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RWTH Aachen

Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen

Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Unit: Analysis and Monitoring of Urban Areas

RWTH Aachen is the largest polytechnic university in Germany and is a member of a number of academic associations such as TU9, IDEA, TIME, UNITECH and ALMA Snowevent. The research scope of its geography department covers physical geography, cultural geography, economic geography, and urban area monitoring and analysis. GIS-related research is mainly hosted by the Analysis and Monitoring of Urban Areas Group under Prof. Stefan Fina.

Professors:

  • Stefan Fina: methods of spatial analysis in geography, spatial and environmental planning，monitoring and controlling of transport and urban development，health promotion in urban development.

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

KIT

Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Unit: IFGG

The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology has a long history and is a member of the TU9 consortium of German universities, with a strong presence in the natural sciences and engineering. The Institute of Geography and Geoecology (IFGG) at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology has several instructors working on GIS-related research covering urban geography, transport geography, physical geography and environmental ecology.

Professors:

  • Caroline Kramer: urban geography, time geography, geography of knowledge and education, gender in urban and regional planning, transport geography, empirical social research and social indicators, interdisciplinarity in the social sciences, methods in empirical social research;
  • Wolfgang Wilcke: soil biogeochemistry, ecosystem research, pollutant dynamics;
  • Sebastian Schmidtlein: remote sensing of vegetation, ecoinformatics, vegetation ecology;
  • Florian Wittmann: floodplain ecology, botanical geography, biomass/primary production.
  • Sebastian Schmidtlein: remote sensing of vegetation, ecoinformatics, vegetation ecology.

University of Göttingen

Uni-Goettingen

Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany

Unit: Department of Cartography, GIS and Remote Sensing

The Faculty of Geosciences and Geography at the University of Göttingen is a large and comprehensive geoscience institute, covering 12 departments spanning geosciences and geography, and is very well developed. Among them, GIS-related research is concentrated in the Department of Cartography, GIS and Remote Sensing supervised by Prof. Martin Kappas.

Professors:

  • Martin Kappas: remote sensing / GIS in climatology and ecology, field- and laboratory-spectrometry (ASD FieldSpec), assessment of natural landscape potenzial with IT-Methods and ground-truth-data, land cover / land use change, landscape degradation, health geography.

University of Augsburg

Uni-Augsburg

Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany

Unit: Institute of Geography

The Institute of Geography at Augsburg University is part of the School of Applied Computer Science, which has a history of more than 50 years. Due to the significant computer science discipline, this institute has developed prominent directions of geographic information science and spatial planning in addition to the traditional directions of physical and human geography research. This department also operates the 2-year masters program in geomatics，which covers remote sensing, modeling and simulation of geographic information, database and software development, etc

Professors:

  • Jukka Krisp: location based services (LBS), geographic visualization / visual Analytics, spatial modeling, geographic information systems (GIS) applications, GIS in ecological network planning;
  • Sabine Timpf: spatial cognition in geo-spatial activities (wayfinding and navigation, landscape planning), enabling modern mobility using information technology, urban intelligent (and complex) systems, agent-based modelling and simulation, appropriation of spaces and health, data mining for spatio-temporal phenomena.

University of Freiburg

Uni-Freiburg

Freiburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Unit: Institute of Geography

The University of Freiburg is one of the oldest universities in Germany. The university consists of 11 faculties. GIS research at the University of Freiburg is more practical applications and can be found in both the Department of Physical Geography and the Department of Human Geography. The Department of Physical Geography focuses on environmental GIS and remote sensing applications, spatial data management, and spatial data infrastructure development. The Department of Human Geography focuses on urban geography research, as well as on analytical methods related to the social media corpus. The University of Freiburg also offers a master program in Environmental Modelling and GIS, which focuses on the collection, storage, processing, analysis and visualization techniques for environmental data such as soil and forestry.

Professors:

  • Rüdiger Glaser: environment climate change, risk analysis, climatology, global change;
  • Tim Freytag: tourism and mobility studies (in particular, European urban tourism), urban studies and sustainable urban development, social geography and geography of education.

Technical University of Dresden

TU Dresden

Dresden, Saxony, Germany

Unit: Faculty of Environmental Sciences

Dresden University of Technology is a member of TU9. Its environmental science faculty covers research in forestry, geoscience and hydrology. The geoscience research covers geodesy, geoinformation, cartography, remote sensing, and geography。

Professors:

  • Lars Bernard: (Geo-)information infrastructures, geoinformation usability, distributed geoprocessing and smart environmental monitoring;
  • Dirk Burghardt: VGI, map generalization.

