3D Geospatial Data Processing Group

In collaboration with the Institute of Earth Sciences at Heidelberg University, the 3DGeo group reconstructed underwater speleothems in a cave in Yucatán, Mexico. The so-called “Hells Bells” are fascinating formations in several sinkholes, at the boundary layer between fresh- and saltwater. The full 3D mesh model obtained from several thousand photographs taken by a [...]

When and where do changes occur in dynamic natural landscapes? A new method has been published that enables the automatic extraction of surface changes from entire time series of 3D point clouds. The developed method of spatiotemporal segmentation extracts changes regarding their surface change history, which makes it particularly useful for natural scenes that are [...]

A joint field campaign was conducted this week in the snow-covered black forest (Hundseck, 48.643°N, 8.228°E) by the research groups Hydrology and Climatology (Prof. Menzel) and 3DGeo (Prof. Höfle). Regular in-situ surveys are conducted at the site to investigate snow as crucial component of the hydrologic cycle, forest management, and evapotranspiration. Surveys comprise measurement of [...]

The 3DGeo Research Group is proud to announce the release of their novel ray-tracing based laser scanning simulator HELIOS++! HELIOS++ is a general-purpose simulation software for virtual laser scanning data acquisition. Such data can be used to complement real data in many use cases. Some examples include the generation of training data for machine learning, especially [...]

Time series of topographic point clouds offer great possibilities to advance our understanding of dynamic landscapes. To exploit the full information these 4D datasets contain on spatial and temporal properties of natural surface changes, the 3DGeo research group is developing methods for 4D change analysis. These methods are required to answer fundamental questions on the [...]

This new video by the 3DGeo group presents the challenges of 3D Earth observation and our advances in 4D change analysis in the frame of the Auto3Dscapes project: Direct link to the video: https://youtu.be/Fdwq-Cp0mFY Many thanks to Claudia Denis and David Jäger for helping to realize the video! We are also very happy about the fruitful ongoing [...]

Gullies are landforms with specific patterns of shape, topography, hydrology, vegetation, and soil characteristics. Remote sensing products (TanDEM-X, Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2) serve as inputs into an iterative algorithm, initialized using a micro-mapping simulation as training data, to map gullies in the [...]

The digital teaching prize by Heidelberg University that was awarded to two members of our institute is featured in a current special edition of the university’s magazine UNISPIEGEL: Find the full article on “Adjustment to digital formats” (translation by the author) on page 2 of the magazine here (in German). Information on the awardees Dr. Nicole [...]

Interested in how earthquake-induced damage to critical infrastructures is assessed in the research project LOKI? Then check out this teaser below! Link to video In the LOKI project (Luftgestützte Observation Kritischer Infrastrukturen; Airborne Assessment of Critical Infrastructures), an interdisciplinary system that enables fast and reliable airborne situation assessments following an earthquake is being developed by several project [...]

In recognition of the high efforts of lecturers in the past summer semester, the rectorate of Heidelberg University awarded prizes for digital teaching. Two of in total six prizes were awarded to lecturers at the Institute of Geography, which shows the positive recognition of the past semester’s endeavors both from the side of students and [...]