Category: Research

  • Press release: Understanding the Spatial and Temporal Dimensions of Landscape Dynamics

    The research of the 3DGeo group is featured in a press release about Understanding the Spatial and Temporal Dimensions of Landscape Dynamics. The text illustrates how Heidelberg geoinformation scientists develop new computer-based method to analyse topographic changes. The described method is published in this article: Anders, K., Winiwarter, L., Mara, H., Lindenbergh, R., Vos, S.…

  • Humanitarian OSM Stats: How to monitor humanitarian mapping in the HOT Tasking Manager? – Part 3

    Since 2010 organized humanitarian mapping has evolved as a constant and growing element of the global OpenStreetMap (OSM) community. With more than 7,000 projects in 150 countries humanitarian mapping has become a global community effort. Due to this large amount of projects, it can be difficult to get an overview on mapping activity. This is…

  • Hells Bells – interactive 3D view of underwater speleothems

    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 professional…

  • Fully automatic spatiotemporal segmentation of 3D LiDAR time series for the extraction of natural surface changes

    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…

  • Introducing the Ohsome Quality analysT (OQT)

    The Ohsome Quality analysT (short OQT) is the name of a new software implemented by HeiGIT that is based on the #ohsome framework. Its main purpose is to compute quality estimations on OpenStreetMap (OSM) data. Any end user such as humanitarian organisations, public administrations, as well as researchers or any other institution or party interested…

  • The evolution of humanitarian mapping within the OpenStreetMap community

    In the past 10 years, the collaborative maps of OpenStreetMap (OSM) have been used to support humanitarian efforts around the world as well as to fill important data gaps for implementing major development frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In a recently accepted paper we provide a comprehensive assessment of the evolution of…

  • Humanitarian OSM Stats: How to monitor humanitarian mapping in the HOT Tasking Manager? – Part 2

    Since 2010 organized humanitarian mapping has evolved as a constant and growing element of the global OpenStreetMap (OSM) community. With more than 7,000 projects in 150 countries humanitarian mapping has become a global community effort. Due to this large amount of projects it can be difficult to get an overview on mapping activity. This is…

  • 3D Winter Wonderland – Multi-method acquisition for snow process research

    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…

  • Humanitarian OSM Stats: How to monitor humanitarian mapping in the HOT Tasking Manager? – Part 1

    Since 2010 organized humanitarian mapping has evolved as a constant and growing element of the global OpenStreetMap (OSM) community. With more than 7,000 projects in 150 countries humanitarian mapping has become a global community effort. Due to this large amount of projects it can be difficult to get an overview on mapping activity. This is…

  • HELIOS++ 1.0.0 Software & Preprint Release

    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,…

  • Erstes Handbuch zur Veranstaltung von Mapathons im Deutschen Roten Kreuz

    Das Handbuch zur Veranstaltung von Mapathons im Deutschen Roten Kreuz (DRK) ist da! In dem Handbuch wird beschrieben, was bei der Durchführung eines Mapathon zu beachten ist. Es beginnt mit der Frage, was überhaupt ein Mapathon ist und erklärt warum und wie durch die Durchführung von regelmäßigen Mapathons z.B. im Rahmen von Bereitschaftsabenden, wichtige Geodaten…

  • Updated OSM Healthcare in Senegal (2020)

    OpenStreetMap (OSM) offers many possibilities and holds potential in the area of freely available infrastructure data for the health sector. Nevertheless, it is important to underline that the quality of the information is different in each country, since the mapping activity is strongly affected by the size of the community of volunteers. Monetary barriers prevent…