of river flooding (fluvial flooding) and flooding from surface runoff (pluvial flooding) for selected case studies. For this, you will create a surface runoff model of a catchment and compute the surface runoff for several precipitation events with different annualities. You will make an on-site plausibility-check and compare your results with the BAFU indicative hazard map for surface runoff. Next, you will evaluate the damage potential with the help of the tool “EconoMe” due to surface runoff and due to river flooding... Download Read More (PDF, 195 KB)
This thesis will be performed in collaboration with Hunziker Betatech.
Contact: João P. Leitão ()
In recent years, wastewater structures in urban drainage systems have been increasingly equipped with sensors with automatic transmission of the measurements to the operators. As a result, an increasing amount of data is now available that provides information about the processes in the drainage system. However, for data analysis and for deriving correct conclusions, the data must be plausible. Since often long periods of time of many different urban drainage structures are used for evaluation, a high number of measurements must be checked for plausibility.
The thesis aims to develop a method using artificial intelligence to automatically check the plausibility of wastewater measurements, minimizing the need for manual visual checks. It will investigate various sensors in different wastewater structures, conducting both measurement-oriented and process-oriented plausibility checks. This ensures accurate evaluation of parameters like combined sewer overflow statistics and dry weather discharge. Download Read More (PDF, 242 KB)
Contact: Juan Pablo Carbajal ()
The objective of this MSc thesis is to assess the impact of flocs SRT control on the distribution of nitrifying populations and activities among the flocs and different sized granules in AGS and ultimately the impact on nitrification performance. To address this objective, a full-scale study at WWTP Kloten-Opfikon will be conducted. Reactors at different operating conditions will be monitored by characterizing the size distribution of AGS, conducting settling and activity tests and finally, by determining the distribution of nitrifying populations with DNA analysis. Download Read More (PDF, 240 KB)
Contact: Livia Britschgi ()
In aerobic granular sludge (AGS) systems operated as sequencing batch reactors (SBR), a main strategy to enhance granulation is to selectively remove the slow settling biomass. This wastage affects sludge composition, i.e., distribution of flocs and different sized granules, and in turn the microbial performance of the system. The main goal of this master’s thesis is to develop a stratification model and a wastage strategy to control the sludge composition in AGS. The thesis will consist of the following phases:
(A) Short-term stratification experiment
(B) Developing settling model
(C) Simulation of sludge stratification and testing of various wastage strategies aiming for control of sludge composition
Download Read More. (PDF, 330 KB)
Contact: Livia Britschgi ()
Wastewater treatment needs to become net-zero by 2050. The potent GHG and ozone depleting substance N2O (265 kgCO2-eq) dominates GHG emissions of wastewater treatment and accounts for around 20% of N2O emissions in Switzerland. To effectively reduce N2O emissions, we need to understand the mechanisms behind its formation which is related to microbial pathways, controlling parameters, process engineering and plant operation. Unfortunately, there is currently no N2O mechanistic model which is able to come up with those cross-plant reduction measures. On the other hand, multi-year N2O monitoring campaigns across different full-scale plants are available, yet their potential to reveal hidden relationships and mechanisms remains unexplored. This thesis aims to use insights from explainable machine learning (XAI) to build a mechanistic model which is able to reduce N2O emissions across different wastewater treatment plants in Switzerland and beyond. Download Read More (PDF, 208 KB)
Contact: Laurence Strubbe ()
While conventional WWTPs only focus on the removal of organic substrates and nutrients, water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs) will also aim at converting pollutants into valuable end-products. The current project aims at evaluating the conversion of organic carbon from municipal wastewater into bioplastics, i.e., poly-hydroxalkanoates (PHA). PHAs represent, to a certain extent, a relevant alternative to plastics produced by petro-chemical industry. Download Read More. (PDF, 486 KB)
A student interested in biotechnology applied to resource recovery and circular economy, is ideally suited for this thesis.
Contact: Nico Derlon ()
Water reuse can help lower domestic water consumption. Often, water reuse projects focus on the treatment of greywater as it is generally less polluted. Few studies have investigated opportunistic pathogen growth in treated and stored greywater. This project aims to compare different treatments of greywater and their impact on the treated and stored water over time. A student motivated to learn microbiology laboratory techniques is ideally suited for this thesis. Download Read More. (PDF, 368 KB)
Contact: Anne Vescovi ()
Micropollutants (MP) originating from different anthropogenic applications (e.g., pharmaceuticals, anticorrosive coating) are harmful to aquatic ecosystems even in very low concentrations, and thus, have become a key topic on today's political environmental agendas. The use of activated carbon has proven to be a successful option to eliminate MPs. However, many of these plants in Switzerland face problems to continually maintain the required elimination rate of 80%; especially during rain events.
The goal of this thesis is to investigate whether we can explain the elimination behavior of a powdered activated carbon plant during rain events by using different modelling approaches. A student keen to develop their programming abilities and having a strong interest in MP removal is ideally suited for this thesis. Download Read More. (PDF, 4.4 MB)
Contact: Andreas Frömelt ()
The wastewater treatment plant of the future will represent a net source of energy and valuable products, e.g., high-value polymers. Aerobic granular sludge (AGS) contains a wide range of exopolymers, such as Alginate-Like Exopolymers (ALE), associated with various relevant properties for industrial applications (coagulation, production of concrete, paper coating, etc.).
The overall objective of the proposed master thesis is therefore to develop further our fundamental understanding of the mechanisms of phosphate/potassium recovery from municipal wastewater by ALE hydrogels. A student interested in learning about advanced technologies and microbial processes applied to wastewater treatement is ideally suited for this thesis. Download Read More. (PDF, 107 KB)
Contact: Nicolas Derlon ()
Aerobic granular sludge (AGS) systems represent a relevant alternative to conventional activated sludge systems. Eawag recently developed a complete and powerful AGS model (Derlon et al., 2022). The main objective of the proposed master thesis is to (1) critically evaluate the Eawag AGS model by confronting it to datasets from full-scale AGS installations and (2) to develop a good modelling practice (GMP) unified protocol specific of AGS system. A student interested in the learning about advanced technologies and modelling of biological wastewater treatment is ideally suited for this thesis. Download Read More (PDF, 107 KB).
Contact: Nicolas Derlon ()
Aerobic granular sludge (AGS) represents a key advance for wastewater treatment processes (van Loosdrecht and Brdjanovic, 2014), and is presented as the main alternative to conventional activated sludge systems. AGS systems are however usually operated as sequencing batch reactors (SBR), where both microbial and physical selection mechanisms take place and ultimately lead to the formation of granules. But most of the existing WWTP are operated in continuous-flow (CF) mode, while the conversion of CF systems into SBR is very challenging. A main challenge is therefore to develop aerobic granules in systems operated in CF mode, where conditions in terms of microbial and hydraulic selection are not favourable.
The main objective is of the proposed master thesis is to better understand how to control aeration in order to regulate of microbial utilisation of organic substrates, and ultimately to maximize SND and TN removal in AGS systems operated in CF mode.
This master thesis is part of a collaboration between Eawag, Hunziker Betatech AG, ARA Consult and the WWTPs of Gossau and Laufacker.
Download Read more (PDF, 417 KB)
Contact: Nicolas Derlon ()