About the Digital Landscape Group

🚀 The Digital Landscape group officially started in March 2023 at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Mountain Research (IGF), Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW). Our focus is innovation — across methods, technologies, and collaborations.

We work at the intersection of remote sensing, machine learning, geostatistics, and novel hardware technologies, and operate in a strongly interdisciplinary context. We are aware of the challenges this brings — from methodological to communication challenges — but we see them as a source of creativity: a way to push science forward more rigorously, openly, and with new ideas.

🌐 What We Do

🌍 Remote Sensing

We use Google Earth Engine to perform large-scale and long-term environmental analysis, especially in mountainous terrain. This enables us to monitor changes across decades and continents efficiently and keep results up to date.

🧠 Machine Learning

We explore the limits and biases of machine learning in geosciences — how these tools behave, when they fail, and how to use them effectively. We also work to design the machine learning of tomorrow, helping the scientific community tackle new challenges and move forward with confidence.

📊 Geostatistics

We work on the edge of stochastic geostatistical simulation, aiming to improve the structural realism of simulated fields while reducing energy consumption and computational time.

⚙️ Hardware for Geoscience

We investigate how hardware — from FPGAs to custom camera systems — can be integrated into geoscientific workflows to enhance efficiency, autonomy, and data fidelity.

🤝 Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Our work extends beyond the direct scope of the group. We actively collaborate with researchers in fields such as:

• 🐦 Bird migration
• 🌿 Vegetation
• 🔉 Environmental acoustics

We believe that exposing our methods to new applications makes them better and more general. This is not just about collaboration — it’s about shared exploration across scientific boundaries.

🏔️ Our Scope

While our main applications focus on mountain environments, our methods are transferable and widely applicable. We are open to collaboration wherever curiosity and complexity meet — especially when we can make a difference.

💡 Openness & Philosophy

We strongly believe in open, interdisciplinary science. We build tools that are meant to be used, adapted, and improved by others. We believe in numbers and facts, and we’re not afraid to challenge established methods or popular assumptions — with creativity, care, and a good dataset. 🎯
By working across domains, sharing knowledge, and building trust, we aim to make our research robust, transparent, and impactful.