Call for Master’s thesis at the Department of Remote Sensing

Call for Master’s thesis at the Department of Remote Sensing

June 20, 2018

In situ and radar-based assessment and analysis of the surface soil moisture and its dynamic in the agrarian landscape in South Italy

 

Objective Semi-arid to arid climate determines the natural water availability in the Mediterranean. In particular, groundwater reservoirs are the main source of freshwater in the Mediterranean region. Climate change as well as increasing water consumption in irrigated agriculture are identified as major drivers of increasing groundwater scarcity and overuse of fragile groundwater resources. The aim of the joint project MedWater within the BMBF-funded GRoW initiative is to improve the dynamic risk assessment of those factors affecting the groundwater recharge. By means of process-based prediction models and under consideration of the climatic variability and hydrology, the water flows and the soil moisture as well as the processes in the soil and their feedback with the vegetation are to be modelled in high spatial and temporal resolutions and simulated for different scenarios of use.

The envisaged master thesis aims at gathering and analyzing in-situ and radar-based (Sentinel-1) surface soil moisture as an essential input parameter for describing model boundary conditions. The spatial focus of the fieldwork to be carried out lies on a small (approximately 30 ha) agricultural study area in the Upper Alento River Catchment in the south of Italy. The analysis also focuses on the spatial-temporal variability of surface soil moisture and its significance as areal input data for the parameterization of hydrological models.

Figure Water stress in the Mediterranean. Source: WIR Aqueduct, Gassert et al. (2013).

 

Point of Contact Dr. Sarah Schönbrodt-Stitt (sarah.schoenbrodt-stitt@uni-wuerzburg.de), Dr. Nima Ahmadian (nima.ahmadian@uni-wuerzburg.de), Department of Remote Sensing, Institute of Geography, University of Würzburg

Requirements B.Sc. degree or almost completed MSc study in the field of geographic remote sensing, geography, soil science, hydrology or comparable, interest and / or previous knowledge in fieldwork and in dealing with measuring sensors, interest in hydrological topics, previous knowledge in the field of remote sensing, knowledge in spatial statistics and geoinformation systems

Workplace fieldwork (2-3 weeks) in the study area (Upper Alento River, province of Salerno) in Italy. Otherwise, the place of work outside the fieldwork is freely selectable. Regular meetings with the supervisor and a presentation of the subject are mandatory

Contact Dr. Sarah Schönbrodt-Stitt / Department of Remote Sensing / Institute of Geography and Geology / University of Würzburg / Phone +49 (0) 931 31 83300 / E-mail sarah.schoenbrodt-stitt@uni-wuerzburg.de / https://www.geographie.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/fernerkundung/startseite/

you may also like:

PhD position: Earth Observation of drought and fire impacts

PhD position: Earth Observation of drought and fire impacts

Job Announcement: PhD Position on EO research of Drought, Fire and Vegetation in Kruger National Park, South Africa Position: PhD ResearcherStudy Area: Kruger National Park, South AfricaApplication Deadline: until position is filledStart Date: as soon as possible...

Exchange with colleagues from AIT Austrian Institute of Technology

Exchange with colleagues from AIT Austrian Institute of Technology

On 16 January 2025, Ariane Droin, Henri Debray and Hannes Taubenböck from EORC and the EOC of DLR were invited to the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH in Vienna as part of the UrbanSky project. The Urban Sky research project is carrying out a needs and...

Empowering Students with SAGA GIS for Environmental Applications

Empowering Students with SAGA GIS for Environmental Applications

At EAGLE Earth Observation, we are committed to equipping our students with the tools and knowledge needed to excel in the field of environmental science. As part of this effort, our students are exploring the power of various scientific open-source software packages...

EUSI meets GZS

EUSI meets GZS

Following the European Space Imaging Conference (EUSI) in December 2024 (DLR and EORC contributed to the conference. We reported on this – please see here: https://remote-sensing.org/keynote-presentation-at-eusi-conference-2024/), the long-standing partners met...

Successful Master Thesis Defense by Konstantin Müller

Successful Master Thesis Defense by Konstantin Müller

On January 14th, Konstantin Müller successfully defended his master’s thesis titled "Animal Path Segmentation and Analysis via Generalized Deep Neural Network Regression". Supervised by Jakob Schwalb-Willmann and Dr. Mirjana Bevanda, the presentation was delivered to...