GI_Salzburg23, held at the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of Salzburg, is an annual gathering for innovation, networking, and professional development across all areas of geoinformatics, including GI Science and GeoIT. Following more than 600 participants from nearly 30 countries in 2022, the conference, held July 4–6, once again provided a platform for interdisciplinary discussions and an outstanding exchange between academia and research, industry, and practical applications.
In their presentation titled “Possibilities and Limitations of Assessing Residential Areas Using Open Data,” Julia Ring, a master’s graduate in geoinformatics and surveying, along with Max Hoppe and Pascal Neis, presented a model for determining a weighted residential area index. This index is based on open and freely accessible data and enables a comparative assessment of various small-scale areas. Using a case study of the city of Mainz, the practical applications and limitations of this model were demonstrated.
Lea Vogel, also a master’s graduate, Dominik Visca, and Pascal Neis highlighted the importance of open data for analyzing parking supply and demand in their presentation titled “Challenges and Opportunities of a Parking Space Analysis Based on Open Data.” They presented a method that combines various open data sources to obtain a comprehensive picture of parking space availability. The presentation considered Mainz’s Old Town as a prototypical example and took into account current developments in the field of open data.
Sarah Schütz, a bachelor’s graduate, and Pascal Neis demonstrated an open-source workflow for determining traffic volume using the Internet of Things. Their presentation demonstrated how open data, open-source libraries, and open interfaces can be used to determine and visualize traffic volume based on the Internet of Things. The prototype implementation for Mainz highlighted both the strengths and the challenges of this approach.
Finally, in his presentation titled “On the Reciprocal Influence of Open Geodata in Relation to Their Quality,” Pascal Neis discussed the impact of the quality of open geodata on its use. Using datasets from the state police in Germany, he analyzed this mutual influence and demonstrated that a proposed hypothesis could not be confirmed. In particular, quality characteristics related to thematic accuracy showed significant variations, which, however, suggests the potential for future mutual use of the data.
The Department of Geoinformatics and Surveying congratulates the graduates on the successful publication of their results and findings in AGIT—Journal of Applied Geoinformatics, Issue 9-2023! Special mention must be made of the graduates’ willingness and commitment to continue contributing to the exchange of scientific knowledge and research even after successfully completing their studies.
