Big news at the EORC: as of today, October 1st, 2026, Stefan Dech is officially a senior professor at the University of Würzburg, and he’s staying right where he belongs, with us at the EORC. Stefan will keep working with us on a whole range of Earth Observation topics, in research and in training alike. […]

On 30 September 2026, representatives from the Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection (StMUV), the Bavarian Environment Agency (LfU), the EORC of the University Würzubrg (JMU), and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) met at DLR Oberpfaffenhofen as part of the EO4CAM (Earth Observation Laboratory for Climate Adaption and […]

Our PhD candidate Luisa Pflumm is back in Kruger National Park for her third field campaign. Her PhD focuses on how savanna trees respond to combined fire and drought stress for which she is flying UAVs equipped with multispectral and LiDAR sensors. With this round of multispectral and LiDAR data of the same study areas, […]

The JMU Online Magazine – einBLICK – reported yesterday on our recent study “From Measured to Experienced Heat: A Multimodal Analysis of Temperature, Urban Form, and Social Media in Mexico City” from the Geolingual Studies team. The full einBLICK article titled “Beyond temperature: How people experience urban heat” can be read here: https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/news-and-events/einblick/single/news/heat-city/ The open […]

Last week, our colleague Johannes Mast received the Bernd Rendel Prize for Geosciences from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). The award recognizes his innovative early-career research, which integrates cross-disciplinary approaches to deepen our understanding of human-environment interactions. Our heartfelt congratulations to Johannes!   The award ceremony took place at GeoMin2026 in Bochum, an annual conference organized […]

Congratulations to Henning Riecken, who successfully defended his MSc thesis on September 28, 2026: “Mapping and Structural Assessment of Woody Vegetation in Bavaria Using Digital Elevation Models and Multisource Geodata” Henning’s thesis explores how newly available high-resolution geodata can be used to map woody vegetation across the entire State of Bavaria. By combining an image-based […]

Martin’s the lecturer who actually built the systems behind the hyperspectral data EAGLE students learn to analyze. He’s a research scientist with the Land Surface Dynamics Department at DLR’s German Remote Sensing Data Center in Wessling, and his over twenty years of experience in hyperspectral data analysis and pre-processing shows up directly in what he […]

Today,  Dr. Richard LEMOINE-RODRÍGUEZ gave a talk at the DLR Open Search Colloquium. The title of his talk was ‘Multimodal urban sensing: Integrating social media and remote sensing data for urban research’. Here is the Abstract of his talk: Remote sensing has advanced our understanding of cities’ physical structure through detailed multitemporal […]

The Peer School of Sustainable Development ( https://www.peerschool.de/ ) has set itself the goal of transforming society towards sustainable development. Sustainability specialists from businesses, foundations and academia, as well as the next generation of professionals in the field of sustainability, are given the opportunity to learn together and share specialist knowledge and experiences with one […]

On Monday, 28.09.26, at 12 p.m., Henning Riecken will present his MSc thesis on “Mapping and Structural Assessment of Woody Vegetation in Bavaria Using Digital Elevation Models and Multisource Geodata” in in seminar room 3, John-Skilton-Str. 4a. From the abstract: This study presents a high-resolution Woody Vegetation Height Model for the entire State of Bavaria. […]

We are pleased to congratulate Agnes Zwick on the successful defense of her MSc thesis within the EAGLE programme. Her work, titled “New Housing Development Areas: Assessing Structural Types and Environmental Effects,” was carried out as part of the EO4CAM project (Earth Observation for Climate Adaptation and Mitigation) and makes a timely and policy-relevant contribution to […]

Last week, Antonio José Castañeda-Gómez, PhD student at the EORC, showed his research at the joint NSO-GfÖ 2026 ecology conference, presenting on the use of multi-sensor UAV data to characterise forest structural complexity along silvicultural treatment gradients in the University forest Sailershausen, a forest owned and managed by University of Würzburg. The study is part […]

