Gerd Hildebrandt

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Gerd Hildebrandt (born November 27, 1923 in Leipzig ; † December 11, 2017 ) was a German forest scientist . The longtime head of the department of aerial photography and remote sensing of the forestry faculty of the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg was an internationally recognized representative of this subject beyond the forestry expert groups.

Life

Youth and education

Gerd Hildebrandt was born on November 27, 1923 in Leipzig, where he grew up and passed his Abitur in February 1942. Immediately afterwards he was drafted into military service. After four serious wounds, he was taken prisoner by the Soviets in July 1944, from which he returned to his hometown at the end of 1945. There he worked for a short time as an assistant teacher at an elementary school before he began studying natural sciences at the University of Leipzig in 1946 . However, the following year he decided to study forest sciences and switched to the forest sciences faculty of the TU Dresden in Tharandt .

On September 10, 1947, he married Isabella Selder (born March 31, 1921; † August 28, 2007). The marriage had five children: Gabriele, Michael, Christoph, Therese and Andreas.

Scientific career in Eberswalde

Immediately after graduating in 1950, Gerd Hildebrandt received an assistant position with Albert Richter at the Institute for Forest Management of the Forestry Faculty of the Humboldt University in Berlin in Eberswalde . Since 1952, senior assistant, he was there in 1953 with the thesis studies on spruce stands on growth and income pure wood substance to Dr. rer. silv. PhD . He stayed at the faculty and held a teaching position for forest surveying and forest aerial photo evaluation from 1954 to 1957 , combined with the simultaneous management of the department for geodesy and aerial photo measurement. During these years, at Richter's side, he played an essential part in developing the first forest management procedure for the GDR. From 1953, his scientific work focused on the introduction of aerial photo evaluations into forest management practice in the GDR and large-scale forest inventories.

New beginning in Freiburg

For political reasons, Hildebrandt left the German Democratic Republic in December 1957 and moved to the Federal Republic of Germany . In 1958 he became a research assistant with Karl Abetz at the Institute for Forest Management and Forest Management at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau and in the same year underwent another doctoral procedure, this time for Dr. rer. nat. The subject of his dissertation was the essay on the question of the image scale and the choice of film in aerial photography for forest purposes . The habilitation for the subjects forest management and forest management followed in 1963 with the work The ongoing growth in forest management . Contributions to the methodology of the incremental determination with special consideration of the drilling chip methods .

International recognition

In 1964 Gerd Hildebrandt was appointed lecturer at the Freiburg Faculty, and in 1965 he was appointed Scientific Council. As acting director of the Institute for Forest Management and Forest Management from 1964 to 1965, he laid the foundation stone for the “ aerial photo evaluation ” work area in this institute. In 1967 he became head of the newly founded department “Aerial image measurement and interpretation” (later “Department of aerial image measurement and remote sensing”) and in 1969 he was appointed professor . The new department, which Hildebrandt headed until 1989, achieved worldwide fame and high reputation under his leadership. And this from small beginnings: In addition to him, the basic equipment initially only consisted of a half-day secretariat and a research assistant. Hildebrandt himself became one of the leading scientists in the new field of remote sensing in the 1970s and 1980s. This was expressed both in the invitations to guest professorships ( Istanbul 1971/72, Curitiba 1977 and Beijing 1985) and guest lectures as well as numerous long-term guest stays by well-known scientists from many countries in his Freiburg department, and above all in the repeated election to leading positions at national level and international scientific societies and the appointment to numerous advisory bodies. From 1969 to 1976 he was chairman of a permanent subject group “Remote Sensing in Forestry” of the International Association of Forest Research Centers (IUFRO), from 1976 to 1980 President of Commission VII (“Interpretation of Remote Sensing Data”) of the International Society of Photogrammetry (ISP) and from 1980 to 1984 President of the German Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (DGPF). Hildebrandt, who became a member of what was then the German Society for Photogrammetry (DGP) in 1963, had a decisive influence on the fate and history of the society. The non-geodesist advocated the interdisciplinary expansion and opening of these societies at both the ISP and the DGP, which ultimately happened and led to both adding the word “remote sensing” to their names. During his time as DGPF President, the society introduced independent scientific and technical annual meetings, which also promoted interdisciplinarity .

In addition, there were various advisory activities at prestigious institutions at home and abroad, including the organization Européenne d'Études Photogrammétriques Expérimentales (OEEPE, 1972 to 1980), several times at the UN within the food and agricultural organization (FAO, 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988), the Federal Ministry of Research and Technology (BMFT), the European Space Agency (ESA, 1975 to 1978 and from 1983), the German Research and Research Institute for Aerospace (DFVLR, 1974 to 1989) and the European Union (1980 and from 1984 to 1990). In Baden-Württemberg he was involved as a member of the State Forestry Council from 1975 to 1988 and from 1982 to 1986 on the board of trustees of the Baden-Württemberg Forest Research Institute (FVA).

