Elena Nafieva

Elena Nafieva is a Researcher at the Department of Geoinformatics (Z_GIS) within the Faculty of Digital and Analytical Sciences at the University of Salzburg. Her work focuses on remote sensing, spatio-temporal analysis, and synthetic aperture radar applications for monitoring natural hazards and glacial dynamics using Big Earth Observation data.

Current projects include:

• LEONA: Landslide Information from Earth Observation for Humanitarian Aid (2024-2027)
• ROGER: EO-based Rock Glacier Mapping (2024-2025)
• ReHIKE: Glacier Retreat Effects on Alpine Hiking Infrastructure (2024-2026)

Her recent publications demonstrate expertise in landslide mapping, rock glacier characterization, and glacial foreland evolution using earth observation technologies. Project partners include Austrian Federal Ministry for Climate Action (FFG-ASAP) and European Space Agency (ESA).

Research interests span:

• Remote Sensing of geohazards
• Spatio-temporal modeling of alpine environments
• Synthetic Aperture Radar processing
• Climate Change Impacts on mountainous regions
• Big Data Analytics in earth observation
• Digital Elevation Modeling for hazard assessment