Faculté des sciences · Centre for Hydrogeology and Geothermics · PhD School Water Earth Systems · Addressing hydrological problems with massive satellite data using Google Earth Engine

Centre for Hydrogeology and Geothermics

PhD School Water Earth Systems

Addressing hydrological problems with massive satellite data using Google Earth Engine

Course overview

This course will give students an intensive introduction to remote sensing and provide them with the skills and tools to rapidly access, process and analyse massive (multi-petabyte), global-scale datasets using the powerful cloud-based Google Earth Engine platform. Using this tool, complex and data-heavy operations that would have required vast amounts of local computing power and storage a decade ago are now achievable within seconds in a web browser.

  • Speakers: 
  • Date: October 6-8, 2025
  • Location: University of Neuchâtel, building G, Room GE14
  • Cost:
    • WES PhD School members: no fee
    • Others:
      • Academic participants: 150 CHF per day
      • Industrial, government, etc.: 500 CHF per day
  • Registration:
    • Please fill in the REGISTRATION FORM before September 20th, 2025
    • Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis. Attendance is limited to 20 people.

The detailed program will be provided after the registration deadline.

Course program

Day 1: Theoretical introduction by Gregoire
  • Physical bases of remote sensing: wavelengths, interactions between light and surfaces
  • Existing satellite missions and data
  • Afternoon session: Data retrieval exercises (examples 1-4 or more)
Day 2:
  • morning session: Image processing algorithms
  • Afternoon session: Indices and thresholding techniques+exercises (rest of examples)
Day 3:
  • Morning session: Supervised or unsupervised classification
  • Afternoon session: Hydrological applications

How to Get There

The UniMail bâtiment G is part of the Faculté des Sciences at the University of Neuchâtel. The address is Av. Bellevaux 51, 2000 Neuchâtel. The building’s opening hours can be found here.

To reach the building from the Neuchâtel train station(Gare Nord), take bus line 107 and get off at the Portes Rouges stop. From there, cross the bridge, and you’ll find the UniMail building. Alternatively, you can walk directly from the train station via Esplanade de l’Europe, which takes about 15-20 minutes.