Focus of work

Gerd Hildebrandt always combined basic scientific research with practice-oriented research. He always saw remote sensing as a tool for solving forestry and landscape-ecological tasks, for improving and rationalizing process technologies and for gaining new knowledge about landscapes, forests and other forms of vegetation. The focus of his work and his department were concepts for multi-level and multi-phase models of large-scale forest inventories up to the execution of such inventories in Central European and tropical countries as well as the acquisition of information from infrared color aerial images for forest condition assessment up to the development of national forest damage inventories . Essential techniques for assessing the crown condition of individual trees and forest stands based on aerial photographs are based on this work. Hildebrandt was ahead of his time: when the public debate about the so-called " forest dieback " began in the early 1980s , he and his team already had a sober, practical concept for a large-scale inventory of the phenomenon using remote sensing methods, which was later much noticed submitted. These procedures were adopted by the European Commission and were a model for aerial photo-based forest damage inventories in other federal states. In the years that followed, he presented a number of fundamental publications on this, including the multilingual manual Applications of remote sensing for assessing the health of forests (1991 ff.). Further research focuses were investigations into the forest information content of multispectral image data recorded from spacecraft and the methodology of digital classification of forests and land uses according to this data, including the observation of large-scale ecological, forestry and other anthropogenic developments. Hildebrandt and his colleagues also investigated the spectral and direction-dependent reflection properties of vegetation stands and their spectral signatures in aerial photographs and multispectral data sets. Using stereophotogrammetric measurements in aerial photographs, they developed digital surface models of forest stands.

In addition to this focus work, Hildebrandt initiated the introduction of orthophoto maps in forestry practice in the 1960s, and in the mid-1970s contributed with his employees to the technology of the geographic information system (GIS) by digitally combining geocoded image data, topographical and other additional information .

As a professor at the University of Freiburg, Hildebrandt has represented photogrammetry and remote sensing together with Gerhard Speidel since 1964, forest management and sub-areas of forest management , namely forest value calculation . In addition to his early work on the development of forest management methods , he was particularly prominent through his numerous scientific reports on forest and forest soil as well as game damage assessment and hunting depreciation . From 1985 to 1990 he also headed the Institute for Forest Management and Forest Management at the University of Freiburg.

In addition to more than 200 publications in various national and international specialist publications for forestry and remote sensing, Hildebrandt has contributed to a number of standard scientific works on remote sensing, including the Manual of remote sensing (first published in 1975). In 1996 he published the standard textbook Remote Sensing and Aerial Photo Measurement. For forestry, vegetation mapping and landscape ecology , which contains the sum of his scientific life's work.

Hildebrandt as a scientific teacher

Within the University of Freiburg, he was involved in their committees and was dean from 1969 to 1971 and then until 1972 vice dean of the Faculty of Forestry. From 1964 to 1973 he also worked as editor of the Freiburg University Gazette . Like his colleagues Michail Prodan and Helmut Schmidt-Vogt , he attached great importance to personal support, especially for foreign students. Hildebrandt was considered an outstanding scientific teacher. Between 1965 and 1993 he supervised the dissertations of 44 doctoral students . On the occasion of his retirement, his faculty organized an international symposium , whose contributions in 1991 under the title Remote Sensing in Forestry. Status and developments were published by Gerhard Oesten.

Still active in retirement

In the course of reunification , Hildebrandt returned to his old place of work in Eberswalde and participated in the transition of the traditional forestry facilities there into the new era, for example from 1991 to 1992 as chairman of the founding committee of the Eberswalde Forest Research Institute. In his retirement he also wrote the textbook Remote Sensing and Aerial Photo Measurement. For forestry, vegetation mapping and landscape ecology , which is a standard work not only for foresters . Since 2002 he has published - initially only as private prints in the inner circle - his memoirs, which were arranged in three volumes, under the title Insights .

He documented some of his experiences from the Second World War in the contemporary witness portal .

