GIScience colloquium

Date: Tuesday, May, 6, 2014;  17:00 – 18:00
Place: Techno-Z, GI-lecture room: SC30OG1.107  (Schillerstraße 30, building 14)
Presenter: Michael Hodgson (Visiting professor from University of South Carolina)

Uncovering Cognitive Processes used in Image Interpretation as Fundamental to OBIA-based Modeling

The trend in the use of remotely sensed imagery for mapping land use/cover information has shifted from coarse spatial resolutions and automated information extraction to fine spatial resolution imagery and human visual analysis.  Considerable research is directed to developing accurate methods for automatically extracting such land use/cover classes.   However, many automated extraction methods, even those claiming to embody perceptual/cognitive principles, are inferior to the capabilities of human visual analysis.   A better understanding of how humans interpret remotely sensed imagery would help to improve automated extraction methods, particularly if we claim to develop systems that are knowledge-based, expert, or founded on perceptual/cognitive theories.

Researches in image cognition and object-based image analysis have common application goals but dissimilar research goals and approaches.  In this presentation, novel approaches using eye-tracking and other perceptual methods for measuring how experienced image analysts interpret imagery are discussed.  This presentation is meant to elicit active dialogue on the opportunities for combined efforts in OBIA or cognitive research.

Call for Erasmus Mundus Action 2 "gSmart"

The next Call for the Erasmus Mundus Action 2 'gSmart' initiative will be opened from tomorrow until June 16, 2014: http://em-gsmart.zgis.net/how-to-apply/calls 

Before applying - please check your eligibility and scholarship conditions carefully on the Website: http://em-gsmart.zgis.net! 

Or get advise from CA partner contacts, who are the primary contacts at partner universities in Central Asia, and familiar with opportunities, requirements and criteria within gSmart: http://em-gsmart.zgis.net/ca-partner-contacts

FP7 project CAERUS: Kick-off Meeting in Brussels

The project CAERUS
got kicked off at a joint partners meeting from 14th – 16th of April 2014 in Brussels. CAERUS – Evidence based policy for post crisis transition – involves an international consortium exploring the transition from conflict to recovery and development, seeking to identify those policies that maximize the likelihood of a successful transition. The project is coordinated by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters and is currently identifying different case study countries to be used for post crisis analysis. Z_GIS will be involved with regard to quantitative and qualitative methods for education and health studies, and specifically with regard to the Integrative Analysis Services to be developed in CAERUS. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 607960.

Europe-Africa conference on Climate Change and Vector-Borne Disease

Future environmental changes could impact the health risk associated with vector-borne disease transmission in Africa. The poor are particularly vulnerable. In response, the EU FP7 HEALTHY FUTURES project is coordinating a conference with the following themes:
- Environmental changes and vector-borne diseases
- Statistical and dynamical disease modeling
- Climate change-related risk analysis and vulnerability assessment
- Adaptation to climate change-related health impacts

A selection of papers delivered during the conference will be published in a special issue of Geospatial Health, the international scientific journal of the Global Network for Geospatial Health.

Venue: NoblezaHotel, Kikukiro, Kigali, Rwanda,
Conference dates: 18-20 November 2014
Submission deadlines: for receipt of abstracts: 30 April 2014

For further information, please refer to the conference website or contact Stefan Kienberger.

Z_GIS Journal Publication Highlight

Feizizadeh, B., Blaschke, T. (2014): An uncertainty and sensitivity analysis approach for GIS-based multicriteria landslide susceptibility mapping. International Journal of Geographical Information Science. Volume 28, Issue 3, 610-638. DOI:10.1080/13658816.2013.869821

Successful PhD defense of Ingrid Schardinger

Ingrid Schardinger successfully defended her PhD Thesis entitled “Räumliche Modellierung und Optimierung regionaler Energiesysteme“ (spatial modelling and optimization of regional Energy systems). 

Prof. Blaschke served as the chair of the examination panel, Prof. Gerd Peyke (University of Augsburg) and Prof. Josef Strobl acted as discussants.

In a close collaboration with the research studio iSPACE and the Max-Planck Institute for Plasma Physics Ingrid Schardinger developed a computer based model for the optimisation of regional rural energy systems. This decision support tool links a linear optimisation model with spatial approaches. The central research question is “Can optimisation approaches linked with spatial models improve the quantification and representation of regional rural energy system developments?”

In order to model regional energy relevant structures, geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial methods are used. The potentials of renewable energy in Austria were systematically and the spatio-temporal pattern of demand and supply were illustrated in graphs and maps. One special focus was the regional level for rural areas which are not considered explicitly in most models. One model was developed in high detail for the community St. Roman in Upper Austria where detailed household interviews about energy consumption and mobility behaviour were carried out. Surprisingly, even in a very rural area daily commuting distances are not limiting for a high share of electric cars in the future.

We congratulate Ingrid to her performance and wish her all the best for her future career.