Last week, EORC PhD student Elio Rauth presented research on the effect of UAV-derived snow depth on the spatial distribution of vegetation types on Svalbard at the joint NSO-GfÖ 2026 ecology. The study is part of Elio’s PhD research as part of which he has been collaborating with the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS). In […]

Tanja is the lecturer whose work keeps landing directly on the desks of the people who actually have to act on it — Bavarian ministries, municipalities, foresters, farmers and planners. She joined DLR’s German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) in 2002 and has been scientific advisor to the institute’s director since 2008 — a role […]

The Stadtfest Würzburg took over the city this weekend, and it wasn’t just the university out there. Many organisations, local initiatives, like DLRG and all other kinds of groups had booths, and we joined in with our own little corner on Earth observation. People kept stopping by all day, asking questions about what satellites can […]

Under the theme – HOSTING THE EARTH AT THE CHRISTUSKIRCHE IN MAINZ https://www.gaia-mainz.de/ – the world-famous installation GAIA by the British artist Luke Jerram is on display from 13 September to 4 October 2026. Seven meters in size, the Earth hovers beneath the church’s dome. Standing beneath GAIA, visitors experience our planet from the perspective […]

Yesterday, at the joint NSO-GfÖ 2026 conference in Odense, Denmark, EORC postdoc Dr. Jakob Schwalb-Willmann presented research on the use of UAV and satellite remote sensing data of winter and summer surface conditions to model winter foraging selection of Svalbard reindeer on fine spatial scales. This research is part of an ongoing collaboration between University […]

At the joint NSO-GfÖ 2026 conference in Odense, Denmark, EORC postdoc and EO4cam researcher Dr. Julia Rieder gave an interesting talk on the use of airborne laser scanning (ALS) data and orthophoto time series data from airplane campaigns to detect change in canopy openness of European Beech and the link of openness to the tree’s […]

This week, EORC postdoc and EO4cam researcher Dr. Maninder Singh Dhillon presented work on a new product developed as part of the EO4cam project at the joint NSO-GfÖ 2026 conference in Odense, Denmark: A bavarian-wide biodiversity indicator for farmland that measures biodiversity based on various input variables such as crop rotation or nearby hedges. His […]

Another contribution from the Earth Observation Center (EOC) of the DLR and our Earth Observation Research Cluster (EORC) at INTERGEO was a presentation by Prof. Dr. Hannes Taubenböck in the session ‘Earth Observation: Crises’. The presentation, entitled “Die Geographie der Gewalt: Fernerkundung zur Analyse von Flucht, Vertreibung, bewaffneten Konflikten und Kriegen;  [engl.] The Geography of […]

Over the last three days, our colleagues, Dr. Ariane Droin, Dr. Henri Debray, and PhD students Sofía García and Basil Tufail, have taken part in the annual INTERGEO trade show in Munich. INTERGEO is the largest convention in the international geospatial industry based in Germany. Our colleagues represented the EORC by showcasing our different research […]

Our ‘Super test site Würzburg’ team (Super-Test Site Workshop – Earth Observation News; Super-Test-Site Würzburg meeting – Earth Observation News) contributed this year to the PLATIAL’26: International Symposium on Platial Information Science that takes place in Salzburg Austria from the 16th to the 18th of September. Dr. Dominik Kremer presented on behalf of the team […]

A special moment for our EAGLE lecturer and DLR colleague Dr. Thilo Erbertseder to open the SPIE Sensors + Imaging Symposium 2026 in Edinburgh, UK, bringing together around 1,000 participants from across the international community.He is honored to serve as Symposium Chair and Co-Chair for Environmental Remote Sensing alongside Dr. Chantal Andraud, Research Director at […]

The JMU Online Magazine – einBLICK – reported yesterday on the recent book publication from the Geolingual Studies team. You can read the full article, entitled “Taking a bird’s-eye view of the English language“, here: https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/aktuelles/einblick/single/news/geolingual-studies/   The article also informs on the public book launch event on 15 October. The book launch will take […]

