Researcher at the Earth Observation Research Cluster (EORC) use Earth observation and data science to investigate environmental and societal challenges. De-Cyuan Jheng’s research integrates remote sensing and computational text analysis to study the interaction between urban environments and human activities.
From Practice to Academia: A transition into urban research in global
De-Cyuan Jheng has a master’s degree in Urban Planning and previously worked as a urban planner and spatial data scientist, participating in sustainable planning projects in Taiwan and across Southeast Asia. During this period, he recognized the limitations of data in planning practice, which motivated him to pursue interdisciplinary research. Since the summer of 2023, he has been a doctoral researcher and lecturer at the University of Würzburg.
Research focus: Integration of earth observation and textual data in urban studies
His research examines the interaction between urban form, function, and human activities by integrating remote sensing and social media data. Recent work analyzes large volumes of social media posts across cities, exploring how urban discourse relates to the physical environment across space and time. This work contributes to a better understanding of the social dimension of cities.
Teaching and collaboration
De-Cyuan teaches Python programming in the EAGLE program through lectures and hands-on seminars. His courses help students develop programming skills from fundamental concepts to practical applications while encouraging curiosity and exploration. In addition to teaching and research, he works with researchers from the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Yale University, and colleagues from the Geolingual Studies Team and the Chair of English Linguistics at the University of Würzburg. He has also presented his research at the Joint Urban Remote Sensing Event (JURSE) in Tunisia, and the CAIDAS Scientific Opening.
For him, remote sensing is not only about observing cities from above — it is about connecting those observations with people to better understand cities.
Here are the corresponding links:
EORC, DLR and the Geolingual Studies team contribute to the CAIDAS Scientific Opening
EAGLE Advanced Course in Applied Programming for Urban Studies
Proceedings of JURSE published
Workshop on “Geodata, (social) media data and linguistics”
