PROJECTS

In ReHIKE we investigate how satellite-based maps of glacier retreat and related geomorphological and periglacial processes in the surrounding alpine landscape can support alpine associations in managing high alpine hiking infrastructure. We use a time-series analysis of Sentinel-1 and -2 data from the Copernicus programme to map glacier extent and glacier foreland features for each year, monitor the instability of slopes, and identify mass movements. We analyse these different types of EO-derived maps and assign them to impact levels that categorise the collective impacts on alpine hiking infrastructure, including trail damage potential and potential risks for hikers. The resulting maps are used to assess the impact on the maintenance effort for hiking infrastructure caused by increased path damage and an increased risk for mountaineers. In workshops and user field trips, we present the example maps created for the study areas Wildspitze and Großvenediger to trail keepers and alpine infrastructure management and discuss their applicability in practice.

Project Partners: German Alpine Association (DAV), Austrian Alpine Association (ÖAV), University of Salzburg – Department of Geoinformatics – Z_GIS, LO.LA Peak Solutions GmbH.
Duration: 2024-2026

Website: www.spatial-services.com/ReHIKE

With PeaceEye, we are developing a state-of-the-art technology-conflict-peace interface to better analyse, understand and respond to security challenges. By integrating various geospatial and non-geospatial data sources, we provide stakeholders involved in conflict resolution, mediation, peacebuilding, diplomacy, humanitarian and development aid, together with local actors, with an asset to identify locations of potential violence before it occurs. This increases their capacity for emergency preparedness and contingency planning. Furthermore, it allows them to guide acute interventions and prompt adequate responses. PeaceEye enhances situational awareness for all actors involved in the HDP-Nexus (Humanitarian-Development-Peace), and comprises different interlaced components.

Project Partners: University of Salzburg – Department of Geoinformatics – Z_GIS, Andreas Papp Consulting e.U.
Duration: 2023-2024

SELINA will provide guidance for evidence-based decision-making that supports the protection, restoration, and sustainable use of our environment. Through a collaboration of experts from 50 partner organisations from all 27 EU member states, Norway, Switzerland, Israel, and the United Kingdom, SELINA will set new standards for international cooperation to promote Ecosystem Services (ES) and Biodiversity (BD) conservation and enhance Ecosystem Conditions (EC).

Providing robust practical information and recommendations to stakeholders from both the public and private sectors, SELINA will pave the way towards the transformative societal change required to achieve the ambitious goals of the European Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and the Green Deal.

Project Partners: 50 partner organisations from all 27 EU member states, Norway, Switzerland, Israel, and the United Kingdom: https://project-selina.eu/partners
Duration: 2022-2027

Gateway to EU-funded Space Research & Innovation supporting EU competitiveness and access to space

• Education and skills for space in the EU: The understanding of educational needs required by the research community and industry is fundamental to ensure that adequate educational standards and a skilled workforce are in place to compete in the future global space ecosystem.
• Creation and dissemination of scientific knowledge: Fundamental science and research are essential to enable more advanced technology development.
• Analysis of EU-funded projects in the field of space: Identification of best practices for the upcoming programming cycles.
• Support to the consultation platform: Support the inclusive and structured process established by the European Commission to elaborate a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA).
• Support to communication: Making EU-funded space research more visible and supporting DG DEFIS and HaDEA in their communication activities.

Project Partners: space-tec; RMA; Center for industrial studies; National observatory Athens, ESPI, University of Salzburg, Munich Aerospace, ASD Eurospace, SME4SPACE, Euroconsult
Duration: 2022-2025

In the Sparkling Science v.2 project (www.sparklingscience.at) u3Green, researchers, together with young people from partner schools, are developing a web-based and child- and youth-centered application for collecting, evaluating and sharing information about urban green. The app will be made available to a broad range of youth. The results collected with the app will be communicated with appropriate geovisualization products, such as online maps or storymaps. The core of the project is a strong involvement of young people in the entire process from the conception to the development to the evaluation of the results. This takes place through the participation of students in workshops and spotlight events, and as young Citizen Scientists in the context of internships and work camps lasting several days. The project is intended to enable planning processes in the future to take better account of young people’s demands on urban green space and to raise social awareness in this regard.

