Main Fields of Research

• Development of computer science methods and concepts as well as techniques for the analysis, representation, simulation and visualizaition of individuals, populations, ecosystems and landscape scenarios based upon biological knowledge and management experience. Generating virtual realities (forest landscapes), which can be used in research, discsion support and knowledge transfer for students, forest officials and public


• Mathemathical modelling (statistic and deterministic) of life processes in forest ecosystems and silviculture. This includes (1) system-oriented and morphological approaches for structural-functional-models of plants and stands and mechanistic models of tree architecture. (2) Methods of spatial statistics, especially geostatistics and regionalization. (3) Development and implementation
  of methods for experiment planning, data analysis and sampling techniques in forest inventory, forestry and forest ecology. (4) Development and implementation of spatial forest ecological information systems and integrated competition and growth models. (5) GIS-modelling for forest palnning and forest ecosystem analyis


• Development of instruments for automatic data gathering, especially by full- or semi-automatic image processing.


• List of Research Projects

Working Groups

• Biometric Models – Sampling Techniques, Spatial Statistics and Regionalization


• Spatial Forest Ecological Information Systems


• Virtual Plant- und Forest Landscapes Modeling, Ecological Informatics


• ELearning Academic Network Lower Saxony


• Faculty Computer Center, Biometric and Computer Consulting

Research cooperation and interdisciplinary collaboration


The department conducts lively cooperations with domestic and foreign research facilities as well as with single researchers. For an overview look at the structure diagram. Especially noticeable are the contractual cooperations with CIRAD-Montpellier (France) and METLA (Finland) in the field of "Virtual Plant Modelling" and with TU Zvolen (Slovakia) in the field of "Sampling Techniques". Cooperation is mainly financed by projects funded by DFG, DBU, EU, DAAD and BML. Within the University of Göttingen, interdisciplinary collaboration especially takes place in the three interdisciplinary Research Centres (FZW, ZfI and ZfS).

• List of coorperation partners