Honors

Appreciations

“Hildebrandt has an unusual ability to motivate employees and colleagues to cooperate and tackle large tasks together. This has made him the initiator of numerous projects and an outstanding figure of integration in interdisciplinary and international remote sensing research. "

- Hartmut Kenneweg , 1998

Fonts (selection)

  • Investigations on spruce stands on the growth and yield of pure wood substance , dissertation 1953, Eberswalde 1952 (in bookshops under the same title, Berlin 1954)
  • together with Horst Ziesing and Gerhard Heine: Basics of forestry, forest management and hunting , specialist knowledge for forestry workers - textbooks and specialist books for vocational training, Berlin 1956
  • On the question of the image scale and the choice of film for aerial photography for forestry purposes , dissertation, Freiburg 1958 (also in: Archive for Forestry , Volume 6, Issue 4, Berlin 1957)
  • The ongoing growth in forest management. Contributions to the methodology of incremental determination with special consideration of the drilling chip methods , habilitation thesis, Freiburg 1963 (in book form under this title as volume 6 of the series of publications of the forestry department of the Albert-Ludwigs-University, Freiburg im Breisgau, Munich, Basel and Vienna 1967)
  • as editor and editor: bibliography of literature in the field of forest aerial photo evaluation. 1887 - 1968 , Freiburg 1969
  • as co-author: Manual of remote sensing , New York a. a. 1975 (2nd edition, Falls Church 1983, ISBN 0-93729441-1 or ISBN 0-93729442-X )
  • as editor: Proceedings; International Union of Forest Research Organizations. Symposium. IUFRO Subject Group S 6. 05, Remote sensing including aerial photography. Freiburg, 17.-21. September 1973 , Freiburg 1974
  • as editor: Remote sensing in forestry. Proceedings of the symposium held during the XVI. IUFRO World Congress, Oslo, 21.-26. June 1976. International Union of Forestry Research Organizations, Subject Group S 6.05, Remote Sensing , Freiburg 1976
  • as editor together with H.-J. Boehnel: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Remote Sensing for Observation and Inventory of Earth Resources and the Endangered Environment. July 2 - 8, 1978, Freiburg, Federal Republic of Germany. International Society for Photogrammetry, Comm. VII, Interpretation of Data, and International Union of Forestry Research Organizations, Subject Group 6.05, Remote Sensing , 3 volumes, Freiburg 1979
  • together with Jörg Henninger: Bibliography of publications on damage assessment in forestry and agriculture by remote sensing techniques , 2nd, extended edition, Freiburg 1980
  • Depreciation of a forest asset when it is cut through , Taxationspraxis series of publications (F, Book 2), Wilnsdorf 1982
  • as co-author: 75 years of the German Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (DGPF). 1909 - 1984 , Freiburg 1984 ( ISBN 3-87907-136-5 )
  • as co-author: Aerial image measurement and remote sensing in forestry , Karlsruhe 1984 ( ISBN 3-87907-131-4 )
  • as co-author: Development and implementation of a pilot inventory for a permanent European forest damage inventory , project European research center for air pollution control, Karlsruhe 1986
  • as co-author and co-editor: lecture texts. Symposium on forestry issues in the Soviet Union and in the Federal Republic of Germany. Freiburg, July 14-20 , 1986 , reports from the Forest Research and Research Institute Baden-Württemberg (issue 128), Freiburg 1986
  • together with William M. Ciesla: Forest decline inventory methods in West Germany. Opportunities for application in North American forest , Report of the Forest Service; 3400 report; 86-3, Fort Collins (Colorado) 1986 [?]
  • as co-author: Development of a process for forest damage inventory through multispectral remote sensing , European Research Center for Air Quality Measures project, Karlsruhe 1987
  • as co-author: Final report on the research project Investigations on the methodology of large-scale and operational recording of changes in forest condition through remote sensing , Freiburg 1987
  • as co-author: Investigation of the methodology of large-scale forest damage inventories and the observation of the damage development through remote sensing and combined field remote sensing methods. (Final report) , investigation and mapping of forest damage using remote sensing methods (Part B 5), Freiburg 1990
  • as editor: Remote sensing applications for forest health status assessment , Namur 1991 (German applications of remote sensing to assess the health status of forests , Namur 1992; French applications de la télédétection à l'observation de l'état sanitaire des forêts , Namur 1994 )
  • Remote sensing and aerial photography. For forestry, vegetation mapping and landscape ecology , Heidelberg 1996 ( ISBN 3-87907-238-8 )
  • Insights , three volumes, Freiburg im Breisgau 2002–2009

In addition, Hildebrandt wrote more than 200 articles in scientific and forestry specialist journals and conference proceedings as well as numerous reports.