The Ludwig-Maximilians Universit

LMU

Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Unit: Department of Geography

The University of Munich is one of the oldest universities in Europe and one of the top universities in Germany in terms of academic resources and the reputation. Its Department of Geography is one of the largest of its kind in central Europe, focusing on physical geography (hydrology, remote sensing and landscape ecology) and human geography (with an emphasis on economic geography and the relationship between people and the environment). Remote sensing and GIS are often involved in these research projects.

Professors:

  • Wolfram Mauser: hydrology, remote sensing, global change research, regional and global potential for a sustainable production of biomass for food, energy and industry;
  • Lukas Lehnert: mobility in transition, environmental remote sensing;
  • Jürgen Schmude: tourism research, sustainability and CSR, France.

Technical University of Munich

TUM

Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Unit: LRG, GIS

The Department of Aerospace and Geodesy (LRG) at the Technical University of Munich was launched in 2018 as a merger of geography-related specializations from the former Department of Civil, Geographic and Environmental Engineering (BGU) with related specializations from the former Department of Aerospace (LRT).

LRG is the 15th department established at TUM and will be the largest of its kind in Europe, with 55 faculty members. It will account for about 50% of the total research in aerospace and geodesy at German universities and will therefore be a core institute of space-related industries. It has several geomatics-related tracks covering remote sensing, cartography, photogrammetry, land management, geodesy and other satellite-related tracks.

The masters programs in this department include the masters in geography（cartography, ESPACE, geodesy, geomatics, land use, and spatial science）and in aerospace engineering.

As with most European institutions, this department releases targeted PhD positions from time to time depending on the needs of the program. It requires the applicants to contact and discuss with potential advisorss. The guideline of PhD application can be found here.

Professors:

University of Stuttgart

Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Unit: Institute for Photogrammetry, IIGS, Institute of Geodesy。

University of Stuttgart is a member of TU9. Under its Faculty 6 there are departments on geodesy and spatial sciences which operates projects in GIS. This university is also home to GEOENGINE, which is a 2-year masters program focusing on surveying, navigation and mapping.

Professors:

  • Volker Schwieger: remote sensing，SAR, 3D construction;
  • Volker Walter: automatic map retrieval in the Internet, generalization of 2D and 3D data, conflation of spatial data;
  • Nico Sneeuw: geodesy and surveying, hydrology, oceanography, spatial analysis, climate change, geomatics, harmonics, earth observation, earth sciences.

University of Münster

Münster, North Westphalia, Germany

Unit: Geoinformation

The Department of Geoinformation at Münster University is reputable in GIS theory, spatial statistics, spatio-temporal data analysis, geocognition, and human-computer interaction. Gilberto Camara and Werner Kuhn have worked here. The department has a two-year English-taught master’s program in Geoinformation and a 1.5-year EU master’s program in Geospatial technologies with Erasmus. The PhD is offered from time to time with DAAD, DFG, or EU H2020 project funding positions. There are many geoinformation companies in Münster such as ESRI, 52 north, con terra, GeoIT etc.

Professors:

  • Christian Kray: geoinformatics, human-computer interaction, and mobile and ubiquitous computing;
  • Edzer Pebesma: spatial statistics, environmental modelling, geoinformatics and GIScience, semantic technology for spatial analysis, optimizing environmental monitoring;
  • Angela Schwering: spatial cognition, qualitative spatial reasoning, cognitive navigation;
  • Judith Verstegen: geosimulatiom models (agent-based models, cellular automata), spatial statistics, error propagation methods, spatial optimization.

Technical University of Berlin

TU Berlin

Berlin, Berlin state, Germany

Unit: Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformation Science

The Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformation Technology under the School of Planning, Architecture and Environment at the Technical University of Berlin is devoted to research on major geodesy, GNSS surveying, and geoinformatics methodology. Academicians such as Xia Jianbai and Wang Zhizhuo have studied here. The master’s program of TU Berlin is mainly two-year, which is divided into surveying, computer vision and remote sensing, GIS, and other directions. After graduating with a master’s degree, students can seek funding for spending 3 to 5 years to finish Ph.D.

