 |
Current employment |
|
|
I am currently working as a research fellow at the Department of Geoinformatics, Hydrology and Modelling (DGHM) at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. Thus, I'm involved in a variety of research and training activities at DGHM. |
|
|
My main responsibility can be seen as the management and realization of a number of research project as well as fund-raising for new projects. In this context I'm showing responsibilities regarding: |
 Jörg at work. |
|
|
- physical-based, distributed modelling of hydrological processes including data preprocessing and statistical analysis,
- processing, management, analysis, interpretation and visualization of geo-data using DBMS and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for hydrological applications,
- remote sensing data analyses from different EO data sources utilizing several methods and techniques,
- presentation and publication of project results and knowledge transfer,
- training and supervision of students (PhD, MSc, BSc, project activities, etc.),
- involvements in project applications and fund raising (a.o. DFG, BMBF, EU, VW-Stiftung).
|
|
|
My general research is in the field of integrated analysis of hydrological systems at different scales (hillslope, catchment, ecosystem, and landscape scale) and process-oriented modelling of catchment and wetland systems with a major focus on landscape-based approaches. With my dissertation I contributed to a generalized understanding of formation, functioning, and dynamics of palustrine wetlands in semiarid South Africa and the prognostic modelling and assessment of impact of recent and past human activities and climate changes on these wetland systems by incorporating a landscape-based model approach. In addition to that, I've gain experience in field of Data Base Management Systems (DBMS), hydrologic-related GIS analyses, forest hydrology, plant physiology, landscape ecology, irrigation agriculture, salinity and wetland hydrology from different projects. |
|
|
In the past years I 've traveled to South Africa, Swaziland, USA, Canada, Australia, UK, Sri Lanka, Poland, France, the Netherlands, Austria and Germany for field work, conferences, workshops etc. Hence, I was able to establish many contacts with scientists in various fields and have found friends all over the world. |
 |
|
|
In addition, I'm involved in administrative activities of the Institute such as being a member of the Insitute council and of the Faculty Examination Council. |
|
|
Projects |
|
|
2009-2011 |
 |
|
|
"Climate Change, Water and Productivity in the Mediterranean: Capacity Building for Geospatial Modelling"
lead by: Prof. Dr. Suha Berberoglu (Cukurova Universität, Adana, Türkei)
funded by:: EU (FP7-PEOPLE-IRSES-2008)
Partners: Dr. Jörg Helmschrot (FSU Jena), Res.-Ass. Cenk Donmez (Cukurova Universität, Adana, Türkei)Dr. Peter Krause (FSU Jena), Dr. Greg Husak (UCSB, USA), Ass.Prof. Sorin Popescu (A&M Texas, USA)
Summary: The semi-arid Eastern Mediterranean in the forthcoming decades is likely to be particularly vulnerable in respect to climate change. The Eastern Mediterranean coast of Turkey was selected for this study is representative for this situation as it has a very high local environmental quality and sensitivity in respect to water resources. The basin has a typical semi-arid Mediterranean climate, and is characterised partly by severe land degradation due to soil erosion and salinity. At present the area is undergoing a rapid development with consequent impacts including erosion, seepage of waste water and irrigation return flow, land reclamation, degradation and loss of forest by accelerated erosion and fire, salinization of freshwater resources and soil, pesticides, and related industrial activities, exploitation for tourism and recreation. As a result of these impacts the water quality of the rivers are receding, but has not yet reached a level at which mitigating actions would be ineffective.
The proposed exchange programme can be considered as a chance of connecting the hydrology and the remote sensing communities from Europe and US to develop tools for understanding of climate change consequences using geospatial technologies. The project contributes substantially to strengthen the research capacity and extends its established contacts into the Mediterranean area. The requested EU exchange project pursues a clear application and enables to transfer expertise from science into practice and on the other hand the mutual exchange of experiences and knowledge between researches groups from Turkey, Germany and US.