literature

  • Jörg Henninger: Professor Hildebrandt 60 years old . In: Der Forst- und Holzwirt , 38th year 22/1983, pp. 592-593, ISSN  0015-7961
  • Hartmut Kenneweg: Prof. Dr. Gerd Hildebrandt 65 years . In: Allgemeine Forst- und Jagdzeitung , Volume 160, No. 4/1989, pp. 57–58, ISSN  0002-5852
  • Hartmut Kenneweg: Prof. Dr. Gerd Hildebrandt 75 years . In: PFG. Photogrammetry - Remote Sensing - Geoinformation , Volume 1998, Issue 6, pp. 385–386
  • Hartmut Kenneweg: Professor Gerd Hildebrandt on his 80th birthday . In: PFG. Photogrammetry - Remote Sensing - Geoinformation , Volume 2003, Issue 7, pp. 558-560
  • F. Matthies: Professor Hildebrandt 65 years . In: Forst und Holz 43rd volume 21/1988, pp. 546-547, ISSN  0932-9315
  • G. Schmitt-Fürntratt: U + 20, Gerd Hildebrandt on his 70th birthday . In: AFZ. General forest journal for forest management and environmental protection , 48th volume 25/1993, p. 1329, ISSN  0002-5860
  • Gerd Hildebrandt . In: Kürschner's German Scholars Calendar 2003. 19th edition. Volume I: A - J. Bio-bibliographical directory of contemporary German-speaking scientists . KG Saur, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-598-23607-7 , p. 1307

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ badische-zeitung.de: Prof. Dr. Gerd Hildebrandt - mourning - obituaries & obituaries - badische-zeitung.de . ( badische-zeitung.de [accessed December 14, 2017]).
  2. ↑ Hartmut Kenneweg: Prof. Dr. Gerd Hildebrandt 75 years . In: PFG , year 1998, issue 6, p. 385
  3. ↑ G. Schmitt-Fürntratt: U + 20, Gerd Hildebrandt on his 70th birthday . In: AFZ. General forest journal for forest management and environmental protection , 48th volume 25/1993, p. 1329
  4. ↑ Hartmut Kenneweg: Prof. Dr. Gerd Hildebrandt 75 years . In: PFG , year 1998, issue 6, p. 385
  5. ↑ Barbara Koch: Prof. Dr. G. Hildebrandt 75 . In: AFZ / DerWald , 53rd volume 24/1998, p. 1502
  6. ↑ Hartmut Kenneweg: Professor Gerd Hildebrandt on his 80th birthday . In: PFG , year 2003, issue 7, p. 559
  7. ^ Jörg Henninger: Professor Hildebrandt 60 years old . In: Der Forst- und Holzwirt , 38th year 22/1983, p. 593
  8. ↑ Hartmut Kenneweg: Professor Gerd Hildebrandt on his 80th birthday . In: PFG , year 2003, issue 7, p. 559
  9. ↑ Gerd Hildebrandt: Insights . Three volumes. Self-published by Gerd Hildebrandt, Freiburg im Breisgau 2002, 2004 and 2009, p. 918
  10. ↑ Hartmut Kenneweg: Professor Gerd Hildebrandt on his 80th birthday . In: PFG , year 2003, issue 7, p. 560
  11. ↑ Barbara Koch: Prof. Dr. G. Hildebrandt 75 . In: AFZ / DerWald , 53rd volume 24/1998, p. 1502
  12. ^ Jörg Henninger: Professor Hildebrandt 60 years old . In: Der Forst- und Holzwirt , 38th year 22/1983, p. 593
  13. ↑ Barbara Koch: Prof. Dr. G. Hildebrandt 75 . In: AFZ / DerWald , 53rd volume 24/1998, p. 1502
  14. ↑ Gerd Hildebrandt: Insights . Three volumes. Self-published by Gerd Hildebrandt, Freiburg im Breisgau 2002, 2004 and 2009, pp. 924–927
  15. ↑ Gerd Hildebrandt: Insights . Three volumes. Self-published by Gerd Hildebrandt, Freiburg im Breisgau 2002, 2004 and 2009, p. 918
  16. ↑ Hartmut Kenneweg: Professor Gerd Hildebrandt on his 80th birthday . In: PFG , year 2003, issue 7, p. 560
  17. ↑ https://www.zeitzeugen-portal.de/lösungen/zeitzeuge/gerd_hildebrandt Videos of the contemporary witness Gerd Hildebrandt on the contemporary witness portal. Retrieved November 25, 2019
  18. ↑ Hartmut Kenneweg: Professor Gerd Hildebrandt on his 80th birthday . In: PFG , year 2003, issue 7, p. 560
  19. ↑ Hartmut Kenneweg: Prof. Dr. Gerd Hildebrandt 75 years . In: PFG , year 1998, issue 6, p. 386
personal data
SURNAME Hildebrandt, Gerd
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German forest scientist and specialist in remote sensing and photogrammetry
DATE OF BIRTH November 27, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH December 11, 2017