Professor：

  • Martin Kada: Algorithms, Segmentation, 3D Computer Graphics, Visualization, Real-Time Rendering.

Humboldt University of Berlin

HU Berlin

Berlin, Berlin state, Germany

Unit：Geography Department

The Geography Department of HU Berlin has a long history. During the development period of more than 200 years, it has almost covered 9 research directions in physical geography and human geography. It is the hub of geographical research in Germany. The courses of the university about GIS are mainly based on the two-year master’s (Global Change Geography) curriculum. After the master’s degree, students can take 3-5 years to complete the Ph.d.

Professors：

  • Tobia Lakes: Spatial Analysis, Land Use Change and Modelling, Urbanism, Spatial Statistics, Geostatistical Analysis;
  • Patrick Hostert: Spatial Analysis, GIS, Sustainability, Ecology, Environment, Climate Change and Agriculture, Remote Sensing;
  • Dagmar Haase: Urban ecology, Land Use Modelling, Ecosystem Services;
  • Tobias Kuemmerle: Land System Science, Conservation & Sustainability Science, Remote Sensing.

Free University of Berlin

FU Berlin

Berlin, Berlin state, Germany

Unit：Institute of Geographical Sciences

The Institute of Geographical Sciences at the FU Berlin belongs to the Department of Earth Sciences. Its research fields include physical geography, applied physical geography, human geography, and remote sensing and geographic information, with strong disciplines. GIS / RS related research is mainly in the remote sensing and geographic information working group led by Prof. Dr. Sören Hese.

Professors and Researchers：

  • Sören Hese: Machine learning algorithms in Earth observation, Remote Sensing, Land surface parameter retrieval, Forest ecosystem research, UAV data capturing;
  • Marion Stellmes: Remote Sensing, Time Series Analysis, Land Use Change.

HafenCity University Hamburg

HCU Hamburg

Hamburg, Germany

Unit: Geodesy and Geoinformatics

HafenCity University is a young university in the equally young HafenCity district of the Hanseatic City of Hamburg. In 2006, the Department of Geomatics at HAW was affiliated with the newly founded HafenCity University Hamburg (HCU) by political decision. Initially, Geomatics was organized in an independent department, but as of 2009, these disciplinary structures at HCU were replaced by innovative, interdisciplinary Education and Research Schools. As of October 2016, the Geomatics degree programs have merged into Geodesy and Geoinformatics and offer specializations in Geoinformation Technologies (GIT), Geodetic Metrology (GMT) and, taught entirely in English, Hydrography (Hydro).

Our degree programs have received accreditation from ASIIN and thus have an independent seal of quality in the area of study and teaching. The specialization Hydrography has a special feature - unique in Germany: The program was internationally certified according to the “Standards of Competence of Hydrographic Surveyors” in category A.

Professors:

University of Hamburg

Uni-Hamburg

Hamburg, Germany

Unit: Institute of Geography

The Institute of Geography at the University of Hamburg, founded in 1919, is a member of the Center for Earth System and Sustainability Research (CEN) and plays a leading role in the “Integrated Climate System Analysis and Prediction” (CliSAP). The Institute is currently part of the Department of Earth Sciences and has eight professors with focuses on climate research, resource research and urban research. The University of Hamburg also offers a master’s program in geography on the topic of “Global Transformation and Environmental Change”, which is an integration of physical geography and social sciences and is based on geoinformatics methods for practical training such as geodata analysis and spatial research.

Professors:

  • Jürgen Böhner: regional climate and environmental modelling, climate impact research, geoinformatics and remote sensing, SAGA-GIS development.

University of Hannover

Uni-Hannover

Hannover, Lower Saxony, Germany

Unit: Institute of Cartography and Geoinformatics

The University of Hannover is a member of TU9, and its geography research exists in several different units, including physical geography, human geography and GIS. The GIS-related topics are mainly carried out in the Institute of Cartography and Geoinformatics. The main research directions of the Institute are big data, machine learning, laser point cloud, SLAM, etc. Viktor Heißler and Günter Hake have worked here.

Professors:

  • Monika Sester: big data and machine learning, laser scanning, mobility;
  • Claus Brenner: laser scanning, SLAM, point clouds;
  • Philipp Otto: spatiotemporal statistics and modelling, change point detection, environmetrics, computational statistics.

