International Exchange on Urban Climate Research: MeteoBamberg and the JGM9 Conference
MeteoBamberg 2026
On 25 September 2026, the Mobi team led by Prof. Dr. Daniela Nicklas hosted the MeteoBamberg 2026 workshop as part of the University of Bamberg’s Smart City Research Lab. The workshop focused on current research questions at the intersection of computer science and urban climate research. In particular, different approaches to collecting, analysing and interpreting urban and climate data were presented and discussed from a range of disciplinary perspectives.
The workshop also built on the ongoing academic exchange with the team of Prof. Dr. Hirozumi Yamaguchi, Head of the Mobile Computing Laboratory at Osaka University. As part of this collaboration, Haruki Yonekura and Ren Ozeki visited Bamberg as guest researchers and presented their current research at MeteoBamberg. Together with researchers from Bamberg, they discussed different approaches and perspectives on the collection and analysis of urban climate data.
The scientific programme of MeteoBamberg highlighted the broad range of research questions that arise at the intersection of computer science and urban climate research. Mobile and distributed sensor systems make it possible to collect environmental data from a wide variety of sources. At the same time, they raise new challenges: How can the quality of such data be assessed? How can spatially and temporally heterogeneous measurements be combined? And which methods can be used to derive reliable information from large volumes of distributed sensor data?
The presentations are available below:
- From Anomalies to Actions: Vision-Language Models for Causal Diagnosis of Crowdsourced Weather Sensors, Haruki Yonekura(1.4 MB, 15 pages)
- Ren tbd
- Citizens Measuring the City: Quality and Potential of Weather Stations in Bamberg, Leonie Ackermann and Farshad Vahdatinia(938.1 KB, 14 pages)
- Regionalisation of Crowd-sourced Air Temperature Data using Local Climate Zones, Dr. Max Sauer(1.5 MB, 15 pages)
- Climate Walking – A Citizen Science Project, Prof. Dr. Thomas Foken(2.3 MB, 20 pages)
Experiencing Urban Climate First-Hand
Following the scientific presentations in the Smart City Research Lab, the topic of urban climate was explored directly on site. Prof. Dr. Thomas Foken, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bamberg, first introduced the climate walk as a citizen science project and then guided the participants on a climate walk through Bamberg.
During the walk, urban climate phenomena could be observed and discussed directly in the urban environment. The climate walk clearly demonstrated how scientific findings on urban climate can be linked with observations on site and citizen science approaches. In this way, MeteoBamberg combined academic exchange in the Smart City Research Lab with a practical exploration of urban climate and Smart City topics in the city of Bamberg.
International Exchange at JGM9 in Berlin
Just a few days later, the academic exchange continued at the 9th Japanese-German Meeting on Urban Climatology (JGM9) at Technische Universität Berlin. The conference brought together researchers, particularly from Japan and Germany, to discuss current topics in urban climate research.
Ren Ozeki from the University of Osaka and Dr. Max Sauer from the Mobi team at the University of Bamberg presented research findings at the conference, bringing perspectives from the joint exchange in Bamberg into the international research community.
In addition to the scientific presentations, JGM9 offered numerous opportunities for professional exchange. Discussions with researchers from different institutions opened up new perspectives on current research questions and created new contacts and opportunities for future collaboration.
Participation in JGM9 therefore directly built on the shared time in Bamberg and continued the exchange between Bamberg and Osaka within the context of international urban climate research.