The first edited volume on “Geolingual Studies on Urban Space” has now been published by the Edinburgh University Press as part of the series New Directions in World Englishes Research. The volume is edited by Carolin Biewer, Lisa Lehnen, Ninja Schulz and Hannes Taubenböck. Please see here for details: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-geolingual-studies-on-urban-space.html This volume is one outcome of […]

This week, the EORC is participating in the joint NSO-GfÖ 2026 conference in Odense, Denmark. The conference brings together researchers of all career stages from all across ecology research, representing a wide range of methods and applications, including topics at the intersection of remote sensing and ecology. The event is particularly unique, as it is […]

The drought of 2026 has once again highlighted the challenges that increasingly frequent dry periods and heat waves pose to agriculture. Against this background, the Bavarian State Research Center for Agriculture (LfL) organized a field day in Schwarzenau on 10 September 2026. Hosted by the Bayerische Staatsgüter (BaySG), the event focused on future crops and […]

A new study published in the ZfV – Zeitschrift für Geodäsie, Geoinformation und Landmanagement (special issue for INTERGEO 2026) demonstrates how modern Earth Observation (EO) techniques can be applied to map urban green spaces and individual trees in Munich with unprecedented detail. The article titled “Fernerkundungsbasierte Erfassung von Stadtgrün und Stadtbäumen am Beispiel der Landeshauptstadt […]

The DLRK2026 – Deutsche Luft- und Raumfahrt Kongress took place in Aachen from 8 to 10 September 2026. https://dlrk2026.dglr.de/ We contributed to the Earth observation sessions. Hannes Taubenböck gave a presentation entitled ‘Erdbeobachtung in Zeiten globaler Krisen: Wie KI und Fernerkundung die Welt neu sehen‘ [engl.: ‘Earth observation in times of global crises: How AI […]

On September 22, 2026, Agnes Zwick will present her Master Thesis on ” New Housing Development Areas: Assessing Structural Types and Environmental Effect” at 10:00 at the seminar room 3 in John-Skilton-Str. 4a. From the abstract: Germany faces a persistent tension between accelerating housing construction and meeting its land-saving and climate-adaptation objectives. While official statistics […]

Mapping mountain pine remains a challenge, particularly in steep Alpine terrain where Pinus mugo forms dense krummholz thickets that are difficult to separate from surrounding vegetation and hard to survey on the ground. In our new study led by Basil Tufail, we explore the potential of Sentinel-2 time series to map mountain pine across the […]

We will be actively participating at InterGeo this September: we’ve got a small booth right next to Wingtra’s exhibition space, over in Hall B6, booth B6E045. Come by and have a look on what we’ve been working on across the EORC especially focused on our UAS earth observation research but not exclusively. Thenwe will also […]

Save the date for our next EORC Talk! On 6 October 2026, we will welcome Stephan J. Schmidt from Cornell University to the Earth Observation Research Cluster (EORC) in Würzburg. In his talk “Urban Form and the Heat Island Effect”, he will explore how the shape and structure of cities influence urban heat. Drawing on […]

On September 22, 2026, Henning Riecken will present his internship results on ” Internship at the German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) of the German Aerospace Center (DLR)” at 12:00 at the seminar room 3 in John-Skilton-Str. 4a. From the abstract: Through the Bavarian Fruit Tree Pact, the Bavarian government, in collaboration with civil society […]

Last week a group of PhD and EAGLE MSc students visited the Umweltforschungsstation Schneefernerhaus (UFS) at the Zugspitze for a workshop on research in high alpine ecosystems. The workshop was kicked-off by presentations from some of our students, who are conducting research at the Zugspitze as part of their PhD and MSc thesis projects. PhD […]

Our EORC staff member Dr. Julia Rieder has published a new study in Forestry: An International Journal of Forest Research, together with colleagues from TU Dresden, the University of Göttingen, HSWT Weihenstephan, and the University of Würzburg. This study, based on data collected within the BeechDecline project, investigates how the size, orientation, and temporal dynamics […]

