German Aerospace Center

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is Germany's research and technology center for aerospace. It conducts applied and basic research for these industries and also conducts research in the fields of energy, transportation, security, and digitalization.

The German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) is an institute of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) based in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich, Bavaria and in Neustrelitz in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Together with the Remote Sensing Technology Institute (IMF) it forms the Earth Observation Center (EOC) – the center of competence for earth observation in Germany.

The Land Surface Dynamics Department is that research department of the German Remote Sensing Data Center that studies and quantifies global change as manifested on Earth‘s land surface, and in this connection addresses socially relevant issues. We develop information products useful for planning purposes and produce research results based on well-established as well as innovative methods for assessing earth observation data. We are involved in a wide range of geoscience topics and employ all types of earth observation sensors (multispectral, hyperspectral, SAR) at various spatial scales (global, regional, national, local).

The team “Water Security and Coastal Systems” identifies and analyses natural, as well as anthropogenic induced processes and impacts, within coastal zones and river basins by means of Earth Observation technologies. Image data from a variety of remote sensing sensors are interpreted by modern machine learning approaches and state of the art image analyses techniques, and converted to value-added geoinformation for environmental monitoring. The main objective of our team is to identify and understand these kinds of natural and anthropogenic processes and their mutual interactions, by developing and testing application-oriented methods and processors in the field of Earth Observation. Furthermore, in the framework of interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral research projects, derived geoinformation products support the development of innovative and efficient concepts and solutions for the sustainable management of coastal zones and river basins.