GIScience News Blog

  • 3D Sensor Practical

    3D Sensor Practical

    In June 2025, Ronald Tabernig and Hannah Weiser, researchers in the 3DGeo Research Group (Prof. Bernhard Höfle), held the annual 3D sensor practical, a two-day practical field course which took place in two exciting study sites close to Heidelberg: Our students learnt: Since we surveyed the same study sites last year, students will be able…

  • New paper: Mapping energy poverty indices in urban scale: A case study of Santiago de Chile

    New paper: Mapping energy poverty indices in urban scale: A case study of Santiago de Chile

    This study evaluates the applicability of macro-scale energy poverty indices in an urban context, using Santiago de Chile as a case study. Energy poverty (EP), understood as the inability of a household to meet its basic energy needs, is a global challenge exacerbated by rising energy prices, inflation, and economic instability. Accelerated urbanization and climate…

  • 4DGeo Release: v1.0.0

    4DGeo Release: v1.0.0

    First release of our 4DGeo Dashboard: https://github.com/3dgeo-heidelberg/4dgeo 4DGeo is an open-source, modular, super lightweight, web-based interactive dashboard application for visualizing 3D geodata time series. 🌐 Demo: https://3dgeo-heidelberg.github.io/4DGeo/💻 GitHub: https://github.com/3dgeo-heidelberg/4dgeo📖 Documentation: https://3dgeo-heidelberg.github.io/4DGeo/docs/ Play around with one of our use cases: Bees, a moving tree branch or a rockfall! Or fork the repo, try it out with…

  • A Routing App to Avoid the Heat: HEAL App now available also for Worms

    A Routing App to Avoid the Heat: HEAL App now available also for Worms

    As summer temperatures soar, being outdoors poses rising health risks, especially in urban areas and for vulnerable groups like the elderly, children, and citizen with pre-existing conditions. The HEAL project launched a routing app to help citizens avoid heat stress, supporting climate adaptation and public health during hot weather periods. Initially developed for Heidelberg, the…

  • HELIOS++ Release: v2.1.0

    HELIOS++ Release: v2.1.0

    We are happy to release a new minor version of HELIOS++: https://github.com/3dgeo-heidelberg/helios/releases What’s new in this release? We present a fully revised implementation of the Risley beam deflector that supports up to three prisms. What does this mean? You can now simulate scanners such as the DJI Zenmuse 2 and the Livox Mid Series in…

  • Including Local Communities in Colombia´s Risk Governance with Participatory Mapping

    Including Local Communities in Colombia´s Risk Governance with Participatory Mapping

    In June 2024, researchers from the Urban Big Data Centre (UBDC) and HeiGIT (Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology) carried out a joint field trip to Colombia to strengthen participatory mapping collaborations. The visit included workshops, partner meetings, and field activities with communities, universities, and government institutions, with a focus on the use and development of…

  • Another milestone for ohsomeNow: H3 hexagon maps at high and low resolution

    Another milestone for ohsomeNow: H3 hexagon maps at high and low resolution

    The ohsomeNow Stats dashboard has been updated to enhance its visual and functional elements. This facilitates the exploration of OpenstreetMap (OSM) mapping activities across space and time. New H3 hexagon maps at high and low resolution One of the most notable improvements is the new mapping interface. Previously, country-level visualizations were limited and lacked spatial…

  • New Paper: Method for monitoring landslides in forested area

    New Paper: Method for monitoring landslides in forested area

    Tabernig, R., Albert, W., Weiser, H., Fritzmann, P., Anders, K., Rutzinger, M. & Höfle, B. (2025): Temporal aggregation of point clouds improves permanent laser scanning of landslides in forested areas. Science of Remote Sensing. Vol. 12, pp. 100254. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.srs.2025.100254 In our brand-new study ‘Temporal aggregation of point clouds improves permanent laser scanning of landslides…

  • Risk Assessment QGIS Plugin to support the development of Early Action Protocols

    Risk Assessment QGIS Plugin to support the development of Early Action Protocols

    As part of our ongoing work in Anticipatory Action, a QGIS plugin for risk assessments was developed with the goal of enabling local actors to carry out risk assessments independently and reliably. The tool builds on HeiGIT’s broader efforts to support community resilience by making geoinformation technology more accessible to practitioners in diverse operational contexts.…

  • Unveiling the HeiGIT Climate Action Navigator Part 4 – Land Use and Land Cover Change Emissions

    Unveiling the HeiGIT Climate Action Navigator Part 4 – Land Use and Land Cover Change Emissions

    The Climate Action Navigator (CAN) is HeiGIT’s interactive dashboard offering high-resolution data and key climate indicators, ranging from the quality and availability of mobility infrastructure to CO2 emissions from heating of residential buildings. In this blog article, we will have a closer look at Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) Change Emissions. The LULC Change…

  • Flood risks in Honduras

    Flood risks in Honduras

    The Sketch Map Tool was used in a joint effort between the Honduran Red Cross and the municipal government to update the municipal response plan and develop an annex focused on anticipatory actions. Participants were asked to map local knowledge about areas affected by flooding and critical infrastructure. The Sketch Map Tool was used during…

  • New Paper “Deep learning enhanced road traffic analysis”

    New Paper “Deep learning enhanced road traffic analysis”

    A recent study has demonstrated a novel approach to the large-scale monitoring of road traffic. Rather than relying on radar or mobile sensors, the team used PlanetScope’s Super Dove satellite imagery to detect moving vehicles and estimate their speed. By implementing a Keypoint R-CNN learning model, the researchers were able to track the subtle “motion…

3D 3DGEO Big Spatial Data CAP4Access Climate Change Conference crisis mapping Crowdsourcing data quality deep learning disaster DisasterMapping GIScience heigit HELIOS HOT humanitarian humanitarian mapping Humanitarian OpenStreetMap team intrinsic quality analysis landuse laser scanning Lidar machine-learning Mapathon MapSwipe Missing Maps MissingMaps ohsome ohsome example Open data openrouteservice Open Source OpenStreetMap OSM OSM History Analytics Quality quality analysis remote sensing routing social media spatial analysis Teaching VGI Workshop