Photo: pantherstrix
It’s almost that time again: From March 25 to 28, 2026, the FOSSGIS Conference will take place in Göttingen. For us, this community event is something very special: we’re looking forward to exciting presentations, inspiring discussions, and connecting with like-minded people. Of course, we’ll also be actively involved: with several contributions of our own, we’ll be sharing our latest projects and insights.
One of the presentations will showcase actinia Copilot URBAN, an open-source AI system co-funded by the European Space Agency that combines Large Language Models (LLMs) with geospatial data processing. It supports urban planning and climate adaptation projects by enabling municipalities and planning offices to analyze complex Earth observation data through natural language queries and directly generate usable maps, reports, and analyses — all without requiring in-depth technical expertise.
Another presentation demonstrates how freely available Analysis Ready Data (ARD) products and open-source tools such as FORCE, SADASADAM, or GRASS GIS make it easier to get started working with Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data. Using practical examples, it shows how preprocessing, time series analyses, and GIS workflows can be implemented directly — also without requiring in-depth expertise in remote sensing.
In addition, we will show how modern AI models — particularly Vision Transformers — can be used to analyze aerial imagery for assessing urban surfaces. Through practical examples, we demonstrate how these methods support urban planning — from identifying heat islands and potential depaving areas to implementing sponge city strategies — while operating more robustly and with greater transferability than traditional approaches.
The program is complemented by a poster exhibition presenting two of our current projects: leveraging Earth observation data for ESG reporting and utilizing Sentinel-2 data for forest monitoring.
Come by, we’re looking forward to seeing you!