Dr. rer. nat. Ralf Loritz

Dr. rer. nat. Ralf Loritz

  • Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)
    Institut für Wasser und Umwelt
    Bereich Hydrologie
    Kaiserstraße 12
    76131 Karlsruhe

Research Interests

  • Enviromental modeling (physically-based and data-driven)
  • Soil physics and reactive transport
  • Information theory and thermodynamics
  • Hydroinformatics
     

Awards

Award winner of the dissertation price 2020 of the german hydrology society (DHG)

Award winner of the dissertation price 2020 of the Ehrensenator Huber foundation in the field of water research

Publications


2023
On how data are partitioned in model development and evaluation: Confronting the elephant in the room to enhance model generalization
Maier, H. R.; Zheng, F.; Gupta, H.; Chen, J.; Mai, J.; Savic, D.; Loritz, R.; Wu, W.; Guo, D.; Bennett, A.; Jakeman, A.; Razavi, S.; Zhao, J.
2023. Environmental Modelling and Software, 167, Art.-Nr.: 105779. doi:10.1016/j.envsoft.2023.105779 Full textFull text of the publication as PDF document
Understanding the hydrological response of a headwater-dominated catchment by analysis of distributed surface–subsurface interactions
Özgen-Xian, I.; Molins, S.; Johnson, R. M.; Xu, Z.; Dwivedi, D.; Loritz, R.; Mital, U.; Ulrich, C.; Yan, Q.; Steefel, C. I.
2023. Scientific Reports, 13 (1), Art.-Nr.: 4669. doi:10.1038/s41598-023-31925-w Full textFull text of the publication as PDF document
2020
Histogram via entropy reduction (HER): an information-theoretic alternative for geostatistics
Thiesen, S.; Vieira, D. M.; Mälicke, M.; Loritz, R.; Wellmann, J. F.; Ehret, U.
2020. Hydrology and earth system sciences, 24 (9), 4523–4540. doi:10.5194/hess-24-4523-2020 Full textFull text of the publication as PDF document
Adaptive clustering: reducing the computational costs of distributed (hydrological) modelling by exploiting time-variable similarity among model elements
Ehret, U.; Pruijssen, R. van; Bortoli, M.; Loritz, R.; Azmi, E.; Zehe, E.
2020. Hydrology and earth system sciences, 24 (9), 4389–4411. doi:10.5194/hess-24-4389-2020 Full textFull text of the publication as PDF document
The role of energy and information in hydrological modeling. PhD dissertation
Loritz, R.
2020. Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT). doi:10.5445/IR/1000105128 Full textFull text of the publication as PDF document
2019
Simulating preferential soil water flow and tracer transport using the Lagrangian Soil Water and Solute Transport Model
Sternagel, A.; Loritz, R.; Wilcke, W.; Zehe, E.
2019. Hydrology and earth system sciences, 23 (10), 4249–4267. doi:10.5194/hess-23-4249-2019 Full textFull text of the publication as PDF document
A topographic index explaining hydrological similarity by accounting for the joint controls of runoff formation
Loritz, R.; Kleidon, A.; Jackisch, C.; Westhoff, M.; Ehret, U.; Gupta, H.; Zehe, E.
2019. Hydrology and earth system sciences, 23 (9), 3807–3821. doi:10.5194/hess-23-3807-2019 Full textFull text of the publication as PDF document
Energy states of soil water – a thermodynamic perspective on soil water dynamics and storage-controlled streamflow generation in different landscapes
Zehe, E.; Loritz, R.; Jackisch, C.; Westhoff, M.; Kleidon, A.; Blume, T.; Hassler, S. K.; Savenije, H. H.
2019. Hydrology and earth system sciences, 23 (2), 971–987. doi:10.5194/hess-23-971-2019 Full textFull text of the publication as PDF document
2018
On the dynamic nature of hydrological similarity
Loritz, R.; Gupta, H.; Jackisch, C.; Westhoff, M.; Kleidon, A.; Ehret, U.; Zehe, E.
2018. Hydrology and earth system sciences, 22 (7), 3663–3684. doi:10.5194/hess-22-3663-2018 Full textFull text of the publication as PDF document
2017
Picturing and modeling catchments by representative hillslopes
Loritz, R.; Hassler, S. K.; Jackisch, C.; Allroggen, N.; Van Schaik, L.; Wienhöfer, J.; Zehe, E.
2017. Hydrology and earth system sciences, 21 (2), 1225–1249. doi:10.5194/hess-21-1225-2017 Full textFull text of the publication as PDF document

