Our PhD student Tamilwai Kolowa (https://remote-sensing.org/new-phd-student-tamilwai-kolowa/) presented a research project that combines Earth observation and German census data at the GESIS Workshop on Earth Observation Data in the Social Sciences, held from November 26-28, 2025, in Cologne. Hi presentation was titled “Monitoring socio-demographic trends from city center to suburbs. What do novel urban-gradient classifications offer?“.
Tamilwai investigates how machine learning classification can enhance the analysis of socio-demographic trends along the urban-rural gradient. The machine learning classification method was discussed in Weigand et al. (2025) and presented at JURSE 2025 (https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/11076045).
The goal of comparing results from a commonly used administrative classifications of intra-municipal and suburban areas with a remote sensing-based classification is to determine whether this novel approach can be applied to socio-demographic analysis at scale (i.e., for all cities in Germany).
Another contribution from our side to the GESIS Workshop this week was the opening keynote – we have reported on this: https://remote-sensing.org/keynote-presentation-at-the-gesis-workshop-earth-observation-data-in-the-social-sciences/
