The Academic and Research Department Engineering Hydrology and the UNESCO Chair of Hydrological Change and Water Resources Management combine innovative approaches to solutions from the field of water management in research and teaching. Emphasis is placed on the Water-Food-Energy Nexus and working in interdisciplinary teams implementing tasks in Europe and the Arabic-speaking world. The main focus of funding is obtained from European institutions.

Equal to research, the teaching area as well as the UNESCO chair focuses on the tasks of digital teaching. In this area, new methods (e.g. avatar-based teaching and learning) are designed, developed, implemented and made available to the general public for open use.

To support digital teaching, the UNESCO Chair organises training measures worldwide on the topic of blended learning. Prof. Nacken has been the rectorate representative for blended learning and the Exploratory Teaching Space since 2012 and actively supports the implementation of the digitalisation strategy for teaching at RWTH Aachen University.

As UNSECO Chair, another focus is on the creation of open educational resources in the form of OER (Open Eductional Resource). All materials from teaching are made available by the department as well as the UNESCO Chair for general use under a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).