University of Bonn

Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia, Bonn

Unit：Department of Geography

The Department of Geography of the University of Bonn has comprehensive disciplines. The research fields include climate and landscape ecology, development geography, economic and social geography, geography education, geomorphology, historical and cultural geography, hydrology and water resources management, remote sensing and GIS, and urban and Regional economy. Among them, GIS / RS related research mainly focuses on GIS Research Group (led by Prof. Dr. Klaus Greve), and Remote Sensing Research Group (led by PD Dr. Olena Dubovyk).

Professors：

  • Klaus Greve: Geographic Information Systems, Web Mapping, Spatial Data Infrastructure;
  • Olena Dubovyk: Remote Sensing, Environmental Monitoring and Modelling, GIS.

University of Potsdam

Uni-Potsdam

Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany

Unit: Institute of Environmental Science and Geography

The Institute of Environmental Sciences and Geography at the University of Potsdam has an extensive research base in human geography, landscapes, natural hazards, hydroclimatology, etc. GIS-related research is mainly led by Prof. Manfred Rolfes. In addition, the Institute of Geology at the University of Potsdam offers two-year master programs in Remote Sensing, geoinformation and visualization, which are taught in English and focus on techniques related to the processing, analysis and visualization of remote sensing images and geoinformation.

Professors:

  • Manfred Rolfes: urban studies, (in-)security, risk and space, tourist space semantics and tourism spaces.

Heidelberg University

Uni-Heidelberg

Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Unit: GIS

Founded in 1386, the University of Heidelberg is the oldest university in Germany. The GIScience group focuses on OSM, VGI, humanitarian relief, and Lidar and photogrammetry, and is well funded.

  • Johannes Glückler: economic geography, organization studies, network theory;
  • Alexander Zipf: volunteered geographic information (VGI), crowdsourcing, citizen science, geoinformatics & GIScience in geography;
  • Bernhard Höfle: geographic 3D/4D point cloud analysis, geoprocessing algorithms for GIS, virtual laser scanning - liDAR simulation, 3D crowdsourcing and 3D micro-mapping, radiometric calibration of LiDAR data;
  • Anna Growe: regional governance, spatial development in the knowledge society.

University of Cologne

Uni-Koeln

Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Unit: Institute of Geography

The University of Cologne is a research-oriented public university. Its Institute of Geography has built a comprehensive disciplinary system, in which GIS-related research is mainly carried out in the GIS and Remote Sensing Working Group, directed by Prof. Georg Bareth. The research interests include location-based services, GIS modeling, spatial data infrastructures, LiDAR, UAVs, etc.

Professors:

  • Georg Bareth: terrestrial laser scanning, unmaned airborne vehicles, scientific data management, mobile GIS applications and locateion based services, GIS-aided modelling, GIS-aided regionalisation of N- and C-dynamics in ecosystems, application of multispectral, hyperspectral and radar data for land-use analysis, agricultural applications of GIS and Remote Sensing, spatial data infrastructure;
  • Boris Braun: environmental economic geography, environmental management, industrial and urban change, environmental and social impacts of globalization, economic and social aspects of natural hazards, southern asia (mainly India and Bangladesh), Australia, Germany and Western Europe.

University of Jena

Uni-Jena

Jena, Thuringia, Germany

Unit: Institute of Geography

GIS research in the Institute of Geography at the University of Jena is conducted in the GIScience Group and focuses on the integration and development of applications of GIS and environmental models, including environmental statistics and geo-computing, environmental modeling software and data management, ecohydrological simulation, and surface process monitoring. The Institute also has an economic geography team that focuses on the spatial mobility and connectivity of individuals and firms. There is a 2-year masters program in GIS, whose emphasis is placed on the fields of geoinformatics and remote sensing, with a focus on their analytical applications to landscape systems and spatial heterogeneity of land.

Professors:

  • Alexander Brenning: computational statistics and machine learning for geographical research, applied spatial modeling, cryosphere of the Andes;
  • Sebastian Henn: mobilities & connectivities, regional dynamics & spatial management, actor-centered methodologies and research frameworks;
  • Simon Runkel: social change and societal cohesion from a social geographic perspective, geographic research on risk and security, relationship between emotion, affect and space, theory and sociology of science and knowledge of human geography;
  • Christiane Schmullius: earth observation, remote sensing, land surface analyses.