Project Partners: University of Salzburg Z_GIS (Lead); University of Salzburg School of Education SoE; Salzburger Institut für Raumordnung und Wohnen SIR; Österreichischer Dachverband für Geoinformation AGEO; Private Pädagogische Hochschule der Diözese Linz PH Linz; Naturpark Weißbach; Wissensstadt Salzburg; University of Salzburg Uni 55-PLUS; Akademisches Gymnasium Salzburg; ASO Stadt Salzburg; BG Zaunergasse Salzburg; BORG Oberndorf; Holztechnikum Kuchl; Werkschulheim Felbertal.
Duration: 2022-2025

EO kann räumliche explizite Informationen über die zeitliche Dynamik von Umweltfaktoren auf lokaler Ebene liefern und Proxy-Informationen für wirtschaftliche Aktivitäten an einem bestimmten Ort oder für eine Parzelle liefern. Andere Standortinformationen – verkörpert in GIS oder Kartensystemen wie OpenStreetMap (OSM) gespeichert – spiegeln die wirtschaftlichen Aktivitäten und ihre Fußabdrücke breiter. Während das Projekt von realen Problem ausgeht und drei KMU umfasst, hat es eine starke Forschungskomponente und wird durch die Integration heterogener Datenquellen, die vom räumlich-zeitlichen Slicing eines von Parzelleninformationen bis zum Footprinting reichen, zur Weiterentwicklung der Geoinformationswissenschaft und Erdbeobachtung beitragen von wirtschaftlicher und Satellitendaten.

Project Partners: UbiC, DSS, PLUS Z_GIS
Duration: 2022-2023

Earth Observation (EO) and geospatial information can make a major contribution to the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that anchor the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. INTERFACE will provide a user-friendly national data and information service prototype that will enable the use of Copernicus data and information services to be established within public administration in Austria.

Project Partners: EODC, ENVEO, PLUS Z_GIS, Joanneum Research, TU Wien, ZAMG
Duration: 2022-2025

The project focuses on the automated extraction of collective movement information from geo-social media, mobile phone data and in-situ image data with AI methods, and the scenario-oriented fusion of movement information in a novel mixed-methods approach, as well as its provision for crisis management.

Project Partners: Österreichisches Rotes Kreuz, Johanniter Österreich Ausbildung und Forschung gemeinnützige GmbH, JOANNEUM RESEARCH, eurofunk KAPPACHER GmbH
Duration: 2021-2023

The European earth observation program Copernicus as a joint initiative of the European Commission and the ESA is considered one of the most ambitious technological European programs. The introduction provides an essential basis for the dissemination and uptake of this technology by public authorities and administrations and ultimately a boost for opportunities in the private sector (new space). The EO*GI sector competence strategy tries to bundle capacities and use synergies in order to optimally exploit the potential of this technology to deal with current societal challenges (climate change, digitization, demographic change and migration, loss of biodiversity, etc.) at European level and internationally.

Duration: 2022-2023

The EO-Lab cloud is part of the Strategy “Artificial Intelligence” of the German Federal Government. It provides German entities for science and development easy and efficient access to earth observation data, a virtual working environment for processing these data, as well as extensive information and training to support users.

Project Partners: Urbetho CF GmbH, DLR-DFD, terrestris GmbH & Co. KG, Universität Salzburg, Fachbereich Geoinformatik – Z_GIS
Duration: 2022-2024

For more information: EO-Lab website

CAVE will combine innovative models of “community engagement” and vulnerability assessment and expertise from the social sciences and humanities (GSK) disaster research with possible technical applications and develop usable solutions from them. The aim is to analyze where risks and vulnerabilities may exist in the future and in the event of possible new pandemic scenarios (“disease X”) and how these can be countered in a participatory manner.

