Current research
Here you find more information on current research projects and publications by the various working groups in the Department of Geography.
Research Focus Areas
The department’s research focus areas shape both its projects and its teaching. They bring together the expertise of the working groups and address cross-disciplinary questions that require inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration. Researchers at the GIUB work jointly across groups on projects that tackle major global challenges at the interface of physical and human geography, in close cooperation with partners at the University of Bonn and beyond.
Selected Research Projects
CRC/TRR 228 - Future Rural Africa
Against the backdrop of advancing globalization and the growing impacts of climate change, the Collaborative Research Centre/Transregio 228 “Future Rural Africa. Future-making and social-ecological transformation” investigates how the future in rural Africa is negotiated and shaped. At the centre are processes of agricultural intensification, infrastructure development—such as roads, dams or geothermal power plants—and the expansion of conservation areas. The CRC examines how these often opposing yet closely intertwined developments affect food security, social systems and value chains. The researchers analyse how different ideas of the future shape changes in land use, and how unpredictable events—such as droughts, violent conflicts or political crises—challenge the planning of future developments. The regional focus of the research lies in eastern and southern Africa.
The CRC/Transregio 228 is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and is currently in its third funding period. It is carried out at the University of Bonn in cooperation with the University of Cologne. Other members of this joint project are the Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC), the German Institute for Development and Sustainability (IDOS), the University of Potsdam, the Charité at Humboldt University in Berlin, as well as numerous cooperation partners in Africa.
Fire-Stream: Insights into Wildfire Effects on Streamflow Generation and Water Quality
Wildfires have increased in frequency and intensity in many parts of the world. One especially affected region is the Western United States where forested area burned by wildfires annually has increased six-fold since the 1980s. This sparks concern over the impact these fires potentially have on water resources. In the Fire-Stream project, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, we investigate how wildfires affect hydrological processes and water quality. To achieve this, we build on the 2023 Lookout Fire in the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest in Oregon, USA. The HJ Andrews Experimental Forest (~64 km²) is one of the world’s longest monitored hydrological and ecological research sites and about 2/3 of the area was burned (forest and soil) to various degrees. The research is conducted in cooperation with Prof. Catalina Segura of the Watershed Processes Lab of Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon.
Watersheds within the forest burned at varying intensities and some remained untouched by the wildfire. This enables us to not only compare pre- to post-fire conditions but also burned to unburned areas. Now, over a two-year period, we are conducting extensive sampling of streams and precipitation across the forest. By integrating the collected data into various hydrological models, we can investigate how sources and flow-paths of water have changed following the fire. Linking these results to the hydro-chemical parameters that we collect will provide us with critical insights for predicting how future wildfires may alter water supply and quality in forested catchments.
SOZIAHR („Soziale, Ökonomische und Administrative Herausforderungen von Klima-Resilienz“)
The Mercator-funded research project SOZIAHR (“Social, Economic, and Administrative Challenges of Climate Resilience”) examines the Ahr Valley flood disaster of July 14, 2021, from a social science perspective and develops empirically grounded policy recommendations.
Until the end of 2028, an interdisciplinary team at the University of Bonn, in cooperation with the Wuppertal Institute, will analyze existing regulations and administrative processes in private reconstruction, as well as key conditions for social cohesion, the preservation of democracy, and the implementation of climate mitigation and adaptation measures.
The project aims to provide policy-relevant data and case-specific solutions for the Ahr Valley, while also deriving general recommendations for other regions.
Current publications
Aalders, T., and D. Müller-Mahn (2026). The hard work of future-making: alienated futures, invisible labour and liberation. Territory, Politics, Governance, 14(2), 265–282.
Allouche, J., and D. Müller-Mahn (2025, January 22). Carbon Offsetting in Arid Lands Won’t help Fight Climate Change – Great Green Wall Shows Why? IDN-InDepthNews. https://indepthnews.net/carbon-offsetting-in-arid-lands-wont-help-fight-climate-change-great-green-wall-shows-why/
Amra, R., Araki, S., Geiß, C., and G. Davies (2025). Error-reduced digital elevation models and high-resolution land cover roughness in mapping tsunami exposure for low elevation coastal zones. Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment, 37, 101438.
Anthonj, C., Stanglow, S. N., Flacke, J., Leinen, A., Butsch, C., Meissner, F., Jendrek, S., and J. Martinez (2025). Reflecting mixed method research on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene among unhoused people. Insights into a case study from Germany. Hygiene and Environmental Health Advances, 15, 100139.
