Geography
The Department of Geography of the South Asia Institute deals with important topics of human-environment relations in high mountain regions. Research focuses on analyzing patterns of resources and recent changes in landscape and land use. Crises, conflicts, risks and development potentials are analyzed with theory-led empirical case studies from South Asia and treated integrally against the background of global change. It is standard to use combined methodological approaches, consisting of remote sensing and repeat photography, historical material, methods of empirical social research and field studies. The research content and methods form an important basis for the courses offered by the department.
Research Focus
Socio-Hydrology in the High Mountain
Based on the consideration that water availability depends not only on waterflow and other hydrological parameters, but also on access rights and hydraulic engineering infrastructure measures, comparative integrative studies are carried out in arid and semi-arid sections of the Himalayan arc.
High Mountain Visual Database (HiMViD)
A long-term project of the Department is the creation of an image database for detecting and analyzing changes in land use and land coverage in high mountain areas. Repeat recordings of historical photographs have developed into a valuable instrument for recording and analyzing changes over long periods of time.
