Results

Map showing residential area in Pfaffengrund, Heidelberg, with building size classes marked in different colors and private plots and leisure areas indicated
  • In category: Research
New paper “Effects of urban building structures on the distribution of Aedes albopictus in Pfaffengrund, Heidelberg”
In response to the increasing abundance and spread of the invasive mosquito Aedes albopictus in Germany, this study examines how the effectiveness of control measures on breeding sites is influenced…
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Aerial view of a densely built settlement with scattered small houses near a water body
  • In category: Research
New paper “Open-access model for detecting openly dumped dispersed municipal solid waste from crowdsourced UAV imagery in Sub-Saharan Africa”
Openly dumped waste is a serious environmental and public health problem in many fast-growing cities, but small and scattered amounts of waste are often hard to track. A recent study…
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title: "How heat-resilient is cycling infrastructure in European cities? A new indicator for the Lancet Countdown". The graphic also shows a cycling road exposed to the sun.
  • In category: Climate Action, Research
How heat-resilient is cycling infrastructure in European cities?

A new indicator for the Lancet Countdown In Europe, cities are center stage for climate action. With three-quarters of the continent’s population and a majority of both energy demand and…

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Hexagonal photo of Mongolian rangelands with yurts and a river next to a hexagonal map showing land degradation in various colors
  • In category: Research
GeoAI for Land Degradation, Climate Resilience and Sustainable Development in Mongolia’s Rangelands
We combined Earth observation, an innovative custom-built deep-learning model, and spatial planning to map the condition of the rangelands around Töv province and Ulaanbaatar. The resulting maps provide actionable insights…
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unpaved road on the right; Qualitative examples of model performance on Planet imagery on the left. the graphic is used to illustrate a new pablication in the nature communications journal.
  • In category: Research
New paper in Nature Communications “The changing surface of the world’s roads”
The new paper presents the first global, multi-temporal dataset of road pavedness and width, built by applying a deep learning framework to PlanetScope satellite imagery from 2020 and 2024 to…
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View of a densely packed informal settlement with small houses and the text 'NEW PAPER Climate-sensitive urban energy poverty indicator framework'
  • In category: Research
New Paper “Climate-sensitive urban energy poverty indicator framework”
New paper published in Communications Sustainability, editorially selective open-access journal from the Nature Portfolio, presents the Climate-Sensitive Urban Energy Poverty Indicator Framework, which assesses household energy poverty under climate-sensitive urban…
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Indoor plants with sunlight shining through a window and overlaid text about indoor dwelling habitability and systematic review
  • In category: Research
New Paper “Indoor Dwelling Habitability: Conceptual Evolution, Methods, and Key Variables from a Systematic Review”
Indoor dwelling habitability affects health, comfort, and housing performance, but there is still no standardized approach for assessing it. This systematic review examines how the concept has evolved, which methods…
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Aerial view of a city with roads highlighted in red and blue overlaid with text 'NEW PAPER Unveiling spatiotemporal mechanisms of urban traffic'
  • In category: Research
New Paper “Unveiling spatiotemporal mechanisms of urban traffic: multi-scale determinants and explainable street-level dynamics of a graph neural network in Berlin”
Public traffic speed data usually cover only some parts of city road networks. In this paper, the authors present a clear framework to estimate missing street-level traffic speeds in Berlin….
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Three hands holding markers drawing green rectangles on printed maps on a table
  • In category: Research
New Paper: “Object-Level Detection of Hand-Drawn Annotations in Participatory Sketch Maps Using Paired Clean and Annotated Basemaps”
A new paper presented at the AGILE 2026 conference investigates how hand-drawn annotations in participatory sketch maps can be automatically extracted and digitized. The authors formulate annotation extraction as an…
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New Paper “Detour-based metrics of alcohol availability along walking commutes”
  • In category: Research
New Paper: “Detour-based metrics of alcohol availability along walking commutes”
This study introduces detour-based indices for alcohol exposure along walking commutes. Survey data estimate detour budgets to assess path-based availability. Results show how different retail regimes affect exposure, informing effective…
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New Paper: Analysis of the spatial and temporal pattern of COVID-19 incidence rate across Germany
  • In category: Research
New Paper: “Analysis of the spatial and temporal pattern of COVID-19 incidence rate across Germany”
This study analyzes five socio-economic factors shaping COVID-19 incidence rates across the 400 German districts. A regression analysis using spatial eigenvector mapping indicates that socio-economic factors might influence incidence less…
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Rural landscape with sparse trees, huts, and dry soil under a cloudy sky
  • In category: Research
New Paper: “Food Insecurity Projections for Anticipatory Action: Comparative Spatiotemporal Analysis of FEWS NET and the IPC in Somalia”
Food insecurity projections are a central component of anticipatory action frameworks, particularly in drought contexts. Presented at the AGILE 2026 conference, this paper compares FEWS NET and IPC food insecurity…
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the graphic shows an areal view of a landscape
  • In category: Research
New paper “Guiding Deep Learning with Landscape Metrics for LULC Mapping Applications”