Aravena Pelizari, P., Geiß, C., and H. Taubenböck (2026). Bottom-up building exposure modeling with multimodal earth vision. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 231, 357–375.
Bacher, M.L., Klaus, J., Ward, A.S., Krause, J., Segura, C., and C. Glaser (in press). Different tracer, different bias: using radon to reveal flow paths beyond the Window of Detection. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences.
Becker, K., Kraas, F., and C. Butsch (2026). Migrants’ and immigrants’ understandings of health and disease. Medical diversity in two diverse urban neighbourhoods. Social Science & Medicine, 389, 118851.
Becker, K., Zehren, E., Kraas, F., and C. Butsch (2025). Neue Herausforderungen für das Gesundheitssystem – Zugang zu Gesundheitsdienstleistungen in diversen Stadtquartieren. Standort.
Biber-Freudenberger, L., Bogner, C., Bareth, G., Bollig, M., Dannenberg, P., Diez, J.R., Greiner, C., Mtweve, P.J., Klagge, B., Kramm, T., Müller-Mahn, D., Moseti, V., Nyamari, N., Ochuodho, D.O., Kuntashula, E., Theodory, T., Rose Thorn, J.P., and J. Börner. (2025). Impacts of road development in Sub-Saharan Africa: A call for holistic perspectives in research and policy. ISCIENCE (2025). Vol. 28, Issue 2, 111913.
Birke, J. and A. Keil (2026). Sustainability in the Theater Management: Opportunities and Challenges in Establishing Sustainability Strategies in the German Theater Landscape. International Journal of Arts Management, 28(2), 1-15.
Ceolin, S., Schymanski, S., van Dusschoten, D., Koller, R., and J. Klaus (2025). Root growth dynamics and allocation as a response to rapid and local changes in soil moisture. Biogeosciences, 22, 691-703.
Dame, J., Kwella, D., Naguib, I. and D. Hirsch (2025). Urbane Ernährungstransformation gemeinsam gestalten: Service Learning als innovatives Lehr- und Lernformat für den Umgang mit gesellschaftlichen Herausforderungen. In: Innovative Ansätze für die Nachhaltigkeitslehre und Forschung in der Hochschulbildung, 403-419. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Spektrum.
Dame, J., Müller-Hansen, M., Butsch, C., Keck, M., Batool, F., Schmidt, M., and P. Singh (2025). Aktuelle Forschungsbeiträge zu Südasien: 14. Jahrestagung des AK Südasien, 02.-03.02.2024, Augsburg. In Geographien Südasiens, Bd. 16. Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing.
Dittmann, J. (2025). Paper Park? Politik grenzübergreifenden Naturschutzes in Nordost-Namibia. In Forum Politische Geographie 20. LIT-Verlag, Münster.
Dittmann, J. (2025). Performing a paper park – visions, controversies and side-effects of a transboundary conservation megaproject. Third World Quarterly, 1–19.
Evers, M., Delos Santos Almoradie, A., Ntajal, J., Höllermann, B., Johann, G., Meyer, H., Kruse, S., Ziga-Abortta, F., Bachmann, D., Schotten, R., Lumor, M., Norman, C., and K. Adjei (2024). Lessons Learned from PARADeS Project for Flood Disaster Risk Planning and Management in Ghana [Report]. Department of Geography, University of Bonn.
Evers, M., K. K. Kyu, H. Htike, A. Almoradie and M. Zülich (2024). How Spatiotemporal Dynamics Impact Alluvial Farming and Food Security. In: Coevolution and prediction of coupled Human-Water-systems. A Socio-Hydrology Synthesis in hydrology and Society. IAHS. Cambridge University Press.
Fort, M., Gurung, N., Yvrard, P., Bell, R., Burrows, K., Rimal, B., and G. Arnaud-Fassetta (2025). The Kagbeni flood event (August 13, 2023), Mustang District (Nepal): Triggers, sediment cascades, aggravating infrastructures and disaster risk management. Géomorphologie: Relief, Processus, Environnement, 31(4).
Füller, H., Dzudzek, I., Kistemann, T., and T. Falkenberg (2025). Planetary Health policy? Persistence of modern concepts and pitfalls of implementation. GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society, 34(4), 204–209.
Fwaya, N., Ngaga, Y. M., Evers, M., Lalika, M. C. S., and K. Näschen (2025). Recession farming practices and their linkage to hydroclimatic risks in Kilombero Valley. Discover Agriculture, 3(1), 58.
