Profile

The research group “Applied Near-Surface Geophysics and Remote Sensing”, led by junior professor Djamil Al-Halbouni, investigates research topics relevant to the human-nature interaction system. The group’s work focuses on subsurface water’s influence on natural hazards and its relationship to climate extremes. Characterizing water flow and availability, changes in the hydrological system (e.g., droughts, flash floods), and surface and subsurface deformation is essential to understand the processes that lead to short- and long-term hazardous effects. Such hazards include subsidence, landslides, and strong ground erosion, as well as the feedback onto natural ecologic systems such as stress on forests and plantations.

More broadly, the impact of groundwater/soil moisture and salinization on environmental dynamics within fragile ecosystems, particularly with regard to climate change and global warming, are challenges the group’s members address. Our compass also points towards the domains of of quaternary geology, geomorphology, geomechanics, geoarchaeology, and geoecology with a focus on landscape reconstruction processes and sustainable use of geosites in the framework of UNESCO Global Geoparks.

• 3D soil moisture monitoring to analyze stress reactions and atmospheric feedbacks in forests

  Al-Halbouni, Djamil

  Duration: 05/2022 – 12/2024

  Funded by: SMWK Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft, Kultur und Tourismus

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Angewandte erdoberflächennahe Geophysik und Fernerkundung; Fernerkundung in der Geo- und Ökosystemforschung
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more projects

• AlRabayah, O.; Caus, D.; Watson, R. A.; Schulten, H. Z.; Weigel, T.; Rüpke, L.; Al-Halbouni, D.

  Deep-Learning-Based Automatic Sinkhole Recognition: Application to the Eastern Dead Sea

  Remote Sensing. 2024. 16 (13). p. 2264.

  DOI: 10.3390/rs16132264
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• Orhan, O.; Haghshenas Haghighi, M.; Demir, V.; Gökkaya, E.; Gutierrez, F.; Al-Halbouni, D.

  Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Land Subsidence and Sinkhole Occurrence in the Konya Endorheic Basin, Turkey

  Geosciences. 2024. 14 (5). pp. 1–22.

  DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences14010005
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• Eisenhauer, N.; Frank, K.; Weigelt, A.; Bartkowski, B.; Beugnon, R.; Liebal, K.; Mahecha, M.; Quaas, M. F.; Al-Halbouni, D.; Bastos, A.

  A belowground perspective on the nexus between biodiversity change, climate change, and human well‐being

  Journal of Sustainable Agriculture and Environment. 2024. p. e212108.

  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/sae2.12108
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• Mahecha, M.; Bastos, A.; Bohn, F. J. et al.

  Biodiversity and climate extremes: known interactions and research gaps

  Earth's Future. 2024. 12 (6).

  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2023EF003963
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• Al-Halbouni, D.; AlRabayah, O.; Watson, R. A.; Stewart, I.

  Dead Sea-rious: shrinking and sinking

  The Geographer. 2023.
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more publications

Applied Geophysics and Remote Sensing

• Environmental Geophysics

• Earth Surface Deformation

• Regional Geography