The Dead Sea region has faced substantial environmental challenges in recent decades, including water resource scarcity, ~1m annual decreases in the water level, sinkhole development, ascending-brine freshwater pollution, and seismic disturbance risks. Natural processes are significantly affected by human interference as well as by climate change and tectonic developments over the long term. To get a deep understanding of processes and their interactions, innovative scientific approaches that integrate disciplinary research and education are required. The research project DESERVE (Helmholtz Virtual Institute Dead Sea Research Venue) addresses these challenges in an interdisciplinary approach that includes geophysics, hydrology, and meteorology. The project is implemented by a consortium of scientific institutions in neighboring countries of the Dead Sea (Israel, Jordan, Palestine Territories) and participating German Helmholtz Centres (KIT, GFZ, UFZ). A new monitoring network of meteorological, hydrological, and seismic/geodynamic stations has been established, and extensive field research and numerical simulations have been undertaken. For the first time, innovative measurement and modeling techniques have been applied to the extreme conditions of the Dead Sea and its surroundings. The preliminary results show the potential of these methods. First time ever performed eddy covariance measurements give insight into the governing factors of Dead Sea evaporation. High-resolution bathymetric investigations reveal a strong correlation between submarine springs and neo-tectonic patterns. Based on detailed studies of stratigraphy and borehole information, the extension of the subsurface drainage basin of the Dead Sea is now reliably estimated. Originality has been achieved in monitoring flash floods in an arid basin at its outlet and simultaneously in tributaries, supplemented by spatio-temporal rainfall data. Low-altitude, high resolution photogrammetry, allied to satellite image analysis and to geophysical surveys (e.g. shear-wave reflections) has enabled a more detailed characterization of sinkhole morphology and temporal development and the possible subsurface controls thereon. All the above listed efforts and scientific results take place with the interdisciplinary education of young scientists. They are invited to attend joint thematic workshops and winter schools as well as to participate in field experiments.

Remote sensing (RS) enables a cost-effective, extensive, continuous and standardized monitoring of traits and trait variations of geomorphology and its processes, from the local to the continental scale. To implement and better understand RS techniques and the spectral indicators derived from them in the monitoring of geomorphology, this paper presents a new perspective for the definition and recording of five characteristics of geomorphodiversity with RS, namely: geomorphic genesis diversity, geomorphic trait diversity, geomorphic structural diversity, geomorphic taxonomic diversity, and geomorphic functional diversity. In this respect, geomorphic trait diversity is the cornerstone and is essential for recording the other four characteristics using RS technologies. All five characteristics are discussed in detail in this paper and reinforced with numerous examples from various RS technologies. Methods for classifying the five characteristics of geomorphodiversity using RS, as well as the constraints of monitoring the diversity of geomorphology using RS, are discussed. RS-aided techniques that can be used for monitoring geomorphodiversity in regimes with changing land-use intensity are presented. Further, new approaches of geomorphic traits that enable the monitoring of geomorphodiversity through the valorisation of RS data from multiple missions are discussed as well as the ecosystem integrity approach. Likewise, the approach of monitoring the five characteristics of geomorphodiversity recording with RS is discussed, as are existing approaches for recording spectral geomorhic traits/ trait variation approach and indicators, along with approaches for assessing geomorphodiversity. It is shown that there is no comparable approach with which to define and record the five characteristics of geomorphodiversity using only RS data in the literature. Finally, the importance of the digitization process and the use of data science for research in the field of geomorphology in the 21st century is elucidated and discussed.

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The deduction by conventional means of qualitative and quantitative information about groundwater discharge into lakes is complicated. Nevertheless, at least for semi-arid regions with limited surface water availability, this information is crucial to ensure future water availability for drinking and irrigation purposes.Overcoming this lack of discharge information, we present a satellite-based multi-temporal sea-surface-temperature (SST) approach. It exploits the occurrence of thermal anomalies to outline groundwater discharge locations using the example of the Dead Sea. Based on a set of 19 Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) images 6.2 (high gain), recorded between 2000 and 2002, we developed a novel approach which includes (i) an objective exclusion of surfacerunoff-influenced data which would otherwise lead to erroneous results and (ii) a temporal SST variability analysis based on six statistical measures amplifying thermal anomalies caused by groundwater.After excluding data influenced by surface runoff, we concluded that spatial anomaly patterns of the standard deviation and range of the SST data series spatially fit best to in situ observed discharge locations and, hence, are most suitable for detecting groundwater discharge sites.

The semi-arid region of the Dead Sea heavily relies on groundwater resources. This dependence is exacerbated by both population growth and agricultural activities and demands a sustainable groundwater management. Yet, information on groundwater discharge as one main component for a sustainable management varies significantly in this area. Moreover, discharge locations, volume and temporal variability are still only partly known. A multi-temporal thermal satellite approach is applied to localise and semi-quantitatively assess groundwater discharge along the entire coastline. The authors use 100 Landsat ETM ? band 6.2 data, spanning the years between 2000 and 2011. In the first instance, raw data are transformed to sea surface temperature (SST). To account for groundwater intermittency and to provide a seasonally independent data set DT (maximum SST range) per-pixel within biennial periods is calculated subsequently. Groundwater affected areas (GAA) are characterised by DT \ 8.5°C. Unaffected areas exhibit values[10°C. This allows the exact identification of 37 discharge locations (clusters) along the entire Dead Sea coast, which spatially correspond to available in situ discharge observations. Tracking the GAA extents as a direct indicator of groundwater discharge volume over time reveals (1) a temporal variability correspondence between GAA extents and recharge amounts, (2) the reported rigid ratios of discharge volumes between different spring areas not to be valid for all years considering the total discharge, (3) a certain variability in discharge locations as a consequence of the Dead Sea level drop, and finally (4) the assumed flushing effect of old Dead Sea brines from the sedimentary body to have occurred at least during the two series of