Deep Learning (DL) has become a core methodological pillar in remote sensing and GeoAI, enabling large-scale applications such as Land Use Land Cover (LULC) mapping, object detection, and spatiotemporal prediction….

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Water surface with plants in the foreground and agricultural field
  • In category: Geoinformation for Humanitarian Aid, Research
New Paper “From Flood Risk to Caloric Loss: Compound Flood Impacts on Agriculture in Madagascar”
This study is based on Celina Thomé’s master thesis. It was presented at the ISCRAM 2026 conference, where it added to conversations about using data-driven methods to improve crisis management,…
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Aerial view of a parking lot with multiple parked cars and trees between parking rows with the text 'NEW PAPER Simulating Parking Choices Using Large Language Models: Experiments with GPT-4o Mini'
  • In category: Research
New paper “Simulating Parking Choices Using Large Language Models: Experiments with GPT-4o Mini”
A new Open Access paper published in the volume Geography According to Foundation Models by IOS Press explores how Large Language Models could help design stated-preference studies in urban mobility…
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Map showing color-coded socioeconomic groups and symbols for different housing types along a coastline
  • In category: Research
New paper “Hidden energy poverty and the energy performance gap: integrating building energy simulation, thermal comfort monitoring, and actual energy consumption”

Hidden Energy Poverty (hEP) represents an underestimated form of energy vulnerability in which households consume less energy than required to achieve adequate indoor thermal comfort conditions. This phenomenon is particularly…

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Pilot Urban Living Lab workshop in Heidelberg
  • In category: Research
Silver Ways Project: Walking the City in Someone Else’s Shoes

We left the office to experience the city through the eyes of older adults. But before we get into that, let us take a step back and explain why. The…

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Asphalt road with visible cracks and white text reading 'NEW PAPER Automated road crack localization for spatially guided highway maintenance'
  • In category: Research
New paper “Automated road crack localization for spatially guided highway maintenance”
Leveraging openly available airborne imagery this study presents a scalable framework for automated road pavement crack detection for spatially guided highway-maintenance….
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Close-up of a mosquito on a green plant leaf with text about a scientific study on Ae. albopictus and Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis in Heidelberg, Germany
  • In category: Research
New Paper “Fine-scale temporal and spatial dynamics of Ae. albopictus response to larviciding with Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis in Heidelberg, Germany”
A new study published in Scientific Reports examines the effectiveness of biological larviciding in controlling invasive mosquito populations in Heidelberg, Germany. Using detailed data, the research highlights how treatment effects…
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AI assisted mapping: Efforts towards opening the door to transparency
  • In category: Research
AI-assisted mapping: Efforts towards opening the door to transparency

What role does the human-in-the-loop play in AI-assisted mapping? AI-assisted mapping is rapidly changing how geospatial data is created, enabling features to be generated at a scale and speed that…

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