Thesis writing

We have prepared a guideline document (PDF) that outlines the major steps involved in writing a thesis—from determining whether the Earth Observation Lab is the right fit for your project, to selecting a thesis topic, and finally, to developing, writing, and completing your thesis.

Our research

Humankind is rapidly transforming the planet, triggering drastic changes in land use and climate. Identifying strategies for monitoring these changes is among the major challenges society faces in the 21st century. At the Earth Observation Lab, we strive to find smarter ways to map when, where and in which ways land surfaces change and thereby allow a better understanding on why land use changes occur, how these changes impact ecosystem services, and what characterizes sustainable land systems. Focal areas of research relate to urban, agricultural, and forest environments. Concerning forests, we have strong ties to forest ecology, where e.g., understanding disturbance regimes (management or natural disturbances) is of core interest, and where linkages to climate, weather events, and land use are of great importance.

In the Earth Observation Lab, we typically work with quantitative and spatially-explicit tools from remote sensing, GIS analyses, spatial and temporal statistics, and modeling approaches driven with or profiting from remote sensing data. We work highly interdisciplinary, often in larger and international teams, and the working language of our group is therefore mainly English (while a thesis at the Bachelor level may be written in German or English – the choice is yours).

What you need

To carry out a thesis in the EO Lab, you should:

• generally have an interest in remote sensing, either from an application perspective or with a focus on remote sensing methods—ideally, both.
• be eager to learn more about global change and how it manifests in different regions of the world, the interactions between people and nature, and the threats to ecosystems and the services they provide.
• have a solid understanding of basic statistics, GIS, and remote sensing.
• have taken a remote sensing BSc course or MSc course.

Colloquium

Attending our colloquium is a great way to get in touch with our group and to see what students and researchers are currently working on. In the EOL colloquium, you will be able to see presentations from students on their thesis research as well as presentations from our researchers. So, if you searching for thesis topics, attending the colloquium is a first step. Check out the schedule in Moodle and stop by.

Please note, the study regulations of our Bachelor and Master programs require all students to participate in a colloquium for a full semester and to present their thesis research in a colloquium. Master students must also defend their thesis in a colloquium. So, attendance is mandatory once you decide to write a thesis in our lab. It is important that you calculate that into your thesis plan to avoid delaying your graduation.

Thesis examples

Here are a few thesis examples written in the Earth Observation Lab. The examples should give you an idea about the expected extent, depth, and form of a thesis.

BSc thesis examples:

• Potential of a multi seasonal spectral mixture analysis using Landsat imagery for detecting urbanization patterns in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

• Using Landsat time series for mapping winter and spring crops in Southeastern Anatolia

MSc thesis examples:

• Characterizing spring phenology of broadleaf forests across Germany combining Landsat/Sentinel-2 time series and phenological models

• Simulating maize yields in Brandenburg with the Scalable Crop Yield Mapper

Ongoing and past theses

• Master theses
• Bachelor theses