Project Partners: University of Salzburg Z_GIS, University of Innsbruck UIBK; Bundesministerium für Soziales, Gesundheit, Pflege und Konsumentenschutz BMSGPK; Bundesministerium für Landesverteidigung BMLV; Österreichisches Rotes Kreuz ÖRK; Disaster Competence Network Austria DCNA; Lebenshilfe GmbH; safeREACH GmbH
Duration: 2021-2023

The sealing of soils continues to increase, while advances in earth observation data sources (e.g. Copernicus) and technologies, data cubes for earth observation (EO – Earth Observation), open up new possibilities to detect and monitor changes on a regular basis. Existing methods do not yet meet the national requirements or are not mature enough to provide targeted information to decision-makers.

Project Partners: University of Salzburg Z_GIS
Duration: 2021-2022

The proposed project develops midstream EO technology to simplify data retrieval and access, increase interoperability of big EO data by means of semantic integration, and remove barriers between EO midstream technology and downstream applications. It combines novel technologies for systematic and automated information mining from EO data together with long time series of essential climate variables that are derived from heritage and Copernicus satellite data (AVHRR and Sentinel-3). The resulting cross-sensor semantic EO data cube will be linked to smart phone applications to execute pre-selected, relevant semantic queries on-the-fly. This provides uncomplicated public access to visualisations of EO-data-derived information about environmental changes due to seasonal effects and climate change.

Project Partners: University of Bern, Institute of Geography (UniBern), SPOTTERON GmbH (SPOTTERON)
Duration: 2020-2022

The project ‘SINUS’ (Sensor Integration for Urban Risk Prediction) explores the feasibility of matching wearable physiological sensors with data interfaces of urban data ecosystems for improving the current state of the art of predicting risk patterns for vulnerable road users in urban road networks. Different sensor equipment and setups are used and evaluated in a test field  in the city of Salzburg. Between the recorded sensor data and other, formerly isolated data sources, semantic interoperability is established. Based on the resulting data set, machine learning algorithms are applied and refined for a prediction model. To assess effects, viability and transferability of the developed approach, different ICT-supported information applications are developed and tested in a field study.

Project Partners: University of Salzburg Z_GIS, TraffiCon – Traffic Consultants GmbH, Kompetenzzentrum – Das Virtuelle Fahrzeug Forschungsgesellschaft mbH (VIF), Know-Center GmbH (KNOW)
Duration: 2019-2022

Katastrophenereignisse und Großschadenslagen wie beispielsweise Hochwasser, Waldbrände, extreme Schneelagen oder Stürme stellen den Katastrophenschutz vor große Herausforderungen hinsichtlich (1) Verfügbarkeit und Verwendung von echt-zeitnaher und großflächiger Information zur Lageerfassung und -einschätzung, (2) Auswertung der Daten in naher Echtzeit und (3) Fusion von abgeleiteten Informati-onsebenen für intuitive, transparente und fokussierte Entscheidungsunterstützung.

Project Partners: Johanniter Österreich Ausbildung und Forschung gemeinnützige GmbH (JOAFG), Österreichisches Rotes Kreuz – Landesverband Salzburg (SRK), IFES – Institut für empirische Sozialforschung GmbH (IFES)
Duration: 2021-2023

Smart Cities are urban areas that use technology to improve the quality of life for citizens, increase efficiency, and reduce environmental impact. Two of our key products that contribute to the development of Smart Cities are Urban Emotions and Geo Social-Media. 

Both products are technology driven, state-of-the-art products that will help to make life in cities more enjoyable and help governments to transit to smart development for tomorrow’s needs.Technology such as wearable sensors detect stressful moments experienced by individuals while moving –  cycling, walking and driving in the city. This information can be used to identify areas of the city that are particularly stressful for citizens and to develop strategies to improve safety and reduce stress. Together with geolocated social-media posts, such as tweets from Twitter, can detect hotspots of target information. This information can be used to identify areas of the city where certain issues or events are taking place, such as traffic congestion, crime, or community gatherings. This technology can support wearable sensors and can be used by city officials to make more informed decisions and respond quicker to issues in the community.