The heatwaves of summer 2026 and the associated excess mortality highlight one aspect of the dramatic nature of climate change. Over the years, we have carried out a great deal of research on the topic of ‘urban heat islands’ (see below for related works) – but we have never investigated how residents perceive and communicate […]

Urban tree classification is still a challenge for remote sensing, particularly in heterogeneous urban environments where tree genera are highly diverse and existing inventories often provide incomplete coverage. In our new study, we explore the potential of very high-resolution remote sensing to complement urban tree cadasters and provide large-scale information on the composition and diversity […]

The Cobalt Magnet: Rapid Urbanization and Migration An incredible amount of the technology we rely on every day – from smartphones to lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles – depends heavily on one single metal: cobalt. With more than 60% of the world’s cobalt produced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the high demand […]

From September our EORC PI Florian Betz will join the Collegium de Lyon as invited Fellow in Watershed Sciences. During his fellowship, he will collaborate closely with researchers from the H2O’Lyon Graduate School of Integrated Watershed Sciences on the project “From pixels to fluvial processes – using satellite time series for analyzing biogeomorphic dynamics across […]

On August 25, 2026, Lutz Kleemann will present his internship results on ” Verifiable Nature Units” at 12:00 at the seminar room 3 in John-Skilton-Str. 4a. From the abstract: Biodiversity credits and conservation work increasingly depend on measurable outcomes. During my internship at WWF I implemented a data pipeline for generating Verifiable Nature Units (VNU’s): […]

Almost a year ago, Josipa Subotic showed up at EORC as a DBU scholar, and now her stay with us is coming to an end. Josipa spent her time digging into snow cover properties around the Zugspitze, working with Sentinel-2 time series data. Multispectral imagery, lots of it, stretched out over time, that’s the kind […]

Developing resilient agricultural systems requires close collaboration between research institutions, industry, and agricultural practice. At the Earth Observation Research Cluster (EORC), University of Würzburg, an ongoing joint study with the Bavarian State Research Center for Agriculture (LfL), Intracrop Ltd., and Ackerbau GmbH Rottenbauer is exploring how Earth observation can support the assessment of crop resilience […]

A joint analysis of data journalists from BR24 and scientists from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) revealed that nearly half of all senior homes in Unterfranken are located within urban heat islands. The basis for this analysis are satellite-based observations of land surface temperature (LST) over several years, which were prepared in the context of […]

One of the aims of Geolingual Studies Geolingual Studies – Geolingual Studies is to ensure effective science communication beyond the scientific community and into the wider society. The Geolingual Studies team was given the opportunity to look at concepts and methods at Deutsches Museum, Munich, on 5 August 2026. The colleagues were guided through the […]

On August 11, 2026, Espérance Kandjale will present her Innolab results on ” Post-processing and Quality Assessment of Mapathon-Derived Mining Data for Cobalt Belt Mapping ” at 12:00 in seminar room 3, John-Skilton-Str. 4a. From the abstract: During my internship, I worked on the post-processing and quality assessment of Mapathon-derived mining data for the DRC […]

We are delighted that Johannes Mast has been awarded the Bernd Rendel Prize by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for his original and promising geoscientific research carried out prior to his PhD. We had already reported on this: https://remote-sensing.org/johannes-mast-wins-bernd-rendel-prize/ Now, our university and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have also reported on it. Please read […]

Einblick, the University of Würzburg’s press medium, published an article on our double anniversary, 25 years of Earth observation research and 10 years of EAGLE M.Sc. program, today. Recently, they has visited us at our EORC to hear about our research and teaching and to talk to some of our staff and students. For the […]

What began with a diploma thesis by Nicolas J. Kraff on the physical structure of slums in Mumbai, India, in 2011 has now culminated in a globally distributed dataset of building footprints covering 44 poverty and informal settlement areas across four continents. Between 2011 and 2020, the mapping work developed from the analysis of individual […]