GIScience News Blog
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New Paper “Utilizing large language models to simulate parking search”
A study published on ScienceDirect evaluates the capability of LLMs to mimic human-like decision-making patterns in parking scenarios. Through experiments, researchers reproduce realistic trade-offs between cost, distance, and availability, while reflecting sociodemographic influences and bounded rationality. Parking behavior research traditionally focuses on how drivers choose parking locations, types, and search strategies, distinguishing between static and…
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HeiGIT and GIScience take part in STADTRADELN
This year, the team from HeiGIT is once again participating in the nationwide cycling initiative STADTRADELN. For 21 days, teams across Germany collect bicycle kilometers, raising awareness for climate protection, sustainable mobility, and improved cycling infrastructure. The campaign promotes environmentally friendly transportation – not only in the everyday lives of the participants but also as…
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Artificial Intelligence in Anticipatory Action: Insights and Lessons Learned
Artificial Intelligence holds great promise for strengthening Anticipatory Action by improving hazard forecasting, vulnerability mapping, and decision support, but must be tailored to real-world humanitarian contexts to really be of benefit. A recent workshop brought together practitioners, researchers, and tech experts to identify gaps, share learnings, and explore how AI can be responsibly and effectively…
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HGG lecture: Resource Use and Resilience: Pre-Columbian Terrace Agriculture in Southern Peru
The last HGG lecture of this summer term 2025 will look at the terraced landscapes in the Peruvian Andes, focussing on human-environment interactions.
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Mapathon with Doctors without Boarders
The lack of geographical data makes providing humanitarian aid more difficult. This is particularly the case in situations of disaster, when geographical data and routing data are crucial for coordinating help. In certain regions, however, this data still remains incomplete. During Mapathons, volunteers map these areas and provide the missing data. As part of this…
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Release of QGIS plugin ORSTools v.2.0.0 & QGIS User Conference
What is ORSTools? With ORSTools, most of the functionalities of openrouteservice are directly accessible in QGIS. The plugin offers a toolset, including routing, isochrone generation and matrix calculations. These functions can be used interactively in the map canvas or applied to point files within the processing framework. Output files come with rich attribute data such…
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Presenting Silver Ways project at AGIT
At this year’s AGIT conference in Salzburg, Austria, GIScience and HeiGIT will host a poster session to our new Silver Ways project, developing a walkable routing system to cater the needs of older adults.
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HGG lecture: Vietnam – Between Coffee and Karst
This HGG lecture is given by students from the Institute of Geography at Heidelberg University who participated in the Vietnam excursion.
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New insights into global mapping with the updated ohsomeNow Stats
The enhanced ohsomeNow Stats dashboard now provides near real-time access to all OpenStreetMap contributions since 2005, enabling more flexible and detailed analysis of global mapping activities. ohsomeNow stats provides a comprehensive overview of mapping activities in near real time. The dashboard was developed as part of our long-term cooperation with the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT),…
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New Paper “Accessibility for pedestrians under heat stress – the example of Heidelberg, Germany”
This study introduces the isocalor approach to assess how solar exposure and heat stress impact pedestrian access to essential services in Heidelberg, using OpenStreetMap data and a customized openrouteservice routing engine. As climate change intensifies, cities are increasingly exposed to extreme heat events, with urban populations—especially vulnerable groups like older adults, children, and those with…
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New paper “Changes in Road Centrality and Hospital Access Redundancy: Impacts of the 2024 Flood in the Metropolitan Core of Porto Alegre”
This study examines the resilience of urban infrastructure, with a focus on road network connectivity and redundancy in the face of extreme weather events. Using OpenStreetMap (OSM) data and the openrouteservice (ORS) routing engine, the research assesses centrality metrics and redundancy to evaluate how floods impact mobility and access to critical services, such as healthcare.…
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Heat perception of Heidelberg residents using the Sketch Map Tool and KoboToolbox
Students of the Institute of Geography at Heidelberg University explored local perceptions of urban heat in Heidelberg’s old town as part of a 2024 seminar on GIS for Disaster Risk Reduction and Humanitarian Aid. The project, supported by Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology (HeiGIT), tested participatory mapping using the Sketch Map Tool combined with KoboToolbox. The…
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