Prof Thomas Blaschke elected to Austrian Academy of Sciences

Prof Blaschke on April 17 was elected as a corresponding member into the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW). This is a significant recognition of the impact of his scientific work on the highest level, and a huge honour for Z_GIS, the Doctoral College and the University of Salzburg to have Prof Blaschke among its leaders.

Due to the strictly limited number of national Academy of Sciences members only few scientists are elected into its ranks every year, as every nominee needs to be confirmed on multiple levels, listed within the available places, and is required to receive a majority of votes by the current membership.

We at Z_GIS are proud of this achievement - congratulations!

New Journal Paper on ABIA now available

The article Towards a framework for agent-based image analysis of remote-sensing data has been published by the International Journal of Image and Data Fusion in March.

The article introduces a framework for agent-based image analysis (ABIA) of remote sensing data. Robust and transferable object-based solutions for automated image analysis, capable of analysing sets of images or even large image archives, are still rare. Object-based image analysis (OBIA) rule sets bear a high potential of transferability. The high complexity of image content however often makes human interaction necessary.
In order to automate the adaption and adjustment procedures, the authors (Hofmann, Lettmayer, Blaschke et.al) investigated the coupling, extension and integration of OBIA with the agent-based paradigm of ABIA. They show that even with simple designed image object agents (IOAs) enabling agent-based control and simulation, an improvement of the initial classification is possible. The authors demonstrate the potential of ABIA to autonomously adapt image objects to unknown imaging situations. Link to article

Award for Excellence in Teaching @ Z_GIS | Congratulations!

Christoph Traun and Martin Loidl from Z_GIS have received the 'Award for Excellence in Teaching' for their class 'Geo-Communication'.

The 'Award for Excellence in Teaching' of the University of Salzburg has been presented to the 4 finalists from the summer semester 2014 and winter semester 2014/15 - with Christoph and Martin taking the top spot with their final presentation. Initial nominations for this award come from students, leading up to an assessment by an expert jury. On April 15, the prize was awarded at the "Day for Teaching 2015".

Congratulations! 

They follow in the footsteps of Z_GIS’ Dirk Tiede, who previously had won this prize for his 'Design and Development of Applications' class.

> More Information

Special Issue: Earth Observation for monitoring NATURA 2000 Habitats

A special issue of Elsevier´s "International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation" provides insights into how Earth Observation (EO) technology supports authorities in monitoring NATURA 2000 habitats.

This Special Issue is a joint outcome of the two complementary EU projects MS.MONINA and BIO_SOS. Both projects have prepared the ground for establishing multi-scale services for habitat and biodiversity mapping based on satellite information.

MS.MONINA, coordinated by the Department of Geoinformatics - Z_GIS at the University of Salzburg fosters the use of Copernicus space and in-situ data infrastructure for supporting NATURA 2000 monitoring and management. From a multi-scale perspective it provides on-demand geospatial information to users such as local, national and European authorities.

The compilation of 17 original papers demonstrates the multi-faceted advantages of EO data in support of biodiversity, ecosystem and habitat monitoring. This is achieved especially with respect to the time and cost effectiveness of the tools. The published papers also show the multi-temporal/multi-scale capabilities for monitoring conservation targets. The journal special issue provides an overview of the state-of-the-art and challenges in remote sensing for mapping natural habitats and their conservation status.

The articles are accessible under open access for six months:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03032434/37

Z_GIS presented HEALTHY FUTURES results at IECID conference

From 23-25 March 2015, the Impact of Environmental Changes on Infectious Diseases conference (IECID) took place at the Melia Sitges hotel in Sitges, Spain. The conference covered areas like the impact of current and predicted future environmental changes on infectious disease dynamics in people, wildlife, and livestock across the globe, and what actions need to be taken.

At the conference, the EC FP7 project HEALTHY FUTURES sponsored a session entitled “Assessing the health impacts of environmental changes in eastern Africa - spatial modelling tools for integrated risk assessment”, where the project as such as well as some of the main outcomes of the project were presented by the scientific coordinator Prof. David Taylor and further members of the project consortium.

Z_GIS was represented by Dr. Michael Hagenlocher who gave the talk at the conference (S. Kienberger, M. Hagenlocher and A. Tompkins on “Risk to malaria infection in East Africa – integration of environmental and socioeconomic factors”) and presented three posters at two dedicated poster sessions:

·        Mapping malaria risk and vulnerability in the United Republic of Tanzania (Hagenlocher & Castro)

·        Spatial variation and factors associated with dengue fever outbreaks in an urban environment of Colombia (Delmelle et al.)

·        A web-based risk and vulnerability atlas for vector-borne diseases in eastern Africa (Kienberger et al.)

The talk of Michael was attended by approximately 150 people and triggered interesting discussions, while the poster presenting the HEALTHY FUTURES Atlas was highlighted as particularly interesting by The Lancet Infectious Diseases (the leading clinical infectious disease journal) on their Twitter account.