Friday, May 18, 2018

E2mC Review Meeting with the European Commission

The interim review meeting of the project "E2mC - Evolution of Emergency Copernicus services" took place at the premises of the company e-GEOS, Rome, Italy. At the review meeting, the European Commission welcomed the extensive developments in the project, integrating social media and crowdsourcing in the Copernicus EMS. PLUS researchers showed the improvements generated by the Witness component by validating the results of the latest uses cases with official authority datasets. Besides discussions about methodological developments and dissemination activities, the project partners agreed to test the developed algorithms and software packages in the next months in the case of an EMS activation in real time. The next upcoming events in the scope of E2mC have been planned, one of the highlights being the special session at the GI_Forum “Participatory Disaster Management” with an interactive user workshop where the functionalities of the Witness component can be tested.  

Contact: Bernd Resch, Clemens Havas
For further information, please visit E2mC project website.   

HUMAN+ Project Kick-off

The HUMAN+ project, led by Ass.-Prof. Dr. Bernd Resch at Z_GIS, aims to improve the humanitarian situation of refugees through analysing and predicting the movement of larger groups of people, with a strong focus on ethical, legal and sociological aspects (https://giscience.zgis.at/human). The Austrian and German project partners (scientific, rescue organisations, and industry) met in Salzburg to kick off the project in mid April. The project is funded in the frame of the Austrian security research programme (FFG KIRAS) by the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (bmvit), and in the German Federal Government’s “Research for civil security 2012-2017” framework programme by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).  

Contact: Bernd Resch
For further information, please visit Z_GIS HUMAN+ website.   

Walk&Feel Project Started

The Walk&Feel project has recently been started, aiming to evaluate and improve urban
walkability. In a novel approach, the walking conditions for pedestrians are examined by combining human sensor data from wearable sensing devices with eDiary app entries and qualitative surveys (https://giscience.zgis.at/walkfeel). The two-year project is funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) in the “Mobility of the Future” programme. The Walk&Feel project has recently been started. In a novel approach, the project aims to evaluate the walking conditions for pedestrians by combining data from wearable sensors with eDiary app entries and qualitative surveys. The two-year project is funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) in the “Mobility of the Future” programme. 

Contact: Bernd Resch
For further information, please visit Z_GIS Walk&Feel website. 

Der 19. Österreichische Klimatag fand an der Universität Salzburg statt



Von 23. bis 25. April versammelten sich mehr als 250 WissenschaftlerInnen sowie MultiplikatorInnen, und Personen aus der Verwaltung erstmalig in Salzburg, um beim 19. Österreichischen Klimatag über die Herausforderungen des Klimawandels zu diskutieren und wissenschaftliche Fortschritte zu besprechen.

Die Klimatage widmeten sich mit rund 90 Vorträgen und Postern der Präsentation der neuesten Forschungsergebnisse des letzten Jahres. Relevante Erkenntnisse zur Zukunft des Tourismus in den Alpen, Chancen und Risiken einer an den Klimawandel angepassten Mobilitätsstrategie oder den fiskalischen Implikationen von potentiellen Schäden durch die veränderten Bedingungen spannen den inhaltlichen Bogen der Konferenz. Der Austausch zwischen Wissenschaft und Verwaltung bildete auch in diesem Jahr einen zentralen Programmpunkt, so wurde mit Ingmar Höbarth (Klima- und Energiefonds), Helmut Hojesky (BMNT), Birgit Bednar-Friedl (Universität Graz), Markus Kottek (Klimaschutzkoordinator Kärnten), Gerhard Pausch (Regionalverband Salzburger Seenland) und Stefan Kienberger (Universität Salzburg, Z_GIS) unter dem Titel „Spannungsfeld Klimaforschung – alle wollen das Beste, bekommen alle was sie brauchen?“ diskutiert.


KLIMA-WAAGNIS hieß die Intervention, die der Künstler Hermann Josef Hack auf dem Mozartplatz in Salzburg durchführte. Hundert gelbe Wasserwaagen verteilte der Künstler an Passanten und TeilnehmerInnen. „Try to be balanced and connected - versucht, ausgewogen und verbunden zu sein.“, so Hack. „Dieses treffende Motto sollte unsere Forschungsarbeit begleiten,“ kommentierte Prof. Hartmut Graßl, Pionier der Klimaforschung und Berater der Bundesregierung, der gemeinsam mit Prof. Helga Kromp-Kolb, bekannteste österreichische Klimaforscherin, an Hacks Performance teilnahm, die Aktion.

Antonia Osberger - Z_GIS was awarded 3rd place in the poster competition! Congratulations!
 
Der 20. Österreichische Klimatag wird 2019 in Wien stattfinden. 
Contact: Climate Change Center Austria
 




Friday, May 11, 2018

All's well that ends well: finalizing two Z_GIS-led humanitarian projects


Two Z_GIS-led projects in the humanitarian action domain were successfully completed with final project meetings held May 8-9 at the Earth Observation Center of DLR in Oberpfaffenhofen. Representatives from major humanitarian organisations, including Médicins Sans Frontières (MSF), Austrian Red Cross, ICRC, and SOS Children’s Villages were discussing the outcome of the FFG-ASAP funded projects and their potential uptake in operational service scenarios. While the EO4HumEn+ project has further elaborated monitoring techniques for displaced population and environmental resources, employing new technologies such as semantic time-series analysis and high-res Radar imagery, the X3D4Pop project has investigated methods for improving 3D reconstruction and disaggregation of population figures in urban areas. Both projects had strong international components being carried out in the framework of the cooperation with DLR and the Swiss Space programme. 
For further information, please visit Z_GIS Humanitarian Services website. 

Thursday, May 3, 2018

PhD Students and Alumni festival





The common field of Geoinformatics and GIScience – one term more technical, one more social sciences oriented -  is interdisciplinary, bridges various research topics and human dimensions. To account for the human dimensions of the research the Department of Geoinformatics – Z_GIS organized the first PhD Students and Alumni festival on Friday, April 27, 2018.

More than 70 attendees were fascinated by the inspiring keynote presentation “Manage work, not workers. Now to organize for complexity” given by Eric-Jan Kaak which was followed by two different moderated discussion sessions. They addressed aspects of PhD education in general, PhD supervision and societal questions.

The aim was to connect current PhD candidates and PhD alumni and to create a network in the field of Geoinformatics and GIScience.  Both, young researchers at the Department as well as our alumni are not only important ambassadors, but they can continue to benefit from the scientific, social and cultural exchange of ideas with colleagues and teachers.

The reunion was a unique opportunity to reminisce old times, to meet up with colleagues, professors and staff, and to be informed about the developments at the University and in particular the Department of Geoinformatics, Z_GIS.