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Thesis Topics

These topics have been defined to reflect current trends and demands in geomatics, specifically remote sensing science. Additionaly, students are encouraged to propose a thesis topic of their own interest. For more information please send an email to rsrgedu@uni-bonn.de

Bachelor's Thesis Topics

  1. Title: SAR based early detection of land clearing in Queensland, Australia. 
    Description: The annual land clearing in Queensland, by the governmental department, needs to be temporally improved. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) observations from space are expected to help with identification of potential change areas using a rapid mapping approach.
    Primary Supervisor: Dr. PD. Michael Schmidt
    Language:  English or German

  2. Title: Nigeria’s abandoned Mining site mapping for sustainable energy production
    Description: A large number of abandoned mines exists in Nigeria – a pre study in the Jos Plateau has shown promise in mapping these using Sentinel-2 imagery and a random forest classification. This thesis will be carried out in collaboration with a German company supporting decision making of the Nigerian Ministry of Mineral Development, aiming to identify potential areas for new development of solar photovoltaic parks.
    Primary Supervisor: Dr. PD. Michael Schmidt
    Language:  English

  3.  Title: Improved tree detection in Bonn city from aerial imagery 
    Description:The current tree map of Bonn city requires up-date and quality improvement. Trees are generally mapped, but have inaccurate shapes and at some places missing. Aerial image observations are available up to 2.5 cm spatial resolution. Aim of the work would be to test an image segmentation and object-based classification approaches, e.g., GEOBIA (eCognition), Segment Anything Model (SAM) or CNN (DeepTree), for a better and up-to-date tree delineation. 
    Primary Supervisor: Dr. PD. Michael Schmidt
    Language:  English or German

  4. Title: Mapping urban development and settlement spread of Katima Muliano (Namibia)  
    Description: The settlement history (last 40 years) of the regional town with 25.000 inhabitants needs to be mapped for the purpose of assessing risks related to mosquito-borne diseases. The work will focus on the settlement expansion and retreat through remote sensing identification of land surface materials for deriving indicators for the Katima Muliano’s population health mapping and disease risk modelling. 
    Primary Supervisor: Dr. PD. Michael Schmidt or Prof. Zbynek Malenovsky
    Language:  English

  5. Title: Mapping changes of urban development in Nakuru region in Kenya   
    Description: Having 450.000 inhabitants, the Nakuru region is a hotspot and one of the most dynamic regions in the rift valley in Kenya. Focus of this work will be to map different existing settlement types and their logistic infrastructure (e.g., logistic roads) for a potential differentiation of socio-economic processes in the region. The results of this study will serve as source for information for further potential disease spread modelling in the frame of Rural Future Africa collaborative research centre.
    Primary Supervisor: Dr. PD. Michael Schmidt or Prof. Zbynek Malenovsky
    Language:  English

Master's Thesis Topics

  1. Title: Changes in water cycle dynamic, including floods and droughts, in the Zambesi river system (Namibia) over past four decades
    Description: Goal of this study is to map the changes in water cycle within the floodplain of the Zambesi river in Namibia. The spatiotemporal changes should be mapped with optical satellite data spanning across past four decades and supplemented by existing soil moisture data. Results should identify areas that are regularly flooded (approximately every year), used to be flooded in the past but are mostly dry nowadays, were never flooded, and newly flooded only in 2026. The outcomes of this study will serve as source for information for further potential disease spread modelling in the frame of Rural Future Africa collaborative research centre.
    Primary Supervisor: Dr. PD. Michael Schmidt or Prof. Zbynek Malenovsky
    Language:  English

  2. Title: Bark beetle attack of immature and mature Norway spruce trees mapped by airborne imaging spectroscopy
    Description: Forests play a crucial role in preserving our planet, as they serve as carbon sinks, absorbing CO2 and regulating the climate.Due to uprising climate change, forests are more and more threatened not only by frequent wildfires and droughts, but also by outbreaks of insect pests such as bark beetle. In this thesis you will use airborne imaging spectroscopy (hyperspectral) images acquired several times during a single vegetation season over outbreaks of Norway Spruce bark beetle in Czech Republic. You will learn how to process and analyse these image time-series to map different stages of the bark beetle invasions and to assess their impact on forest ecosystem functions. This thesis will be carried out in collaboration with the Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Brno.
    Primary Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Zbynek Malenovsky
    Language: English

  3. Title: Monitoring long-term land-cover dynamics and shifting socio-ecological frontiers in the Baringo lake region (Kenya) 
    Description: Raising water levels in the region around Baringo lake enforces changes in land cover through its utilisation. The pastoral dryland usage is in conflict with dryland farming, which have led to the increasing modification and conversion of formerly open rangelands in arable land and the diversification of local livelihoods. In this work, timeseries of Sentinel-2 and Landsat missions’ multispectral images will be used to identify and monitor the main spatiotemporal trends in fast-changing land-cover dynamics in this region. The results will be used in the related study of the spread of  introduced invasive plant species (neophytes).  
    Primary Supervisor: Dr. PD. Michael Schmidt
    Language:  English

For more information please send an email to rsrgedu@uni-bonn.de