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GIScience Blog

Category: Research

  • Andreas Reimer successfully defends his PhD on Cartographic Modeling for Automated Map Generation

    Last week our GIScience team member Dr. Andreas Reimer successfully defended his PhD at TU Eindhoven (Promotor: Prof. Dr. Bettina Speckmann, Eindhoven and Co-promotor: Prof. Dr. W.A. Mackaness, Edinburgh). The topic of the PhD thesis was “Cartographic modelling for automated map generation” and includes a range of fascinating research on cartography, ranging from schematizing and…

  • Report on Human Sensor and Geographic Information Systems for Disaster Risk Management (HSenSIG) training school

    On the dates of 11 to 15th of May, the European Commission (COST Action TD1202: Mapping and the Citizen Sensor) organized a training school on Human Sensor and Geographic Information Systems for Disaster Risk Management (HSenSIG) hosted by the Institute for Systems Engineering and Computers at University of Coimbra, Portugal. Our colleague, Prof. João Porto Albuquerque was invited…

  • Pairwise Line Labeling of Geographic Boundaries

    We present an algorithm that labels linear features with two matched toponyms describing the left and the right side of a line, respectively. Such a pairwise line labeling is a common technique used in manually produced maps (see Figure 1). The lines differentiate administrative divisions or other geographic subdivisions. The proposed method can be used…

  • Teaching and research in Santiago de Chile / Docencia e investigación en Santiago de Chile

    During the first half of May 2015, Bernhard Höfle and his NEOHAZ team members Carolin Klonner, Sabrina Marx and Tomás Usón were teaching at the Heidelberg Center for Latin America (HCLA) in Santiago de Chile as well as conducting research for the NEOHAZ project related to urban flood risk management. The project aims at analysing…

  • Mapping Support Event for Nepal at ISCRAM conference 2015 in Norway

    As members of the disastermappers heidelberg and the GIScience Research Group Benjamin Herfort and Melanie Eckle were presenting their research at this years ISCRAM conference in Kristiansand, Norway. ISCRAM being a conference for researchers and practitioners in the field of disaster and emergency management, they also used this situation to set up a spontaneous Mapping…

  • Mon-Shieh Yang successfully completes his PhD

    Mon-Shieh Yang successfully defended his PhD thesis at the National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) in Taiwan. We cordially congratulate him! Mon-Shieh was member of the Heidelberg GIScience Team for almost one year (until May 2015). He was performing research with the LiDAR Research Group (LRG) where he investigated the derivation of novel LiDAR-based roughness measures…

  • Combining Social Media and Authoritative Data towards identifying useful Information for Disaster Management

    A Study on the Twitter usage in the River Elbe Flood of June 2013 In recent years, social media emerged as a potential resource to improve the management of crisis situations such as disasters triggered by natural hazards. Although there is a growing research body concerned with the analysis of the usage of social media…

  • The importance of sidewalk information in OpenStreetMap for routing and navigation of people with restricted mobility

    Since the launch of OpenStreetMap (OSM) project in 2004, due to its nature and objective in collecting data from volunteers which are not necessarily familiar with GIScience and data collection procedures, the quality of gathered information has always been a main concern for both research and industrial communities. Several research studies have been conducted to…

  • New ways in analysing multi-scale datasets

    Many user-generated datasets (e.g., social media) reflect a number of different phenomena. Consequently, these datasets also comprise very different spatial scales. It goes without saying that this evokes tremendous challenges when conducting spatial statistical analyses of such datasets. When assessing spatial autocorrelation among the observations, for example, classical approaches are usually not appropriate. These were…

  • Nepal Disaster Mapping Heidelberg University

    Following the earthquake which struck Nepal on April 25 hundreds of volunteers worldwide come together to map out disaster affected areas through the coordination of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) and the local partner in Kathmandu, the Kathmandu Living Labs team. Disastermappers Heidelberg joined the efforts on monday evening by organizing a first mapping event.…

  • 3D Field Trip to Greece – Exploring 3D GIScience in one of the most exciting geological settings

    Our students learned how multiple 3D geodata sensor systems (LiDAR, UAVs, GNSS) can be used to capture and analyze the geomorphology and geology of one of the most exciting geological areas, the Peloponnese in Greece. Together with the geology students from the University of Stavanger more than 30 young researchers explored the area around the…

  • Mapping for wheelchair users at Heidelberg castle gardens

    On the occasion of the European protest day for equal rights of people with disabilities the Heidelberg advisory board of people with disabilities organises an event at Heidelberg castle tomorrow (30/4) from 2pm to 5pm. Our local CAP4ACCESS team is happy to join this event by leading mapping efforts to fill some data gaps in…