Duration: 2022-2023

EO4GEO is an Erasmus+ Sector Skills Alliance gathering 26 partners from 12 countries from academia, private and public sector active in the education/training and space/geospatial sectors. EO4GEO aims to help bridging the skills gap between supply and demand of education and training in the space/geospatial sector by reinforcing the existing ecosystem and fostering the uptake and integration of space/geospatial data and services in end-user applications. EO4GEO will work in a multi-interdisciplinary way and apply innovative solutions for its education and training actions including: case based and collaborative learning scenarios; learning-while-doing in a living lab environment; on-the-job training; the co-creation of knowledge, skills and competencies; etc.

Project Partners: GISIG, KU Leuven, University of Salzburg Z_GIS, Climate-KIC, Universitat Jaume I (UJI), University of Zagreb (GEOF), University of Patras (UPAT), Friedrich-Schiller University Jena (FSU-EO), University of Twente (UT-ITC), University of Basilicata (UNIBAS), Institute of Geodesy and Cartography (IGiK), Planetek, IGEA Ltd., Epsilon Italia, NOVOGIT, GIB, EARSC, Romanian Space Agency (ROSA), UNEP/GRID, NEREUS, VITO, CNR-IREA, Institute for Environmental Solutions (VRI IES), ISPRA, ALFA Liguria
Duration: 2018-2021

The design or transformation of public space is considered an essential prerequisite for further promoting sustainable, active mobility. However, there is still a lack of a standardized methodology for evaluating the impact of urban mobility interventions. For this reason, the POSITIM research project aims at the creation of a generic methodology for impact assessment and evaluation of traffic planning interventions through the interdisciplinary linking of approaches from traffic sociology with data-based, spatial evaluation and monitoring routines. In addition to established approaches (qualitative surveys, GIS-based potential and environment analyzes, ego videos, urban videos), human sensorics data are also used as the central innovation element for the evaluation. Together with the associated cities / municipalities, the integrative methodology will be specifically evaluated and validated in several field studies. The project results will provide the opportunity to evaluate interventions in the mobility space using a structured, standardized and transferable methodology and to estimate their impact on mobility behavior (stress perception, acceptance, displacement effects, etc.).

Project Partners: University of Salzburg Z_GIS, con.sens verkehrsplanung zt gmbh, apptech ventures GmbH – FACTUM, i.n.s. – Institut für innovative Städte
Duration: 2020-2022

In the field of hazard documentation and assessment in the context of disaster risk management, a large number of databases or inventories exist in Austria. Often these event, damage and risk data are not comparable because they were collected for different purposes and above all with different requirements. The aim of this project is to develop a robust national incident and damage database as a semi-automated, autonomous technical system that allows data from different sources to be harmonized, presented and used for further analysis under uniform standards. Specifically, a demonstrator for two states (Lower Austria and Styria) and three hazard categories (storm, flood and mass movement) will be implemented for the period from 2005 to 2018. A systematized synopsis of event documentation enables the public authorities to perform their tasks including the preparation of national risk analyzes, compulsory reporting under the UNISDR Sendai contract and the effective assessment of disaster relief funds.

Project Partners: University of Salzburg Z_GIS, Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik (ZAMG), Joanneum Research (JR), Geologische Bundesanstalt (GBA)
Duration: 2019-2021

This project aims to investigate multi-modal (spatial, temporal, semantic) machine learning algorithms for social media analysis to support decisions in humanitarian action, disaster management and epidemiology through information provision in near real-time. Therefore, this project covers the workflow from data gathering and filtering to analysing and classifying social media posts. Additionally, a demonstrator of a decision-support dashboard for user-tailored result visualisation will be created. We design and validate our approach for the use case of disaster management and then transfer it to other use cases, i.e., epidemiology and the detection of refugee movement to support humanitarian action.

