Next
Organisation Directorate Research Groups Working Group on Cartography and Geoinformatics Library Laboratory for Sediment and Soil Analysis

Research groups


Research Groups on Human Geography

Group head: Gábor MICHALKÓ
Members: Éva Edit KISS, Tamás EGEDY, Tibor TINER, Annamária UZZOLI, Ágnes ERŐSS, Jácint FARKAS

Research topics:

The economic geography is one of the oldest research area of human geography in Hungary, moreover it is a very important pillar of geographical higher education. The Geographical Research Institute has significant traditions in economic geography both in sectoral and development policy oriented researches. The new research group is based on former Spatial Mobility Research Group (2013-2015). The staff is dedicated to continue their earlier successful investigations, additionally the topic of dynamic transformation processes of the economy will be included to their work. The main research topics of the new research group includes: industry, tourism, transport and communication, and preparation of 4 th volume (economic geography) of National Atlas of Hungary.


International partners:

•  IGU Commission on the Dynamics of Economic Spaces
•  IGU Commission on Global Change and Human Mobility (GLOBILITY)
•  Darwin (Northern Institute, Charles Darwin University)

Group Head: Károly KOCSIS
Members: Patrik TÁTRAI, Dávid KARÁCSONYI, Balázs SZABÓ, Ágnes ERŐSS, Katalin KOVÁLY, Dániel BALIZS
External members: Zsolt BOTTLIK, György FARKAS (ELTE University, Budapest)

Research topics:

1. Study of the contemporary ethnic patterns and processes in the Carpathian Basin. According to the public tasks of the institute, in the frame of the nation- and homeland studies, the main goal of the research is the exploring of the geographic-political background of the ethnic conflicts, the direction of the ethnic processes and change of ethnic patterns.

2. Changing ethnic identification in East Central Europe. The research focuses on old and new forms of ethnic identifications and the weakening of ethnic belonging applying quantitative and qualitative approach primarily in Central Europe.

3. Geographic study of the international migration towards Europe, with special regards to the period following 2011.

4. Spatial differences of electoral behaviour in East-Central Europe. The research gives an overview of the territorial/ regional features of the electoral behaviour in East-Central Europe where, besides the classic political cleavages, some historically based, specific features (e.g. ethnic, religious and cultural cleavages) have also emerged.

5. Global geographic study of ethnic-cultural diversity and the connected use of the space and conflicts.

6. Critical cartography: Mapping as an essential tool for power-strategies and nation building. Examples: Central Europe, the Balkans and the Caucasus.

International partners:

In Europe: Bern (Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Switzerland), Bratislava (Comenius University, Department of Regional Geography ; Institute of Geography, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia), Bucharest (Institute of Geography, Romanian Academy), Cluj-Napoca (Kolozsvár) (Faculty of Geography, Babes-Bolyai University), Kiev (Institute of Geography of NAS of Ukraine), Koper (Department of Geography , University of Primorska, Slovenia), Ljubljana (Department of Geography, University of Ljubljana; Anton Melik Geographical Institute, SAZU, Slovenia), Minsk (Faculty of Geography, Belarusian State University), Novi Sad (Institute of Geography, University of Novi Sad, Serbia), Warsaw (Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization PAN, Poland), Zagreb (Department of Geography, University of Zagreb, Croatia); In Asia: Beér-Sheva (Department of Geography and Environmental Development, Ben Gurion University, Israel), Beijing (Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, China), Haifa (Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Haifa, Israel), Sapporo (Slavic-Eurasian Research Center , Hokkaido University, Japan); In Australia: Darwin (Northern Institute , Charles Darwin University)

Group Head: Zoltán KOVÁCS
Members: Edit Éva KISS, Tamás EGEDY, Attila KONDOR, Eszter BERÉNYI-SASS, Dávid KARÁCSONYI, Balázs SZABÓ, Ágnes ERŐSS, Benedek TUZA

Research topics:

1. Environmental conflicts of urbanisation in Hungary (EFP of cities, conflicts of land use, sustainable urban development, recycling of urban land).

2. Spatial restructuring of Hungarian cities (emergence of new functions in urban spaces, social and environmental impacts of urban regeneration, local identity)

3. Residential segregation and social exclusion (quality of life in different neighbourhoods, smart cities).

4. Comparison of the spatial processes of urbanisation in Hungary with other post-socialist countries (forms of urban growth and decline, cycles of urbanisation).

