Research project MeMo Downstream Fish Migration
Project name Development of a Combined Measuring/Modelling System for the Design, Evaluation und Optimization of Facilities for the Downstream Migration of Fish at Hydropower Plants (file ref. 33867/01)
Acronym MeMo Downstream Fish Migration
Coordination Chair of Hydraulic Engineering, TU Darmstadt
Project partner
Duration February 01, 2019 to April, 30, 2022
Grantor The German Federal Environmental Foundation (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt – DBU) 
Project content The German Federal Water Act (Wasserhaushaltsgesetz WHG) enshrines the achievement of good ecological status of running waters. In order to better connect our river system, to reduce the mortality of organisms and thus to enhance the environmental impact of hydropower plants, restoring the passability for the aquatic fauna (§34 WHG) is a crucial element. Until today, a state of the art hasn’t been defined for the downstream migration of fish and it is not known by which specific factors fish are influenced.
A contribution to the improvement of the downstream passability of our river system is the overall objective of the project “MeMo Downstream Fish Migration”. Therefore, two central elements are going to be developed:
• a bioinspired measurement system, which can record multiparameter data in a similar manner as a fish senses the flow and
• a CFD-based modelling system, which can be applied to forecast fish behaviour as a function of simulated flow parameters.
Various transdisciplinary research methods are used for this purpose: from observation of living fish in a flume in the hydraulic laboratory at the TU Darmstadt and flow measurements with various measuring systems in the laboratory as well as in the field to hydrodynamic-numerical simulations.