Overview of the UNESCO Chair Heidelberg, Heidelberg University of Education, Germany, its tasks and objectives

1. UNESCO Chair on
World Heritage and
Biosphere Reserve
Observation and
Education
Earth Monitoring for Sustainable
Development of UNESCO World
Heritage
Heidelberg
Heidelberg University of Education
Department of Geography
The Department of Geography – Research Group for Earth
Observation (rgeo) manages and coordinates the UNESCO Chair
at the Heidelberg University of Education. With its competence
centres GIS-Station and Geco-Lab, rgeo is assisted by two
research and training centres to institutionalise its educational
and research programmes. Additionally, rgeo is embedded into
the NTG-Institute, which is projected to develop to a Heidelberg
Centre on Education for Sustainable Development.
Prof. Dr. Alexander Siegmund
Prof. Siegmund fosters the use of modern geo-technologies in
environmental and sustainability research and ESD. His
research focuses on regional climate and climate change, geo-
ecology, environmental monitoring & modelling, applied
remote sensing & GIS, and environmental & geo-education. He
is founding and board member of the Heidelberg Center for the
Environment (HCE) and member of the Baden-Württemberg
Council on Sustainable Development.
www.rgeo.de
APPLICATION OF GEO-
TECHNOLOGIES FOR
RESEARCH ON UNESCO
WORLD HERITAGE:
PRESERVATION THROUGH
EDUCATION
Digital geo-technologies such as remote
sensing and Geographic Information
System (GIS), but also innovative geo-
ecological laboratory and field methods
show a wide range of possible
applications in science, planning and
administration. However, the use of these
technologies for earth observation is still
very limited until today, especially in
education and geo-communication - not
least on World Heritage Sites and other
UNESCO designated sites like biosphere
reserves and geoparks. Compliance with
the specific requirements for UNESCO site
management benefits from modern
digital geo-technologies as their
application support sustainable
development, early identification of
potential risks as well as UNESCO site
related capacity building, education and
promotion.
The Research Group for Earth
Observation (rgeo) is specialised in
applied remote sensing and other digital
Geo-media for monitoring and education.
In several research projects, the rgeo-
team examined land use / land cover
changes, land degradation, and geo-
ecological vulnerability in the context of
anthropogenic use and global climate
change. Regional focus areas are
subtropical and tropical small island
ecosystems like the Canary Islands, Cape
Verde Islands and Sao Tomé as well as
hyper arid drylands in South America.
Such research is being evaluated, further
developed and implemented in using
remote sensing and GIS-based methods
to communicate such (un)sustainable
development to different target groups.
The UNESCO Chair is unique in combining
the use of modern methods in
environmental and sustainability
research and Education for Sustainable
Development. The implementation and
dissemination of research projects and
applications are realised through its two
centres of competence and training: The
“GIS-Station, Klaus-Tschira-Centre of
Competence for digital Geo-media" and
the "Geco-Lab, Centre of Competence for
Geo-ecological Space Exploration".
The GIS-Station is a research and training
institution for teachers and an out-of-
school learning place for school and
university students. The diversified
program offered across the topics remote
sensing (satellite images), GIS and mobile
geotools (GPS, etc.) includes courses,
concepts and training for school, adult
education and science.
The Geco-Lab is an out-of-school learning
locaction, training institution for teaching
staff as well as research laboratory for
students. It builds a bridge between the
detection of environmental changes in
the field, the exploration and analysis of
geographical and geo-ecological
processes in the lab and the explanation
of environmental phenomena in the
context of sustainability. Both research
and learning centres offer programs on
UNESCO World Heritage related regions
and topics.
Additionally, rgeo is embedded into the
Interdisciplinary Institute for Science,
Technology and Society (in German
“NTG-Institut”), which is projected to
develop to a Heidelberg Centre on
Education for Sustainable Development.
CURRENT ACTIONS
The project “Space2Place” aims at
enabling site managers to use satellite
images for monitoring, management and
sustainable development of UNESCO
sites, especially at endangered sites.
Preventing UNESCO World Heritage from
becoming endangered while also
promoting future pathways towards the
implementation of the SDGs is a great
challenge especially for site managers in
developing countries. “Space2Place”
bridges this gap by training UNESCO site
managers in ESA Copernicus satellite data
analysis for observation, monitoring and
valuation of sustainable development of
cultural and natural world heritage. It
provides online e-learning modules
promoting monitoring techniques with
the help of freely available Copernicus
earth observation data from different
Sentinel satellites, combined with “BLIF”,
a free web-based satellite image analysis
toolset developed by rgeo.
Modern Geo-Technologies in Environmental and Sustainability
Research and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)