International partners:

•  Rouen, GDRI Espaces et Réseaux Urbains
•  Beijing ( Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, China )


Research Groups on Physical Geography

Group Head: György VARGA
Members: Éva KIS, Gábor ÚJVÁRI, József SZEBERÉNYI, István VICZIÁN
External members: János KOVÁCS (University of Pécs)

Research topics:

1. Quaternary paleoenvironment-reconstruction based on aeolian dust deposits. Reconstruction of glacial-interglacial environmental conditions and aeolian dust deposition mechanisms with a special attention to granulometric proxies and to the relationships between interglacial soil formation and external dust fluxes.

2. Deeper understanding of grain size and grain shape of sedimentary deposits with a special focus on measurement techniques and interpretation

3. Analysis of Saharan dust events in the Carpathian Basin and in the Mediterranean.

4. Quaternary fluvial landform evolution of hilly and mountainous regions in the Carpathian Basin. Identify of geomorphic levels and level systems by geoinformatic methods, analysis of cover sediments of terraces and lag surfaces by combined reflectance spectrometry method and investigation the role of paleo-drainage network in evolution of geomorphological levels by analysing of gravel-sheet.

5. Environment and climate historical studies on Danube islands. Enhanced understanding of Holocene variability of fluvial dynamics and geomorphological processes are primarily affected by climate changes. The discharge and characteristics of floods basically determine the floodplain evolution and the feasibility of human land use of islands and floodplains. The study is based on proxy data gathered from archaeological records of all excavations documented on the islands of Danube along the river between Komárom and Paks in Hungary.

6. Bluffs with landslide hazard - Bluff protection methods. The aim of the research is the identification the settlements in a given region with hazardous high-bluffs, mapping and the surveying of possible natural and human alteration of the endangered cultural landscape, furthermore working out coastguard methods correspond to the geomorphological environment. As a result of the research, we are providing recommendations on bluff rehabilitation.

7. Flood-control, geochronology and paleoenvironmental studies. Landscape evolution on low and high floodplain areas. River drainage network development. Geomorphological, sedimentary and hydro-geographic studies and flood-control of Budapest. Coastal erosion investigations on the Lower Tisza region.

International partners:

•  Beijing (Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, China)
•  Nanjing (Nanjing University, China)
•  Dresden (TU Dresden, Germany)
•  Bayreuth (Bayreuth University, Germany)
•  INQUA (International Union for Quaternary Research, Loess Focus Group)
•  BSC-CNS - Barcelona Supercomputing Center (Spain)

Group Head: Zoltán SZALAI
Members: Ádám KERTÉSZ, Tibor FILEP, Gergely JAKAB, Csilla KIRÁLY, Balázs MADARÁSZ, Judit Alexandra SZABÓ, Lili SZABÓ, Adrienn TÓTH, Dóra ZACHÁRY
External members: Marianna RINGER


Research topics:

Landscape pattern and local carbon cycles

Antropogenic landuse pattern changes has influence on local carbon cycles. Spatial differentiation of soil carbon sequestration capacity is affected by structure of land mosaic and spatial differences in landuse techniques (eg. tillage techniques). All of our fundamental research projects aim to study role of mineral phase and erosion processes in carbon sequestration in the main landscape types of Hungary. We try to estimate the theoretical maximum capacity of carbon capture and we also will focus on the spatial differences in the quality of soil organic matter. We plan to study the individual processes of local soil carbon cycles (e.g. stabilisation by polymerisation and by organo-mineral complex formation, respiratory loss, etc...). Our group also will deal with method development for Laboratory for Sediemnt and Soil Analysis besides of fundamental research. We also will focus on applied geographical research for funding fundamental researches.


International partners:

•  University of West England - Bristol, UK, Contact person: Colin Booth, associate professor;
•  Tea Research Association, Upper Assam Advisory Centre Dikom-786101, Dibrugarh, Assam, India, Contact person: Tanmoy Karak, senior scientist;
•  Syngenta AG. Basel, Svájc, Contact person: Jeremy Dyson (head of environmental stewardship Europe).