Geiß, C., and V. Hertel (2025). Antifragility and Natural Hazard Risk: Rethinking Disaster through a Transformative Resilience Lens. International Journal of Disaster Risk Science, 16(5), 888–890.
Glaser, C., Bonanno, E., Blöschl, G., and J. Klaus (2026). Partitioning Water Storage in Streams Reaches: Implications for Solute Transport under Varying Hydrological Conditions. Water Resources Research, 62(1), e2025WR040372.
Glaser, C., Gannon, J.P., Godsey, S.E., Grande, E., and J. Klaus (2025). Streamflow (de)generation - how do streams lose flow? Hydrological Processes, 39(10), e70258.
Gnann, N., Höreth, K., Schweigert, N., Evers, M., Ternes, T. A., and L. Hamann (2026). The river Rhine transports around 4,000 tonnes of macrolitter towards the North Sea each year. Communications Sustainability, 1(1), 5.
Götz, J. and L. Schrott (2025). Holocene sediment cascades in the German Alps. In: Landscapes and landforms of Germany. 475–491. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland.
Greiner, C., and M. Standop (2026). The wilderness fetish: The mystification of nature conservation in the age of capital. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 25148486251407464.
Herold, A., Drösler, M., Boetius, A., Bolte, A., Evers, M., Gattinger, A., Grethe, H., Hansen, R., Ibisch, P. L., Köck, W., Pongratz, J., Rehdanz, K., Settele, J., Tanneberger, F., Temperton, V. M. and M. Zschiesche (2025). Optionen zur Weiterentwicklung des Aktionsprogramms Natürlicher Klimaschutz. Stellungnahme des Wissenschaftlichen Beirats für Natürlichen Klimaschutz für das Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Klimaschutz, Naturschutz und nukleare Sicherheit. Wissenschaftlicher Beirat für Natürlichen Klimaschutz. ISBN 978-3-949245-37-4.
Hertel, V., Geiß, C., Wieland, M., and H. Taubenböck (2025). Rapid domain adaptation for disaster impact assessment: Remote sensing of building damage after the 2021 Germany floods. Science of Remote Sensing, 12, 100287.
Hertel, V., Wani, O., Geiß, C., Wieland, M., and H. Taubenböck (2025). BayeSiamMTL: Uncertainty-aware multitask learning for post-disaster building damage assessment. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 143, 104759.
Hissler, C., Holmes, T., Jeelani, G., Kalvans, A., Montemagno, A., Zeray Oztuerk, E., Zvab Rozic, P., Stadnyk, T., Stumpp, C., Valiente, N., von Freyberg, J., van Meerveld, I., Penna, D., Vreca, P., Zuecco, G., and J.W. Kirchner (2025). Recent advances in tracer-aided mixing modeling of water in the Critical Zone. Reviews of Geophysics, 63(3), e2024RG000866.
Höhl, J., Dame, J., and A. Videla-Oyarzo (2025). Exploring water (in)securities in a water-abundant setting: Hydrosocial dynamics and local strategies in Central-South Chile. Geoforum, 166, 104423.
Innocente dos Santos, C., Klaus, J., and P.L.B. Chaffe (2025). The effects of Diabase dikes on the spatial distribution of baseflow: Geology trumps Topography. Hydrological Processes, 39(10), e70288.
Jackson, C.R., and J. Klaus (2025). On the distribution of interflow downslope travel distances and slope characteristics - An expanded meta-analysis of hillslope studies. Water Resources Research, 61(11), e2025WR040753.
Kaffas, K., Murgia, I., Menapace, A., Macchioli Grande, M., Verdone, M., Dani, A., Manca di Villahermosa, F.S., Preti, F., Segura, C., Massari, C., Klaus, J., Borga, M., and D. Penna (2025). Controls on preferential flow and its role on streamflow generation in a Mediterranean forested catchment. Journal of Hydrology, 660, 133469.
Kioko, E. M., Müller-Mahn, D., and MJ. Chuhila (2026). Green Futures and National Planning: Rhetoric and Reality in East Africa. In: African Futures in the Making, 102-127. Melton: James Currey.
Kistemann, T., and T. Falkenberg (2025). Zur Bedeutung von Places und Landschaften für die Gesundheit. Bundesgesundheitsblatt - Gesundheitsforschung - Gesundheitsschutz, 68(10), 1163–1169.