|
|
|
2009-2010 |
 |
|
|
"Integrated system analysis to understand the implications of the Asian Mosoon system on the Tibetan hydrology with focus on the Nam Co basin"
lead by: Prof. W.-A. Flügel, J. Helmschrot, P. Krause, V. Hochschild
funded by: DFG within teh Priority Programme SPP 1372: TiP
Staff: Christin Michel
Summary: The Tibetan Plateau has an outstanding relevance for the global climate dynamics through its impact on the Asian monsoon system, which in turn causes feedbacks to the vulnerable Tibetan ecosystem. Considering global climate change, little knowledge is given on the impact of the monsoon dynamics on the eco-hydrological system, but evidence of melting glaciers and permafrost as well as increasing evapotranspiration rates indicate significant system changes regarding water availability. The main objective of this research study is the development of an integrated system analysis approach in order to understand the hydrological implications of the Asian monsoon system on the Nam Co Basin, linking lake level fluctuations with water balance modelling of its tributaries. Integrated field studies, geostatistics, remote sensing and GIS techniques will provide the spatiotemporal data, parameter and information required for distributed, process-oriented hydrological modelling, utilizing the J2000 model. This will result in a prognostic assessment of the impact of climate change affected monsoon dynamics on the water balance of Tibetan basins. The received information and model results will be incorporated into ITIS, the Integrated Tibet Information System, which will be developed and implemented as the central Priority Programme data facility.
Please visit http://www.geoinf.uni-jena.de/tibet or SPP 1372: TiP for more details.
|
|
|
|
2006-2009 |
|
"GIS supported Integrated Water Resources Management System (IWRMS) for the Eastern Mediterranean: A regional clean water action plan for the Seyhan River (GIRMASEM)"
lead by: Prof. W.-A. Flügel, DGHM, FSU Jena
funded by: TÜBÍTAK (Türkei)and International Office, FZ Jülich
Staff: Dr. P. Krause (FSU Jena), Dr. S. Kralisch (FSU Jena), Dr. Berberoglu (Cukurova University), Prof. M. Cetin (Cukurova University), Prof. Gültekin (Cukurova University)
Summary: The general objective of GIRMASEM is to provide innovative methodical support for a adaptive Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and criteria for water quality as layed down in the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) by means of implementing a toolbox of tested components provided by the Turkish and German partners. The project thereby addresses deficits for present IWRM identified jointly by the project research partners and the cooperating stakeholders. The Integrated Water Resources Management System (IWRMS) toolbox will comprise the web based Adaptive Integrated Data Information System (AIDIS), comprising GIS and geostatistic functionality, and the J2000 regional river basin model. It will assist GIRMASEM decision makers to evaluate and implement adaptive IWRM strategies to preserve water quality in the Eastern Mediterranean of Turkey and its neighbouring states. The project will assess the present status of the basin’s natural and socio-economic components and will evaluate “what-if?” scenarios in respect environmental and socio-economic impacts on present water resources, identified as likely to occur in the Seyhan river basin in Turkey.
Please visit the project-homepage for more details.
|
  |
Location of the Seyhan plain and the test site 'Akarsu'
|
|
|
|
2006-2008 |
 |
|
|
"Integrated wetland study in the valley "Wipfragrund", Thuringian Forest
lead by: Prof. W.-A. Flügel
funded by: FSU Jena, City of Ilmenau
Staff: cand.geogr. Hannes Müller Schmied; Manfred Vogt
Summary: With respect to their eco-hydrological functions, wetlands are recognized as integral landscape features in almost every environment. Cascading pond systems which were established in the Middle Age for fish production, can be found in northern parts of the Thuringian Forest. Nowadays, complex pond and wetland systems representing different succsession stages are developed resulting from changing management activities during the last centuries. Ecological studies of the Landesanstalt für Umwelt und Geologie (TLUG) in the early 90s have shown that a variety of endangered plants and annimals exist. On the other hand, little knowledge is available regarding landscape funcioning, hydrological dynamics, vegetation and soil distribution in these wetlands. Thus, an integrated study was initiated aiming to investigate wetland dynamcis combining eco-hydrological monitoring and soil and vegetation analysis at the test site "Paulinzella" (Wipfragrund watershed). In addition, detailed studies regarding the seasonal variation of palnts and annimals will be carried out in order to verify and complete the ecological studies from the early 90s.
|
|
|
2005-2008 |
|
"DRYSAL" - Multi-scale analyses of dryland salinity impacts and adaptive Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) strategies for salinity mitigation in the Berg River basin, Western Cape Province, South Africa
lead by: Prof. W.-A. Flügel, Institut für Geographie, FSU Jena
funded by: BMBF, Forschungszentrum Jülich
Staff and partners: Prof. Dr. M. Fey (Stellenbosch, Südafrika), Prof. Dr. C. Schmullius (FSU Jena), Dr. P. Krause (FSU Jena), Dr. S. Kralisch (FSU Jena), W. DeClercq (Stellenbosch, Südafrika)
Summary: The overarching objective of this project is to develop a thorough understanding of the regional dryland salinity dynamics, salt sources and salt storages, as well as corresponding groundwater salinity dynamics in the Western Cape Province. This will be done by focussing on the representative Berg River catchment (Figure) and including economic and IWRM related perspectives. By means of "what-if?" scenarios alternative land-use practices will be evaluated and recommendation to preserve land and water resources from further degradation will be given to the local farmer community and governance authorities.