Project Partners: Universität Salzburg, Department of Geoinformatics – Z_GIS (PLUS)
Duration: 2020-2021

The cartographic demarcation and designation of biotope or habitat types represent an essential technical and legal basis for nature conservation in Austria. The alpine zone has a special nature conservation significance. It is the habitat of many ecologically extremely sensitive biocenoses. The exceptionally high nature conservation value and the high sensitivity of the Alpine zone are also reflected in the legal anchoring of strict protection regulations for the habitats of the alpine zone in the nature conservation laws and nature conservation regulations of the alpine Austrian states. These factors mean that a comprehensive terrestrial terrain survey is technically difficult, time-consuming, very time-consuming and associated with correspondingly high costs. We are developing a multiphase biotope mapping methodology for the area above the permanent settlement area, combining the use of satellite imagery, aerial imagery and terrestrial survey methods for a multi-phased inventory, highlighting that the benefits of different inventory tools and procedures can be optimally exploited.

Project Partners: University of Salzburg Z_GIS, Naturraumplanung Egger e.U
Duration: 2017-2019

The considerable energy and climate policy need to face the commitment to achieving international climate protection targets as well as national energy and climate change strategies raises the question of the extent to which cities and municipalities can contribute to the reduction of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. So far, however, the elimination of action strategies at the municipal level in favor of an increased consideration of energy and climate policy premises is made difficult by the fact that there is no overview of the initial situation with regard to the total energy consumption and the total volume of greenhouse gas emissions from a municipality. The aim of the project is the development of a geobased database at the municipal level, which comprehensively presents energy-relevant structural data as well as the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of all Austrian cities and municipalities and enables decision-makers to assess development strategies in terms of their energy, mobility and climate relevance.

Project Partners: University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences BOKU, University of Salzburg Z_GIS
Duration: 2017-2019

The goal of 3D Vision is the development new methods and processes for the automated valorization of 3D point cloud data. The 3D point clouds are pre-processed with innovative evaluation methods, automatically classified and converted into high-quality, detailed vector models of buildings, vegetation and infrastructure as well as into digital plans. These results are picked up and further refined by the network partners for the creation of industry-specific new products, 3D viewers, augmented reality environments and innovative services.

Project Partners: Laserdata GmbH, GRID-IT, Arch. Stefan Rutzinger
Duration: 2018-2020

HUMAN+ is a project for ensuring humanitarian safety through real-time situational awareness for efficient management of migration movements. The aim is to detect and predict migration movements, create near-real time overviews about current migration movements including data analyses and short-term forecasting, as well as information and decision support in form of user dependent interactive information visualization, assessment of quality and interoperability.
HUMAN + aims to contribute to ensuring humanitarian security and preparedness for migration, while at the same time fully considering legal, ethical and sociological conditions. The project approach described aims at the use of social media, as well as their integration with established methods of remote sensing to create an integrative real-time situational picture and a short-term prognosis. Thanks to the real-time situation picture obtained in this way, the emergency services are better prepared for migration waves and can make well-informed, tailor-made decisions.

Project Partners: JOANNEUM RESEARCH, IFES, IFR, Die Johanniter, University of Salzburg Z_GIS, Universität Graz, Bundesheer, Fraunhofer IAIS, Universität Kassel, THW, VOMATEC, CrisCom, Universität Passau, Deutsche Hochschule der Polizei, Bayerisches Rotes Kreuz
Duration: 2017-2020

The vision of the project CopHub.AC is to establish a long-term Copernicus hub to consolidate and sustain the Copernicus Academy as a knowledge and innovation platform. To fulfill this several nodes will be created – like a new form of research briefs, knowledge landscape, outreach and sustainability. It will focus and link ongoing R&D activities in Copernicus-relevant academic fields and sustain the innovation process from academia to business on a high scientific and technical level.

Project Partners: University of Salzburg Z_GIS, University of Basilicata, Evenflow, Climate-KIC, EARSC, KU Leuven, GISIG, University of Malaga, Rasdaman, Cyprus University of Technology, Klaipeda University
Duration: 2018-2020

The project Sen2Cube.at will be one step towards an Austrian data and information cube. The project will show that content based image and information retrieval is possible in big EO databases, allowing human users to query and analyse EO data on a higher semantic level.

Project Partners: University of Salzburg – Z_GIS, AMA, ZAMG
Duration: 2018-2020