Other Publications

 

Conference presentations (Oral)

  • Loritz, R. (Invited, 2021): The role of energy and information in hydrological modelling, Tag der Hydrolgie, Award Lecture, Best german dissertation in Hydrologie 2020

  • Loritz, R. (Invited, 2021): Bridging the gap between bottom-up and top-down models in catchment hydrology, SIAM Conference on Mathematical & Computational Issues in the Geosciences (GS21)

  • Loritz, R., Ehret, U., Neuper, M., and Zehe, E. (2020): The case of distributed rainfall and spatially adaptive modeling, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-6789, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-6789

  • Loritz, R. (Invited, 2019): The role of information in hydrological models, Institute for Modelling Hydraulic and Environmental Systems, Stuttgart, Germany

  • Loritz, R., Gupta, H., C. Jackisch, M. Westhoff, A. Kleidon, U. Ehret, and Zehe, E. (2018): On the dynamic nature of hydrological similarity, European Geosciences Union General Assembly, Vienna, Austria

  • Loritz, R. (Invited. 2017): Is there an optimum? How information theory and thermodynamics can help to identify the needed spatial complexity of hydrological models, Workshop - Improving the theoretical underpinnings of hydrologic models - Sopron, Hungary

  • Loritz, R., Neuper, M., Gupta, H., and Zehe, E. (2017): How to handle spatial heterogeneity in hydrological models. European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2017, Vienna. Austria

  • Loritz, R., Hassler, S., Jackisch, C., and Zehe, E. (2016): Picturing and modelling catchments by representative hillslopes. European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2016, Vienna. Austria

 

Conference presentations (Poster) and co-author contributions

  • Presentation - Ehret, U., van Pruijssen, R., Bortoli, M., Loritz, R., Azmi, E., and Zehe, E. (2020): Dynamical clustering: A new approach to make distributed (hydrological) modeling more efficient by dynamically detecting and removing redundant computations, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-4772, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-4772

  • Poster - Sternagel, A., Loritz, R., Wilcke, W., and Zehe, E. (2020): Simulating preferential soil water flow and reactive solute transport using the Lagrangian Soil Water and Solute Transport Model (LAST), EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-7172, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-7172

  • Poster - Villinger, F., Loritz, R., and Zehe, E.: Towards a better understanding and modelling of Hortonian overland flow during flash flooding (2020), EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-19680, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-19680

  • Presentation - Zehe, E., Loritz, R., Ehret, U., Westhoff, M., Kleidon, A., and Mälicke, M. (2018): From catchment organization to dynamic functional similarity, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-19632, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-19632, 2020

  • Presentation - Jackisch, C., Kleidon, A., Loritz, R., and Zehe, E. (2018): A thermodynamic interpretation of soil water retention and dynamics, EGU General Assembly 2018, Online, 8–13 April 2018

  • Poster - Kiese, N., Loritz, R., Allroggen, N. and Zehe, E. (2017): Influence of bedrock topography on the runoff generation under use of ERT data. Poster presentation. EGU General Assembly 2017. Vienna. Austria

  • Poster - Wienhöfer, J., Loritz, R. and Zehe, E. (2015): Model-based quantification of hydrological similarity at the hillslope scale. European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2015, Vienna. Austria

  • Poster - Loritz, R., Weiler, M. and Seibert, S. (2015): Data mining methods for predicting event runoff coefficients in ungauged basins using static and dynamic characteristics. European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2015, Vienna. Austria

Projects