Category: Research

  • Multi-source 3D point cloud acquisition at the AHK rock glacier

    Within the AHK-4D project, we continually monitor topographic change at the alpine rock glacier Äußeres Hochebenkar in Austria. Based on multitemporal and multi-source 3D point clouds at up to two-week acquisition intervals, we are developing methods to quantify the magnitudes and frequencies of individual processes of topographic change over varying timescales. This year, we have…

  • Analysing the Impact of Large Data Imports in OpenStreetMap

    OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a global mapping project which generates free geographical information through a community of volunteers. OSM is used in a variety of applications and for research purposes. However, it is also possible to import external data sets to OpenStreetMap. The opinions about these data imports are divergent among researchers and contributors, and the…

  • The role of data in transformations to sustainability: a critical research agenda

    A recently published article in ‘Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability‘ investigates the role of digital technologies and data innovations, such as big data and citizen-generated data, to enable transformations to sustainability. We reviewed recent literature in this area and identified that the most prevailing assumption of work is related to the capacity of data to…

  • Open laser scanning data of trees – SYSSIFOSS project

    Our forest laser scanning dataset collected in the frame of the SYSSIFOSS project is now openly available through the PANGAEA Data Publisher: Weiser, H., Schäfer, J., Winiwarter, L., et al. (2021): Terrestrial, UAV-borne and airborne laser scanning point clouds of central European forest plots, Germany, with extracted individual trees and manual forest inventory measurements. PANGAEA,…

  • Routenplanung im Überflutungsgebiet: openrouteservice nutzt Copernicus EMS Flut-Daten in spezieller Lösung

    Die aktuelle Flut in Deutschland hat zahlreiche Straßen in den betroffenen Gebieten zerstört oder temporär unpassierbar gemacht. HeiGIT arbeitet an freien und offenen, auf Geodaten-basierten Lösungen für die humanitäre Hilfe. Hierzu zählen insbesondere Routenplanung unter Berücksichtigung aktueller Katastrophendaten wie z.B. Überflutungsgebiete und zerstörter Strassen. Für die aktuelle Flutkatastrophe in Deutschland und Nachbarstaaten hat HeiGIT nun…

  • Time Series-Based Coastal Surface Change Analysis @ISPRS2021

    Our work on “Time Series-Based Coastal Surface Change Analysis using Hourly Terrestrial Laser Scans” was featured with a live presentation at this year’s digital event of the ISPRS Congress. The presentation by Katharina Anders was further made available as pre-recorded video, which you can now watch on the 3DGeo YouTube channel: The presented work is…

  • HeiGIT/GIScience @ State of the Map 2021

    Like in 2020, this year’s State of the Map (SotM) is taking place online this week from tomorrow 2021-07-09 to 2021-07-11, starting at 12:00 (CEST) each day. This year, HeiGIT is a bronze sponsor. In addition, there are a total of 7 contributions from HeiGIT/GIScience: one academic talk by Maxwell Owusu four lightning talks and…

  • A safe way through the heat: Transdisciplinary project HEAL makes everyday life easier for at-risk groups

    (in Deutsch unterhalb) Aerial view of Heidelberg’s old town with the university square. This was a site of the study on climate change adaptation of public spaces (Foshag et al. 2020). (Photo: Kathrin Foshag). As part of a transdisciplinary collaboration, the Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology (HeiGIT), the GIScience research group and the TdLab Geography at…

  • Online data viewer: Heidelberg’s tallest trees

    Two weeks ago, we conducted a field campaign in the frame of a 3DGeo Sensor Practical course to acquire 3D point clouds of Heidelberg’s tallest trees, Sequoias planted in the Arboretum I (see our blog post). Today, we present the prepared data in our new online point cloud viewer based on potree: https://3dweb.geog.uni-heidelberg.de/potree/scenes/sequoia.html A few…

  • New paper on OSM feature completeness modelling accepted for AGIT symposium

    The availability of data on public transport is a prerequisite for numerous spatial data applications such as routing, accessibility analyses or route planning. OpenStreetMap (OSM) – as a global platform for Volunteered Geographic Information – is one of the options for sharing public transport data. The data completeness on OSM, however, is characterized by heterogeneity. Results…

  • M3C2-EP: Pushing the limits of 3D topographic point cloud change detection by error propagation

    In our efforts to improve change detection and quantification in time series of 3D point clouds, we have published yet another milestone. Our paper, titled M3C2-EP: Pushing the limits of 3D topographic point cloud change detection by error propagation, presents a novel method to better separate noise from actual change in point clouds sensed with…

  • Graduate Celebration 2021

    On 25 June 2021, we celebrated together with the graduates of 2020/2021 of Bachelor and Master of Science in Geography, and also School Education (Lehramt) at the digital ceremony. Moreover, the rector of our University, Prof. Bernhard Eitel, gave an interesting talk about the history of the Institute of Geography. He outlined how a wide…