As summer temperatures soar, the health risks associated with heat stress become increasingly significant. This issue is particularly pronounced in urban areas such as Heidelberg and other cities, where dense building structures and limited green spaces exacerbate the problem. Vulnerable … Read More
Blog
Proactive Disaster Management: Pioneering Forecast-based Financing Across Global Challenges
Forecast-based Financing (FbF) is an innovative approach to disaster management that focuses on taking early action based on meteorological forecasts and risk assessments to mitigate the impacts of potential disasters. Instead of waiting for a disaster to strike and then … Read More
GIS for Disaster Response: A Field Trial by the University of Heidelberg
Two weeks ago, as part of a seminar on GIS for Disaster Risk Reduction led by HeiGIT employees, students from Heidelberg University tested several HeiGIT services in a field test. The focus was on the following applications: openrouteservice, the disaster … Read More
Our Contribution to the State of the Map Europe 2024 Conference in Łódź
This year, two of our colleagues will participate at the State of the Map Europe 2024 Conference, which will take place from July 18-21, 2024, in Łódź, Poland. The annual event is a cornerstone for the European (OpenStreetMap) OSM community, … Read More
Enhancing school safety with openrouteservice: the digital school route planner
The OpenStreetMap (OSM) and openrouteservice (ORS) provide free geospatial data that serve a multitude of research and practical applications. OSM thrives on its community-driven approach, ensuring its data is always up-to-date and versatile. ORS takes this a step further by … Read More
OSM Landuse Data is available in HeiData
We are excited to announce that the data displayed on OSM – Landuse is now freely accessible. These data sets offer valuable insights and can be utilized for various applications. Urban planners will find the data useful for development projects … Read More
HeiGIT’s 5 Years Milestone: Looking Back at our Achievements
HeiGIT is celebrating its fifth anniversary today, July 1st! To commemorate this occasion, we invite you to join us on a little walk down memory lane. As we reflect on our achievements and the milestones we have reached, we want … Read More
Reflections on the 2024 YouthMappers Leadership Fellows Workshop
The YouthMappers network recently held its 2024 Leadership Fellows Workshop, an inspiring event that brought together a top cohort of university students from around the globe. This year’s workshop, held in Bangkok, Thailand, was a dynamic seven-day program dedicated to … Read More
Mapping With Communities workshop at AGILE 2024
HeiGIT and Urban Big Data Centre (UBDC) hosted a successful international workshop entitled ‘Mapping with Communities’ at the AGILE 2024 conference in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. Responding to the conference theme of ‘Geographic Information Science for a Sustainable Future’ two teams facilitated activities with … Read More
Quantifying CO2 Emissions from Land Use Changes
The role of land use changes in generating CO2 emissions is a crucial aspect in the fight against climate change. These emissions are the second-largest source of anthropogenic greenhouse gases, following energy production and usage. Given the urgent need to … Read More
Use Case: ORS for Modeling Health and Well-Being
Open-source tools that incorporate open geospatial data, such as openrouteservice (ORS), prove to be beneficial for both academic research and practical applications. These tools enable researchers to pursue innovative approaches aimed at addressing complex societal challenges and beyond. A great … Read More
Call for Papers: Special Issue on Urban AI in Environment and Planning B
Together with collaborators from Urban Analytics Lab Singapore and CICI Lab, we are organising a special issue in Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, on the topic of Urban AI for a Sustainable Built Environment. Here is … Read More
HeiGIT Joins STADTRADELN: Cycling Towards a Sustainable Future
The HeiGIT team is delighted to be part of the STADTRADELN initiative, a competition that has been promoting environmentally friendly mobility since 2008. For 21 days, participants try to cycle as many everyday journeys as possible and thus support a … Read More
Enhancements in the QGIS Plugin for openrouteservice
The openrouteservice (ORS) QGIS plugin continues to evolve, bringing a suite of new features, improvements, and fixes that enhance its functionality and user experience. This update incorporates significant changes that will benefit users working on diverse geospatial projects. In this … Read More
The new MapSwipe Web App is here!
No matter where you are or which device you are using, you can now do voluntary work and make a difference, all from your browser with MapSwipe Web App! Since 2015, MapSwipe has harnessed the collective force of volunteers to … Read More
HEAL Project Takes Stage at the 17th Rhine-Neckar Modelling Day at Heidelberg University
The 17th Rhine-Neckar Modellierungstag (Modelling Day) at Heidelberg University will take place on June 13, focusing on the themes of optimization and sustainability. The event is organized by the Graduate School HGS MathComp in cooperation with the City of Heidelberg … Read More
Walkability: A Key Index for Climate Action
At HeiGIT, we are committed to raising awareness about the climate crisis and taking action to support stakeholders with knowledge and actionable know-how to drive the transformation of our society and built environment. In this spirit, we joined forces with … Read More
The EU-Project “Gitterzellendatenbank”: Determining Reachability Made Easy With Openrouteservice (ORS)
Free open geodata are of increasing importance. They are used in research or case studies and can lead to important insights on social, economic or environmental topics. A problem that often occurs while working with various kinds of geodata is … Read More
Mapping climate change with young citizen scientists at Explore Science 2024
Children, young adults, and aspiring citizen scientists of all ages can join us at this year´s Explore Science in Mannheim to delve into the science behind frozen ground thawing, maps of changing landscapes and much more, with plenty of interactive … Read More
Evidence for Systematic Bias in the Spatial Memory of Large Language Models
Recent studies primarily view Large Language Models (LLMs) in geography as tools for linking natural language to geographic information systems. However, Roberts et al. (2023) demonstrated GPT-4’s inherent ability to perform spatial reasoning tasks without relying on external processing engines. … Read More