New paper on the relation of Measured and experienced urban Heat

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 […]

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New paper on Urban tree classification

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 […]

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New research paper on Rapid Urbanization due to the Cobalt Magnet

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 […]

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EORC member joins the Collegium de Lyon as invited fellow

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 […]

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EAGLE Internship Presentation: Verifiable Nature Units

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): […]

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DBU scholar Josipa Subotic

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 […]

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Collaboration in the Field: Exploring Crop Resilience with Earth Observation

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 […]

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In the news: Heat risk in senior homes – Insights based on EO4CAM data

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 […]

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GLS-team visits Planetary Health exhibition

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 […]

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EAGLE Innolab Presentation: Post-Processing and Quality Assessment of Mapathon-Derived Mining Data for Cobalt Belt Mapping

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 […]

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Reports on the Bernd Rendel Prize won by Johannes Mast

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 […]

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University press covered our anniversaries

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 […]

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Nine years of mapping urban poverty: A globally distrubted building footprint dataset is now available

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 […]

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Mapping Lava Tubes on Mauritius with iPhone Pro LiDAR

Lava tube structures on Mauritius are quite hard to survey – tight, dark, and largely inaccessible to classical scanning equipment. As part of ongoing research by Dr. Kim Lea Holzmann (Chair of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, University of Würzburg), we’re excited to be collaborating on testing whether low-cost LiDAR-scanners, like the recent iPhone Pro […]

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Lecturer Spotlight: Michael Wurm

Michael’s the guy you want in front of the class when it’s time to actually open up an image and start segmenting it. At EAGLE he teaches the urban side of things: environmental exposure, pollutants, green space, noise, traffic, air pollution, urban heat islands. And that’s not some random assignment, it’s literally what he does […]

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Johannes Mast wins Bernd Rendel Prize

Johannes Mast, who finished his PhD earlier this year, supervised by Hannes Taubenböck, has been awarded the Bernd Rendel Prize 2026, one of two young researchers honored this year (the other is Sara Nazari, who works on global groundwater at ZMT Bremen and Kiel University). The prize goes to geoscience PhD students for original, promising […]

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EAGLE Internship Presentation: Groundwater Level Trends in Germany: A National-Scale Assessment Using In-Situ Monitoring Data and GRACE Satellite Products

On August 04, 2026 Anugraha Das will present her internship results on ” Groundwater Level Trends in Germany: A National-Scale Assessment Using In-Situ Monitoring Data and GRACE Satellite Products” at 12:00 at the seminar room 3 in John-Skilton-Str. 4a. From the abstract: Germany is among the most groundwater-stressed countries in Central Europe, with sustained multi-year […]

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Two days of celebration, and a hundred hands behind it

We’ve written plenty about the EORC 25th and EAGLE 10th anniversary already, the timeline, the talks, the EAGLE panel discussion, the exhibition. But there’s a story we haven’t told yet, and it’s honestly the one that matters at least as much. Because none of it just happens. Somebody has to carry the tables outside and […]

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From Banner to Pencil Case: Our Anniversary Banner gets a Second Life

Anyone who was at the big celebration on July 16th remembers the banner. Big, 1 by 4 meters, printed for the occasion: 25 years of EORC and 10 years of EAGLE, a huge strip of fabric. It did its job beautifully for the weeks before the event and especially for our two days of celebration. […]

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Earth Observation Meets Agricultural Practice: The Final Excursion of the EAGLE Block Course

The EAGLE block course “Linking Science and Practice in Earth Observation for Climate Adaptation” concluded with a visit to the Bavarian State Research Center for Agriculture (LfL) and its Research Center for Agriculture in Arid Regions in Schwarzenau. Following earlier visits to the Government of Lower Franconia and the University Forest in Sailershausen, the final […]

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Earth Observation Meets Agricultural Practice: The Final Excursion of the EAGLE Block Course

The EAGLE block course “Linking Science and Practice in Earth Observation for Climate Adaptation” concluded with a visit to the Bavarian State Research Center for Agriculture (LfL) and its Research Center for Agriculture in Arid Regions in Schwarzenau. Following earlier visits to the Government of Lower Franconia and the University Forest in Sailershausen, the final […]

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Lecturer Spotlight: Florian Betz

If you’ve spent any time around EORC, you’ve probably crossed paths with Florian at some point, maybe standing knee deep in a riverbed somewhere in Central Asia, or deep in conversation about river dynamics. Florian is a Principal Investigator at the Earth Observation Research Cluster, and his work sits right at the intersection of biogeomorphology, […]

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Small Gesture, Big Thanks: Chocolate in the Polar Bear Kitchen

Pulling off a party for 250 people doesn’t happen by magic. It happens because a bunch of people quietly say yes to the boring jobs, the carrying, the setting up, the standing around answering questions, the cleaning up afterward. Our combined 25th anniversary for EORC and 10th anniversary for EAGLE was one of those events […]

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From the lecture hall into the forest

A recent visit to the University Forest Sailershausen brought students together with Forest Management to discuss current challenges in forestry under a changing climate. Hosted by the head of the forest administration Daniel Kraus, the day combined presentations by the students, practical discussions, and a forest excursion, demonstrating how Earth observation can support sustainable forestry […]

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Can We Teach Everything Except the Most Important Thing?

Over the past years, we have had many discussions within our research group and with colleagues at other universities about the changing culture in academia. These conversations often revolve around funding, publication pressure, career perspectives, or the increasing complexity of modern research. Yet another topic repeatedly emerges, often in informal conversations after meetings, field campaigns, […]

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Lecturer Spotlight: Celia Baumhoer

Celia’s the person who got an entire generation of EAGLE students to care about ice they’ll probably never set foot on. She’s a postdoctoral researcher in the “Polar and Mountain Regions” team at DLR, and she teaches the EAGLE course “Earth Observation of Cold Regions”. This intensive block course takes students on a journey through […]

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Ministerial Visit: Federal Minister Dorothee Bär at the University Wuerzburg, and Why Earth Observation Was Part of the Story

We had a really special visit at the University of Würzburg on July 16: Germany’s Federal Minister for Research, Technology and Space, Dorothee Bär, came to the Mission Control Center on Campus Hubland Nord by the Informatics Faculty, and we were glad to be part of the day. The visit was organized around a talk […]

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Linking Science and Practice: Exploring Earth Observation for Water Management

How can Earth observation support sustainable water management in times of climate change? This question was at the center of a recent visit by participants of the EAGLE block course “Linking Science and Practice in Earth Observation for Climate Adaptation” to the Department of Water Management at the Government of Lower Franconia. The visit offered […]

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