IAMO has hosted the first cohort of guest researchers in the frame of GEO-WB6

From September 1st to 26th, IAMO welcomed three Albanian guest researchers in Halle (Saale) who apply GIS in their work on agriculture, climate change and environmental resources in the Western Balkans. Asoc. Prof. Dr. Sonila Papathimiu (University of Tirana) worked on the topic „Analysis of Existing High-Resolution Land-Cover Maps for the Western Balkans“ and classified the change in crop and forest types in the region since 2017 analyzing newly published data from Copernicus with a resolution of 10 meters. Mrs. Rea Muka (GIZ Albania) analyzed previously unavailable meteorological station measurements from Albania and applied the CLINO tool to calulate climatologies for the country in her project „Strengthening Climate Resilience in Albania through Geospatial Analysis: Developing a Climate Reference“. Dr. Hysen Kokiçi (Agricultural University of Tirana) worked on his project „Citizen-Science Powered Biodiversity Monitoring in the Western Balkans: Bridging Ecological Data Gaps for Sustainable Agriculture“, for which he analyzed the spatial distribution of pest insect records from the citizen-science platform iNaturalist and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). We thank all researchers for their valuable contributions and look forward to a continued collaboration in the frame of GEO-WB6!