Klör, T., Bubeck, P., Bell, R., and A. H. Thieken (2025). Factors Influencing Mental Burden Caused by Flooding: Insights from the 2021 Flood in the Ahr Valley (Germany). Journal of Flood Risk Management, 18(4), e70116.
Krämer, A. und C. Butsch: (Mega-)Urbanisierung und menschliche Gesundheit im Globalen Süden. In: Tropenmedizin, 676–684. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Kuebler, F., and M. Naumann (2026). (Re)telling far-right violence: The literary geography of East German coming-of-age novels. Cultural Geographies, 33(1), 79–95.
Mast, J., Lemoine-Rodríguez, R., Rittlinger, V., Mühlbauer, M., Biewer, C., Geiß, C., and H. Taubenböck (2025). Geospatiality: The effect of topics on the presence of geolocation in English text data. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 1–32.
Mast, J., Sapena, M., Debray, H., Inkoom, J. N., Lemoine-Rodríguez, R., Geiß, C., and H. Taubenböck (2025). The digital urban frontier: Disparities in social media activity between consolidated and newly urbanized areas in Africa. Applied Geography, 181, 103687.
Meyer, H., Johann, G., and M. Evers (2024). Adaptive capacity of homeowners in Ghana to improve technical and social flood resilience. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 114, 104953.
Minja, E. A., and D. Müller-Mahn (2025). Reviving a ghost project: The long history of the Nyerere Dam in Tanzania. Third World Quarterly 46 (1), 1–22.
Müller-Mahn, D. (2025). Hydropolitik der Nilregion. Geographische Rundschau 7/8, 4-9.
Müller-Mahn, D. and M. B. Oma (2025). Great Green Wall - Grüne Visionen und die Realität von Aufforstungsprojekten am Beispiel Äthiopiens. Geographische Rundschau 7/8, 40-43.
Müller-Mahn, D., and C. Beier (2026). Mythen der Entwicklung. Geographische Rundschau 1/2, 18-23.
Müller-Mahn, D., and M. Bollig (2026). Future Rural Africa – social-ecological transformation and future-making: An Introduction. In: African Futures in the Making, 1-30. Melton: James Currey.
Müller-Mahn, D., and M. Bollig (2026, eds.). African Futures in the Making. Melton: James Currey.
Müller-Mahn, D., Kioko, E. M., and T. Aalders (2026). Ghost projects and the ambiguity of infrastructure development. Third World Quarterly, 1–7.
Müller-Mahn, D., Owino, E. A., and T. F. Theodory (2025). Ghost airports: the boom and bust of large infrastructure projects. Third World Quarterly, 1–18.
Müller-Mahn, D., Runkel, S., Schlottmann, A., and C. Stephan (2025). Geographies of the future. Geographica Helvetica, 80, 177–185.
Neubacher, F., and A. Schliehe (2022). „Eigentlich müssten die unsere Feinde sein …“ − Wie junge Frauen in Haft über Vollzugsbedienstete sprechen. Kriminologie - Das Online-Journal | Criminology - The Online Journal, (4), 392–412.
Neupane, B., Aryal, J., Rajabifard, A., Aravena Pelizari, P., and C. Geiß (2025). Multilabel Learning With ViT for Building Footprint Extraction From Off-Nadir Aerial Images. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, 22, 1–5.
Opanga, V., and D. Müller-Mahn (2026). Cartel Economies and Urban Governance: The Interplay of Performative Politics, Social Embeddedness, and Land Control in Nairobi’s Informal Settlements. Africa Spectrum, 0(0).
Pamukçu Albers, P., Deistler, A. and M. Evers (2025). Ökosystemleistungen der neuen Emscher-Auen zwischen Dortmund-Ellinghausen und Recklinghausen. Projekt Endbericht. Arbeitsgruppe Ökohydrologie und Wasserressourcenmanagement, Geographisches Institut, Universität Bonn.
Petersen, L. (2025). Diskriminierung junger, nicht-binärer Personen im familiären Wohnumfeld. Beziehungsgestaltung in hochsensiblen Forschungssettings. In: Forschen in Macht- und Ungleichheitsverhältnissen. Reflexionen aus Kindheits-, Jugend- und Familienforschung, 105-116.
Popp, A.L., Beria, H., Sprenger, M., Ala-Aho, P., Coenders-Gerrits, M., Groh, J., Klaus, J., Knapp, J.L.A., Koren, G., Bakiri, I., Xu Fei, E., Gillon, M., Harman, C.,
Rodríguez-de-Francisco, J. C., Höhl, J., Houdret, A., Butsch, C., Dame, J., Krause, F., Fragkou, M., Mora-Mota, A., and J. Budds (2026). WaterS beyond SDG 6: unveiling the multiple dimensions of water. Water International, 1–12.
