GIScience / Geoinformatics Research Group
As part of the Institute of Geography, the GIScience Research Group is engaged in innovative applied and basic research at the interface between geography and the computational sciences. We thereby focus on the investigation of user-generated geographical content, for which we develop state-of-the-art methods and analytical approaches. More specifically, our thematic focuses are on volunteered geographic information (VGI), big spatial data analytics and disaster management. Through the “Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology” (HeiGIT), which is supported by the Klaus Tschira Foundation, we have the opportunity to translate our theoretical work directly into practical solutions. In addition, we support our institute's study programmes in geography with numerous courses on relevant GI methods that allow our students to specialize in geoinformatics.
Please note our vacancies.
Latest News
News from our daily work can be found at giscienceblog.uni-hd.de (also available as RSS-Feed). You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date.
Recently a consultancy and development agreement about OpenStreetMap Analytics Development has been reached with the World Bank in the context of the Open Cities Africa project and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) Open Data for Resilience Initiative (OpenDRI). The main objective of this consultancy is to develop and implement new functionalities for OpenStreetMap [...]
Satellite images are widely applied in humanitarian mapping which labels buildings, roads and so on for humanitarian aid and economic development. However, the labeling now is mostly done by volunteers. In a recently accepted study, we utilize deep learning to solve humanitarian mapping tasks of a mobile software named MapSwipe. The current deep learning techniques [...]
The concept of place recently gains momentum in GIScience. In some fields like human geography, spatial cognition or information theory, this topic already has a longer scholarly tradition. This is however not yet completely the case with statistical spatial analysis and cartography. Despite that, taking full advantage of the plethora of user-generated information that we [...]
Over the past few years, the Missing Maps approach has repeatedly proved its potential for humanitarian assistance and disaster management. While the project was launched by only four organizations, there are now 17 member organizations in Missing Maps, and nearly 60,000 mappers. The Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement have recognized the potential of the [...]
On our last day in the Ötztal Alps, we had an exciting excursion from Obergurgl to Ramolhaus on 3006 m a.s.l. On our way up we could directly explore glacial history by passing the historical extents and related moraines of the retreating Gurgler glacier. The students also learned about geoarcheology and settlement history in the [...]
We are blogging live from Ramolhaus at 3006 m a.s.l. After a 4-hours hiking tour with 1100 height meters we are now enjoying the impressive view over glaciers with “Kaiserschmarren” for lunch.
Over the past few months the openrouteservice team has worked on a new developers dashboard in order to make the registration and usage of the API more easy and accessible. Now the developers using the openrouteservice API will experience a more intuitive and responsive interface and a with more polished better look and feel to view [...]
On the last day of fieldwork in the rotmoos valley two groups (terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) and photogrammetry) set off to the rotmoos glacier again. A second TLS dataset was aqcuired which enables the students to perform a change detection or deformation analysis. The electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) group futher explored the pre-Quaternary [...]
We are excited to announce that our new HeiGIT website is live! Visit us at www.heigit.org.
Today was the second day of field work in the Rotmoos valley in the Ötztal Alps for our 16 students. The hot sun challenged the data acquisition but the impressive landscape makes up for every effort. The terrestrial laser scanning group climbed up the valley flanks to acquire a high resolution point cloud from an end [...]
Pictures of the Group
GIScience team at a jour fixe meeting in 2017
GIScience team at a jour fixe meeting in 2014
GIScience team at a retreat at Trifels-Annweiler in February 2013
GIScience team at a jour fixe meeting in June 2012
In Memoriam Peter Meusburger
On 18 December 2017, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Peter Meusburger died far too soon. We mourn for a great scientist, teacher and colleague. In the mid 90s he implemented the first GIS pool at Heidelberg University and started GIS related research. He will not be forgotten. ((Message of the University)
