Prof Conrad’s (MLU) research focuses on landscape and resilience, sustainable land and water management, monitoring ecosystem functions, research transfer, digital processes, information systems and further education.
Prof. Dr. Christopher Conrad
CC : Prof. Dr. Christopher Conrad (DH / Professor)
Areas of responsibility
Head of the Department of Geoecology and Managing Director of the Institute Area: Geoecology
Contact options (Conrad, Christopher)
Mail: christopher.conrad@geo.uni-halle.de | Tel: +49 (0)345 55-26040 | | Room: H4 1.32 | Consultation hours: by appointment
Focus Areas:
Geoecology, remote sensing, land systems research, Central Europe and Central Asia
Research
Projects
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CoolTown Project (Geoecology)
The aim of the project is to record and analyse the characteristics of urban heat islands on the basis of thermal satellite data in Hessian municipalities with a population of 20,000 or more. (CoolTown


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EU for a green Turkmenistan Project (Geoecology)
Climate protection requires joint action, and with this in mind, GIZ and Martin Luther University, together with experts from various disciplines, are supporting Turkmenistan in achieving its climate goals. (EU for a Green Turkmenistan


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DiP-SMART Agroforst Project (Geoecology)
Digitalisation to promote the establishment of agroforestry systems at the landscape level as a contribution to the climate resilience of southern Saxony-Anhalt and the decarbonisation of its chemical industry. (SMART Agroforst


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Climate-sensitive water resource management in Central Asia Project (Geoecology)
The project supports the implementation of a regional programme that promotes the application of climate-sensitive and gender-sensitive water resource management in five Central Asian countries. (Climate-sensitive water resource management in Central Asia


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GM-GDE Project (Geoecology)
The project will develop a novel vegetation-related and hydrological concept for mapping, analysing and assessing GDEs on a global scale. (GM-GDE


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MIGRAWARE Project (Geoecology)
The MIGRAWARE project aims to identify and analyse historical, current and future migration movements in West Africa. (MIGRAWARE
completed ·


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LANDSURF Project (Geoecology)
The aim of the project is to develop a high-resolution, regional Earth system model for West Africa, coupled to an ocean model and with a new, fully interactive land surface scheme. (LANDSURF
completed ·


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AgriSens-DEMMIN 4.0 Project (Geoecology)
Finding efficient and sustainable solutions to adapt to the effects of global change is one of the most important challenges of the 21st century. (AgriSens
completed ·


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Green Central Asia Project (Geoecology)
The CAWa-Green project aims to contribute to a regional database for the development of sustainable water management strategies in Central Asia. (CAWa-Green
completed ·


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PhenoSAR-Demmin Project (Geoecology)
Which phenological times can be observed with radar data? PhenoSAR analyses Sentinel-1 time series for crop monitoring in agriculture. (PhenoSAR


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InoCottonGrow Project (Geoecology)
Partners from Pakistan and Germany are working together to identify ways to increase the efficiency and productivity of water use along the entire cotton textile value chain in Pakistan. (InoCottonGrow
completed ·


Biography
- since 05/2019
Professorship for Geoecology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg - 10/2017 – 04/2019
Substitute Professor of Geoecology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg - 08/2017 – 09/2017
Temporary Senior Academic Councillor, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg - 07/2017
Habiliatation on the topic “Remote sensing and geoanalysis to Support sustainable land and water use in the Aral Sea Basin” - 08/2011 – 08/2017
Junior Professorship for Geographical Remote Sensing, Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg - 01/2007 – 07/2011
Temporary Senior Academic Councillor in the Elite Network of Bavaria, Master’s programme “Global Change Ecology”, University of Bayreuth, employed at the Chair of Remote Sensing of the Department of Geography at the University of Würzburg - 06 / 2002-12 / 2006
Research assistant at the German Remote Sensing Data Centre (DFD) of the DLR in Oberpfaffenhofen, Remote Sensing working group at the Institute of Geography at the University of Würzburg - 12/2006
Doctorate (Dr. rer. nat) within the project “Economic and Ecological Restructuring of Land and Water Use in the Khorezm Region (Uzbekistan): A Pilot Project in Development Research” - 04/1995 – 02/2002
Study programme Geography at the University of Mainz, specialisation: Geoecology - 04/1995 – 06/1997
Study programme Mathematics, finished after completion of the intermediate diploma
Teaching
Prof. Conrad teaches the basics of physical geography, geoecology and remote sensing in the BSc Geography and Natural Resource Management programmes at MLU. In the MSc programmes “International Area Studies – Global Change Geography” and “Management of Natural Resources”, the courses are also oriented towards land systems research. His excursions regularly take him to the low mountain ranges of Central Europe (BSc) and the Alps (MSc).
Publications
Supervised Theses
Other activities
Tasks in academic self-administration
- Managing Director (until 1 October 2025)
- Spokesperson of the Rectorate Commission on the Future of Studies and Teaching at MLU (RKZSL)
- Faculty Council at the Faculty of Natural Sciences III of MLU
- Head of the AK Hochschuldidaktik in the RKZSL/MLU
- Member of examination boards and doctoral commissions
Relevant Posts & Pages (8)
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Central Asia: Workshop for the joint development of a further education programme (IWRM) ( Post: International Geoecology )
The IWRM workshop for the joint development of a handbook on integrated water resource management and a certification course for prospective water resource…
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Geoecology organises practice-oriented session on Droughtmap-ASB at the Silk Road of Knowledge Conference in Almaty ( Post: International Geoecology )
At the Silk Road of Knowledge Conference, Geoecology led an interactive session titled "Strengthening Drought Resilience in Central Asia: A Practical Session…
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GCA-II-Workshop on the Droughtmap-ASB-Tool and Sensor Data Storage System (SDSS) ( Post: International Geoecology )
The Green Central Asia Workshop on the new developments in the Droughtmap-ASB monitoring tool took place on 17 and 18 September 2025 in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
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DiP launches into the future of the bioeconomy with up to 105 million euros – geoecology involved in 3 projects ( Post: Project Geoecology )
At our official kick-off event for the "Digitalisation of plant value chains" on 4 March 2025, all 19 DiP joint projects were able to present themselves and…
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AgriSens-DEMMIN 4.0: Results symposium at Neubrandenburg University of Applied Sciences ( Post: Project Geoecology )
On 25 February 2025, the AgriSens DEMMIN 4.0 project concluded with a symposium to present and discuss the results of five years of applied research into…
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New publication: Estimation of 100 m root zone soil moisture by downscaling 1 km soil water index with machine learning … ( Post: Publication Geoecology )
Talha Mahmood and other colleagues from the Geoecology working group have published a new paper on soil moisture estimation using remote sensing and other…
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New publication: How Phenology Shapes Crop-Specific Sentinel-1 PolSAR Features and InSAR Coherence across Multiple Years… ( Post: Publication Geoecology )
Johannes Löw has published a new article on "How Phenology Shapes Crop-Specific Sentinel-1 PolSAR Features and InSAR Coherence across Multiple Years and…
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Current publications on the global mapping of groundwater-dependent ecosystems ( Post: Publication Geoecology )
Two new concepts for identifying groundwater-dependent ecosystems on a global scale have been developed. Both approaches combine freely available geodata with…