Sarpong, A. O., Müller-Mahn, D., and O. E. Osei (2025). Decoding the logics behind the demolition and redevelopment of Agbogbloshie Scrapyard, Accra, Ghana. Geoforum, 159, 104180.
Schliehe, A. (2025). Geographical Approaches to Penology. In: The Routledge Handbook of European Penology. London: Routledge.
Selvakumaran, S., Rolland, I., Cullen, L., Davis, R., Macabuag, J., Chakra, C. A., Karageozian, N., Gilani, A., Geiβ, C., Bravo-Haro, M., and A. Marinoni (2025). Improving operational use of post-disaster damage assessment for Urban Search and Rescue by integrated graph-based multimodal remote sensing data analysis. Progress in Disaster Science, 25, 100404.
Stammler, M., Blöthe, J. H., Flöck, F., Bell, R., and L. Schrott (2025). UAV-based optical imagery, digital elevation models and hillshades of Dos Lenguas rock glacier / Argentinean Dry Andes (30oS, 69oW; 2016, 2018, 2022, 2024) and daily static optical imagery (2023-2024) [Dataset]. PANGAEA.
Stammler, M., Blöthe, J., Flöck, F., Bell, R., and L. Schrott (2025). Dos Lenguas rock glacier kinematics stable despite warming trend (2016–2024): Surface changes and the role of topography and climate in the Dry Andes of Argentina. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 50(11), e70151.
Taubenböck, H., Mast, J., Lemoine Rodríguez, R., Debray, H., Wurm, M., and C. Geiß (2025). Was global urbanization from 1985 to 2015 efficient in terms of land consumption? Habitat International, 160, 103397.
Tuschen, M., Steinbach, S., Sin, H. P., and M. Evers (2025). Assessing the impact of global change on flood dynamics and rice submergence susceptibility in the Kilombero floodplain, Tanzania. Frontiers in Earth Science, 13. 1672749.
Vatandaslar, C., Bolat, F., Abdikan, S., Pamukcu-Albers, P., and C. Satiral (2024). Modeling aboveground carbon in flooded forests using synthetic aperture radar data: A case study from a natural reserve in Turkish Thrace. iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, 17(5), 277.
Wani, O., Majszak, M., Hertel, V., and C. Geiß (2025) To be on the safe side: hydroclimatic risk and loss aversion require requisite uncertainty awareness. PLOS Water, 4(6), e0000387.
Xiao, P., Dong, Y., Zhao, J., Peng, T., Geiß, C., Zhong, Y., and H. Taubenböck (2025). MF-Mamba: Multiscale Convolution and Mamba Fusion Model for Semantic Segmentation of Remote Sensing Imagery. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 63, 1–16.
Xuan, Y., Geiß, C., Mu, H., Niu, D., Guo, B., and Y. Deng (2025). Instance segmentation techniques for seismic building structural type estimation from remote sensing imagery – Evidence from Xi’an city, China. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 127, 105686.
Zangana, I., Bell, R., Drăguţ, L., Sîrbu, F., and L. Schrott (2025). Mapping forest-covered landslides using Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis (GEOBIA), Jena region, Germany. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 25(12), 4787–4806.
Zhao, J., Xiao, P., Dong, Y., Geiß, C., Zhong, Y., and H. Taubenböck (2025). Large-scale mapping of water bodies across sensors using unsupervised deep learning. Remote Sensing of Environment, 328, 114877.
Zhong, J., Liu, J., Jiao, L., Geiß, C., Droin, A., and H. Taubenböck (2025). Unveiling the spatio-temporal patterns of vegetation growth influenced by diverse urban intensity gradients. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 112, 107810.
Zhu, Y., Burlando, P., Tan, Y. P., Geiß, C., and S. Fatichi (2025). Deep Learning-based Multi-source DEM Super-Resolution: A Novel Approach to Improve Pluvial Flood Simulations. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 25, 2271–2286.
Zhu, Y., Burlando, P., Zhang, Y., Chi, D., Wang, J., Qiu, Y., Bonatesta, M., Zou, W., Geiß, C., Tan, P. Y., and S. Fatichi (2025). The influence of urban morphological changes on pluvial flooding during urban expansion. Sustainable Cities and Society, 135, 107018.
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