Vita

Academic career:

seit 2002            Professor for "Thematic Cartography, Spatial Visualisation, Map Editing and Design, Geographical Spatial Analysis and Geography" at the Faculty of Information Management and Media at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences

2000 - 2002       Research associate at the Fraunhofer Institute for Atmospheric Environmental Research (IFU), from Dec 2000 head of the "GIS Application" working group

2001 - 2002       Research associate at the German Aerospace Center (DLR, German Remote Sensing Data Center DFD) within the BIOTA-E02 project funded by BMBF.

1999                     Doctorate within the EU projects BEMA and VOCAMOD from the Technical University of Dresden with an interdisciplinary thesis in the fields of applied geoinformatics, landscape ecological modelling and visualisation

1992 - 1993       Environmental Remote Sensing (Master) at University of Aberdeen, Scotland

1987 - 1991       Cartography (Diplom) at KarlsruheUniversity of Applied Sciences

Employments:

2001 - 2002       German Aerospace Center  (DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen

2000 - 2002      Fraunhofer Institute for Atmospheric Environmental Research (IFU), Garmisch-Partenkirchen

1998 - 2000       Institute of Applied Research, Nürtingen University of Applied Sciences

1996 - 1998       GSF - National Research Centre for Environment and Health , Neuherberg

1994 - 1996       Geological Survey of Lower Saxony (NLfB),  Hannover

1992                     Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 19 – Tübingen Atlas of the Middle East (TAVO), University of Tübingen

Teaching

Focal points:

Thematic cartography / geovisualisation
Geographical information systems
Multispectral remote sensing
Mobile map apps

Research

I follow an integrative approach to visualisation, GIScience and remote sensing for environmentally relevant research questions and topics. My professional background includes cartography, geoinformatics, remote sensing, spatial modelling and graphic design. I am particularly interested in

• spatial applications in very different contexts,
• the development of new approaches through interdisciplinary cooperation,
• an improved understanding of phenomena at the landscape level,
• collecting, collating and integrating data and information from disparate sources,
• deriving time series for looking into the future based on the past,
• and capacity building / development in development cooperation.

Publications

A selection only:

• Agassin Ahogle, A.M., S. Letema, G. Schaab, V. Ngure, A.R. Mwesigye & N.K. Korir (2023): Heavy metals and trace elements contamination risks in peri-urban agricultural soils in Nairobi city catchment, Kenya. In: Frontiers in Soil Science, 2, 1048057, https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoil.2022.1048057.
• Schaab, G., S. Adams & S. Coetzee (2022): Conveying map finesse: thematic map making essentials for today’s university students. In: Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 46(1), 101-127, https://doi.org/ 10.1080/03098265.2020.1850656.
• Bühler, C., F. Schenkel, W. Gross, G. Schaab & W. Middelmann (2020): Strategic optimization of convolu­tional neural networks for hyperspectral land cover classification. In: The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol. XLIII-B3-2020, 363-369, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLIII-B3-2020-363-2020.
• Schaab, G. & C. Stern (2019): Mobile map apps: toys or tools? In: C. Lukinbeal, L. Sharp, E. Sommerlad & A. Escher (eds.), Media’s Mapping Impulse, Media Geography at Mainz Vol. 6, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, 189-211.
• Friesen, L., G. Schaab, S. Coetzee, V. Rautenbach, T. Marcus & J. Hugo (2018): Community oriented primary care (COPC) in the City of Tshwane (South Africa) – A web map application in support of responsive and dynamic health care. In: Kartographische Nachrichten. Journal of Cartography and Geographic Informa­tion, 4/2018, 173-182.
• Jedersberger, J., C. Stern, M. Wykstra & G. Schaab (2018): Supporting the monitoring of cheetahs in Kenya by mobile map apps. In: A. Mansourian, P. Pilesjö, L. Harrie & R. Van Lammeren (eds.), Geospatial Technologies for All, Selected Papers of the 21st AGILE Conference on Geographic Information Science, Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography, Springer, Cham, 169-188 (https://link.springer.com/ chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-78208-9_9).

For a complete list see https://www.imm.hs-karlsruhe.de/gvisr/staff/gertrud-schaab/publications-schaab.html.

Interests

These will not be revealed here.