Aim
Aim of this course is to provide you with an overview on geographic processes of urbanization, the related demographic and structural changes of cities, and data analyses methods using remote sensing data for applications in urban geography.
Content
Humankind is within its largest migration ever: from rural areas into cities. The drivers of this global process of urbanization from demographic to economic and the related structural changes cities are facing will be discussed in this course. Remote sensing is one crucial data source in this dynamic transformation and its products are highly relevant for urban planning, as well as environmental management. Within this course different approaches and techniques are covered focusing on deriving relevant information about urbanized areas on different levels of detail. Uni-temporal-, multi-temporal-, and time series based image classification, segmentation, the analyses of point patterns, GIS analyses to assess spatial context and dependencies, as well as analyses in the 3D domain will be addressed in this course. This will be done providing and discussing example applications from different regions globally (e.g. urban sprawl analysis of megacities, the development of new dimensions of urban landscapes such as mega-regions, the rearrangement of business districts within the urban landscape, etc.). You will learn what capabilities Earth observation data, methods and products have for urban research and applications and how to design remote sensing based urban analysis, how to avoid caveats, troubleshoot errors and interpret the results.
General Course News and Updates
EAGLE social ski retreat
To recharge their batteries after an intense semester, some EAGLE students went skiing together in the Austrian Alps, taking the opportunity to experience cold-region environments themselves. Beyond the thrill of the slopes, the trip allowed students to observe snow...
EAGLE Internship Presentation: Geomorphological Monitoring at Askja Caldera: Field Observations of Subsurface Instability
On April 28, 2026, Hanna Zoë Schulten will present her internship results on " Geomorphological Monitoring at Askja Caldera: Field Observations of Subsurface Instability" at 12:30 in seminar room 3, John-Skilton-Str. 4a. From the abstract: Volcanic calderas are...
From Data to Impact: Viktoria Veith’s Internship at WWF
Understanding the environmental consequences of conflict is one of the most pressing challenges in contemporary Earth observation. During her internship at WWF, EAGLE MSc student Viktoria Veith has been working at the intersection of remote sensing, policy, and...
EAGLE MSc Defense: Developing a Farmland Habitat Biodiversity Indicator for Bavaria (in line with OECD Guidelines)
On March 31, 2026, Suriya Elango will present his Master Thesis on " Developing a Farmland Habitat Biodiversity Indicator for Bavaria (in line with OECD Guidelines)" at 12:00 in seminar room 3, John-Skilton-Str. 4a. From the abstract: Farmland Biodiversity is...
Successful MSc Defense: Advancing Synthetic High-Resolution Remote Sensing
We are pleased to congratulate Georg Starz on the successful defense of his MSc thesis within the EAGLE programme. His work, titled “Synthetic High-Resolution Remote Sensing Image Generation – A Comparative Study of Model Training, Surface Data Variability and...
EAGLE Innolab Presentation: Very high-resolution UAV-based Weed Segmentation: Data Processing, Modelling, and Exploration of Vision-Language Models for Agriculture
On April 28, 2026, Hanna Schulten will present her Innolab results on "Very high-resolution UAV-based Weed Segmentation: Data Processing, Modelling, and Exploration of Vision-Language Models for Agriculture" at 12:00 in seminar room 3, John-Skilton-Str. 4a. From the...
EAGLE MSc Defense: Assessing the potential of multispectral UAS and PlanetScope imagery for estimating vegetation structure and biodiversity metrics in urban green spaces
On March 27, 2026, Max Merzdorf will present his Master Thesis on " Assessing the potential of multispectral UAS and PlanetScope imagery for estimating vegetation structure and biodiversity metrics in urban green spaces" at 12:30 at the meeting room 01.B03 (first...
EAGLE Students in Kruger National Park: Internship at SANParks
EAGLE MSc students Sebastian Rothaug and Clemens Schömig are currently completing an internship/InnoLab with SANParks in Kruger National Park, South Africa. During their stay, they are contributing to a project on fire and drought dynamics in savanna ecosystems. Their...
EAGLE MSc Defense: Assessing the accessibility improvements, public perception and potential beneficiaries of cable car systems in Mexico City and Medellin
On March 26, 2026 Angie Torres Lopez will present her Master Thesis on " Assessing the accessibility improvements, public perception and potential beneficiaries of cable car systems in Mexico City and Medellin" at 14:00 in seminar room 3, John-Skilton-Str. 4a. From...
EAGLE M.Sc. Students doing Arctic Internship
This spring, Marlene and Aoibhin, two students from our EAGLE M.Sc. program have started their research internship in the high Arctic on Svalbard. Hosted by Prof. Larissa Beumer at the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS), the students are gaining hands-on experience...