C3 Alps Project accepted

The project on "Capitalising Climate Change Knowledge for Adaptation in the Alpine Space" (C3-Alps) will synthesize, transfer, visualise and implement policy and practice results of previous Alpine Space climate change adaptation projects. The capitalisation approach aims at generating new and directly usable forms of state-of-the-art synthesis adaptation knowledge in the Alps. Harmonised findings and datasets across disciplinary sectors are made available for transparent and effective implementation of adaptation measures by decision-makers.

Effective, efficient and tailor-made communication and transfer of climate change impact findings are ensured to target groups in order to support governance frameworks and initiate cross-cutting adaptation processes, strategies, action plans and decision support in pilot regions and municipalities. To leverage sustainable impacts, the project will be driven by the information and user needs of target groups. By supporting bottom-up action. C3-Alps will contribute to implementation of national adaptation policies on regional and municipal levels and to advancement of national adaptation strategies.

Z_GIS will be active in spatially explicit decision support by collecting and synthesizing spatial datasets in a one-stop-shop Alpine portal.

Duration: 01/2012 - 12/2014 (36 month)
Total Budget: 3,1 mio EUR

SMART Project started

This project on " Smart aquifer characterisation of New Zealand's aquifers" will identify, develop, apply, validate and optimise a suite of novel methods for accurate, rapid and cost-effective characterisation and mapping of New Zealand’s aquifer systems.

By 2017, the outputs from the research programme will be used nationally by stakeholders such as a regional authorities and will lead to better understanding of key aquifer systems. By 2020, national adoption of outputs from the research programme will have led to a demonstrable improvement in the management of groundwater and interconnected surface water systems.

Z_GIS will set-up an operational Sensor Observation Service in order to validate remote sensing applications done by partner institutions. Based on a harmonized Spatial Data Infrastructure of hydrological datasets a 3D WebGIS will be set-up and operating as a Decision Support System for New Zealand's stakeholders which a part of the project.

Duration: 07/2011 - 06/2017 (72 month)
Total Budget: 8,8 mio NZ$ (5,0 mio EUR)

Mathematical Geosciences: Interview with Robert Marschallinger in German

Mathematische Geowissenschaften: Interview mit Robert Marschallinger vom ÖAW Institut für Geographic Information Science.

Die neuesten Entwicklungen der mathematischen Geowissenschaften stehen im Mittelpunkt einer internationalen Konferenz in Salzburg. Im Interview spricht Robert Marschallinger über das Wechselspiel zwischen Theorie und Praxis und die Vielfalt der Anwendungsmöglichkeiten geomathematischer Methoden. > Interview zum Nachlesen

International conference IAMG 2011 in Salzburg, September 5-9.
IAMG 2011 core topics are geostatistics, reservoir modelling, 3D modelling or geo-process simulation. The IAMG 2011 conference will also address applied mathematical geosciences issues with a specific reference to alpine regions: simulation and modelling in hydrogeology and engineering geology as well as geohazard modelling.
For more information in English, please visit the IAMG 2011 Website

SPATIALreason Workshop organised in Philippines!

A week-long international workshop entitled 'Integrating Spatial Reasoning in Interdisciplinary Research and Education' and focussing on GIScience faculty development was conducted by the Centre for Geoinformatics (Z_GIS), University of Salzburg, Austria. The workshop was hosted by the Department of Geography (DGeog), University of the Philippines (UP), Diliman from 15th to 19th August, 2011 and  was co-funded by ASEA Uninet, Austria.
Dr. Shahnawaz from Z_GIS delivered the workshop to 18 teachers and post-graduate students from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Dr. Darlene Occena-Gutierrez (DGeog, UP) observed that this was the first international workshop organised by the department exclusively for GIScience faculty development and this will enhance the presence and impact of GIScience education in the Philippines.

During the workshop, participants attended conceptual lectures about spatial reasoning and its integration with various disciplines as well as intensive hands-on training of GIS software for applying spatial reasoning in various application domains

Drought Crisis at the Horn of Africa - Z_GIS supports humanitarian organization with information derived from satellite imagery

The severe drought at the Horn of Africa threatens millions of people and force them to flee. In Dadaab (Kenia) three refugee camps give temporary home to almost 400,000 people. The new arriving refugees pose a challenge for humanitarian organizations as they are settling uncoordinated on the outskirts of the camps and making water demand, a limited resource in this area, increasing.

In the frame of an existing cooperation with a globally active humanitarian organization, Z_GIS analysed one of the three refugee camps in Dadaab, Dagahaley, using very-high- and medium spatial resolution satellite imagery. Single dwellings were extracted semi-automatically from a WorldView-2 imagery to retrieve information on the spatial distribution of the refugees.

In addition a map of potential groundwater borehole sites was produced based on visual lineament analysis from Landsat imagery and a Digital Elevation Model incl. derivatives (e.g. hillshade, curvature), to give a first indication of suitable areas for boreholes.