Pioneering GIS Professional Development Workshop at University of Nyala, Sudan!

The Interfaculty Department of Geoinformatics-Z_GIS was invited to conduct a workshop on 'Integrated Spatial Planning and Water Resources Management' at the University of Nyala (UofN), Sudan from 14th to 27th December, 2014. This was the first ever GIS professional development organised at this university. The workshop was hosted by the Water Harvesting Centre (WHC) at the Faculty of Engineering Sciences.

Dr. Shahnawaz (Z_GIS) and Dr. Wifag Hassan Mahmoud (Director WHC) delivered the 2 week long workshop to 20 participants from the Ministry of Urban Planning and Utilities - Survey Department, Ministry of Water Resources and Electricity, Ministry of Agriculture, World Vision - Sudan and from the Faculties of Education and Engineering Sciences, UofN.

Workshop participants studied the concepts of GIS, GeoDBMS creation and management, processing - classification - analyses of vector and raster datasets as well as work with digital elevation models (DEM).

The workshop concluded with a high level of satisfaction expressed by all participants.  It was followed by a meeting with top University Administration, with the Acting Vice Chancellor, the Deans of the Faculties of Engineering Sciences and Education as well as the Director of WHC expressed their gratitude to Z_GIS and to Dr Shahnawaz for their contributions and communicated their desire to transform this cooperation into a long term institutional relationship!

Impressive PhD defense of Michael Hagenlocher

Michael Hagenlocher, associated student of the Doctoral College “GIScience”, defended after 3 intensive years of PhD research his topic “Integrated spatial indicators for modeling, exploring and visualizing vulnerability to vector-borne diseases” successfully.

Prof. Michael Leitner from Lousiana State University and Prof. Alexander Fekete from Cologne University of Applied Sciences acted as discussants whereas his first supervisor Prof. Thomas Blaschke served as the chair of the committee.

Michael is a multi- and interdisciplinary researcher, working at Z_GIS, with a broad interest in socio-economic, health and development-related issues. Before taking on his current position at Z_GIS in 2011 he completed his Master in geography, sociology and geoinformatics at the Universities of Tübingen and Stuttgart. In 2013 Michael held an appointment as visiting graduate student at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), Boston, USA.

We wish Michael all the best for his future career!

Z_GIS launches new website on humanitarian services

In the frame of the first annual meeting of the EO4HumEn project, Z_GIS presented its new released website on Earth observation-based humanitarian services. The website covers Z_GIS’ efforts to provide state of the art routines and services for crisis-related geo-spatial information on refugee and IDP camps as required by aid organizations in mission planning and day-to-day operations. 
The activities are carried out within the project EO-based information services in support of humanitarian operations, funded by the Karl Kahane Foundation.

The services are further improved within the EO4HumEn project, an ASAP-9 30-months project funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG). The first EO4HumEn annual project meeting took place in Salzburg on November 26, 2014. The meeting presented the achievements of the first project year, reflecting on the status of the deliverables and discussing the forthcoming work. The project team appreciated the positive feedback from FFG regarding the progress of the project.

A major upcoming dissemination activity of the EO4HumEn project is the organization of a special workshop on “Earth observation for Humanitarian Operations” (EO4Hum) at the GI_Forum 2015 in Salzburg. The special session EO4Hum will focus on the potential of EO data and technologies to support humanitarian action in crisis and disaster response. We welcome contributions from related research and practical application fields, including new methods, tools and technologies for providing geospatial information products related to all phases of humanitarian crises.

Call for papers deadline is 01 February 2015
.

'multiGIS' Workshop successful in Malaysia!

The Department of Geoinformatics - Z_GIS completed a week-long international capacity building workshop on 'Multi-Disciplinary Applications of GIScience in Southeast Asia (multiGIS)' at the National University of Malaysia (UKM). The workshop was organised jointly by Z_GIS and the School of Social, Development and Environmental Studies (FSSK), UKM from 17th to 21st November, 2014 followed by a field excursion on 22nd November. It was co-funded by ASEA Uninet, Austria.

Under the direction of Prof. Josef Strobl (Head, Z_GIS), Dr. Shahnawaz (Z_GIS) and Dr. Lam Kuok Choy (PPSPP) conducted the workshop at UKM. Dr. Abdul Hair Awang (Head, PPSPP) inaugurated the workshop and Prof. Mastura Mahmud (Deputy Dean of Research, UKM) awarded the certificates of successful completion to the workshop participants.

Focusing on interdisciplinary faculty development, 29 teachers and postgraduate students from 16 universities in 5 countries (i.e. Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam) participated in the workshop. The participants worked on individual projects covering a range of multi-discplinary applications of GIScience in Southeast Asia using ArcGIS Desktop software and presented the outcomes in the concluding session.

Z_GIS develops OBIA/GIS applications to support Humanitarian Demining efforts

The consortium of the EC-FP7 funded project TIRAMISU works on implementing a toolbox to assist the Mine Action community in addressing the removal of Anti-Personal Mines, Submunitions and UXO (unexploded ordance). Z_GIS is concerned with the development of object-based methods to map indicators of mine presence (IMP; e.g. trenches, walls, craters) and specific land use/land cover classes based on remote sensing data in mine-affected areas in Croatia and Cambodia.

Semi-automated crater detection, Cambodia

A conceptual risk and vulnerability framework, which serves as a guidance tool for the conceptualization, systematization and operationalization of social vulnerability to landmines/UXOs is also being designed by the Z_GIS team. Spatial vulnerability analyses are performed as a contribution to the prioritization of possible intervention areas.

For more information, please contact Daniel Hölbling.