Please visit Dryland salinity for more details..
|
 |
 |
Location of the study area (left) and view at the Goedertrou-test catchment (right).
|
|
|
|
2003-2006 |
 |
|
|
"Integrated landscape model of wetlands and its impact on the water cycle of semi arid river basins at example of the Umzimvubu Catchment, Eastern Cape, South Africa"
lead by: Prof. W.-A. Flügel
funded by: German Research Association
Summary: Main objective of this interdisciplinary project is to investigate the landscape related dynamics of wetlands in terms of noticable land use changes (such as afforestation) in large areas at semi arid regions of the Umzimvubu catchment (ca. 20 000 km²), Eastern Cape, South Africa. Therefore the focus will be development of an integrated landscape model to characterize the genesis and the hydrological dynamics of wetlands in this region. In addition to that, this model will be used to evaluate the hydrological and ecological impacts of afforestration on different scales and its effect on the regional water balance.
Please visit www.geogr.uni-jena.de/wetlands for more details.
|
 |
 |
The figures show the LAI distribution for forest stands in 1995 and 1999 (left) and a conceptual model for the hydrological process dynamics of a valley floor wetland type in a summer situation (right).
|
|
|
|
Jan 2003 - Aug 2003 |
|
"Land use classification of the Ruhuna Basin, Sri Lanka using a segment-based approach"
lead by: Prof. W.-A. Flügel
funded by: International Water Management Institute, Sri Lanka
Summary: The main objectives of this cooperation project between IWMI, Sri Lanka and the Department of Geoinformatics at the Friedrich-Schiller University in Jena, Germany were the development of an improved toolset to classify the land use by utilizing an object-oriented approach given by the image analysis software ECOGNITION and its application to the land use classification of the Ruhuna Basin in southern Sri Lanka with optical satellite data. In addition to that an adapted classification scheme for this region needed to be developed within the project. As a result a comprehensive report incl. a detailed description of the developed methods and a land use classification have been provided.
 |
 |
The figures show a typical landscape sequence characterizing the Ruhuna Basin (left) and the classification result (right).
|
|
|
|
Jan 2002 - Dec 2002 |
|
"Multitemporal land use classification of the Saale River catchment using TM data"
lead by: Prof. W.-A. Flügel
funded by: Center for Environmental Research
Summary: Within this project a multitemporal land use classification for the Saale River Catchment (20.000 skm) needed to be done utilizing Landsat TM/ETM data from 1989 and 1999. Therefore a 2-level class hierarchy have been developed considering the results of field mapping, which have been done in June 2002. Based on a comprehensive preprocessing of the data sets, a Maximum-Likelihood-Classifier hase been used to delineate the land use for each year. At least, the classification results have been improved by several postprocessing methods. As a result, land use layers at different levels and times (1989, 1999) have been provided to be used for further analysis within the Co-operation project "Integrated River Basin Management at the Saale river example".
 |
The figure shows a land use sequence close to the Elbe river partially overlayed by a cutoff from the original ETM data set (4,5,3).
|
|
|
|
May 2003 - Jun 2003 |
|
"EO-based delineation of vegetation and soil parameters, Weimar, Germany"
lead by: Dr. R. Bischoff
funded by: Thüringer Landesanstalt für Umwelt und Geologie, Jena
Summary: Satelite-based, optical data from Landsat TM and IRS have been processed to delineate vegetation and soil parameters to provide information about soil distribution, their development and its potential for agricultural land use management. The study has been carried out in a small test catchment in Thuringia, Germany. Firstly, multitemporal data from 5 stages between 1993 and 2000 have been rectified and atmospherically corrected. A comprehensive spectral analysis has been done to derive a variety of soil physical and vegetation parameters and indices (NDVI, SAVI, Soil-Water-Content-Index, Clay-Mineral-Index, Soil-Brightness-Index, Mineral-Composition-Index, etc.), which have been correlated to field maps and available lab data. Several models have been developed to derive such paramters operational. Finally, several verified data layers characterizing the spatial and temporal distribution of those parameters have been provided and could be used for further studies due to the potential of these soil for the optimum agricultural land use.
 |
Map of NDVI, SWCI and CMI for the study area, Weimar, Germany.
|
|
|
|
