The GIS Hub at the University of Zurich (UZH) was created as a Lab for the Digital Society Initiative (DSI). We offer support in the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to researchers and students across UZH. The range of services covers the creation, analysis, and visualisation of spatial data to their publication as interactive web maps. We advise on how to collect spatial data, how to produce a map out of research data, how to carry out a spatial analysis and publish the results as open data. For the latter, the GIS Hub provides a free to use web-mapping server. In addition, we organise workshops and lunchtime talks on different topics.
If you are curious how the collaboration between researchers and the GIS Hub works, have a look at our blog.
The people behind the Hub are:
Ross Purves is professor of Geocomputation at the Department of Geography. He has carried out extensive research on the use of natural language to answer geographic questions, particularly with respect to the environment, and has a profound knowledge of uncertainty in the application of GIS.
Daniel Ursprung is a member of the Department of History, specialising on Eastern Europe and the Balkans from late medieval to the modern period. He has extensive experience in the use of GIS to explore historically relevant questions, and a long history of teaching GIS skills.
Peter Ranacher leads the Spatial Data Science Group at the University Research Priority Program in Language and Space. He is an expert on the analysis of movement data and has latterly focused his research on the analysis of relationships between languages across time and space.
Katia Soland is the coordinator of the GIS Hub and responsible for promoting, developing and managing the Hub’s activities. She advises researchers and students at UZH on GIS topics and assists in interdisciplinary projects. She holds a Master’s in Geography with an emphasis on Geographic Information Science and Systems from UZH.
The Advisory Board of the GIS Hub consists of Prof. Dr. Sara Irina Fabrikant, Professor for Geographic Information Visualization and Analysis, Prof. Dr. Carlota de Benito Moreno, Assistant Professor of Language and Space in Ibero-Romance, and Dr. Christine Grundig, Coordinator of the Digital History Lab.
The GIS Hub as DSI Lab lasted from 1 July 2022 to 31 December 2024. It will be continued in 2025 in the research group of Ross Purves at the Department of Geography at UZH in a slightly different form, but no less enthusiasm.
Former members of the GIS Hub:
Leyla Ciragan is a member of Digital Teaching and Research and responsible for developing Digital Humanities topics and infrastructure in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. She is a Germanist and Computer Scientist bringing knowledge in technical infrastructure and in the Digital Humanities.