Žiga is mainly involved in environmental studies using optical satellite imagery processing and airborne lidar data processing, internet cartography, spatial analytics and modelling of natural processes, particularly from the point of view of how various human activities affect the environment, both historically and in the present. His particular interests include the protection of natural and cultural heritage. His strengths include coordinating different specialisations, linking project goals with appropriate technologies, developing bespoke methods and algorithms, and providing training in the use of datasets and digital tools.

Žiga holds a master's degree in Geography (2004, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana) and a PhD in remote sensing (2010, Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, University of Ljubljana). He was awarded a Zois scholarship for gifted students, and his graduate thesis received the Prešeren Award. He also received the ZRC Gold Award for exceptional achievements in science. During his doctoral studies, he held a Young Researcher position funded by the Slovenian Research Agency.

His international research experience includes a three-month study visit at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom (2006), followed by six months there as an honorary research fellow (2008). He also spent one month as a visiting scientist at the Icelandic Institute of Archaeology (Fornleifastofnun Íslands, 2010) and at Historic Environment Scotland (2017). In 2021, he was an Associate Researcher at the Italian Institute of Technology for three months, followed by a six-month research stay at the University of Vienna in 2025–26.

Žiga has participated, or is currently participating, in two centres of excellence and numerous international and domestic basic, applied, and bilateral projects. He has served, or currently serves, as principal investigator or co-principal investigator of seven projects funded by ARIS, five projects funded by the European Space Agency, one project funded by the European Social Fund, two projects funded by the European Regional Development Fund, two INTERREG programme projects, three projects funded by the Environmental Agency of the Republic of Slovenia, one project funded by the Institute of the Republic of Slovenia for Nature Conservation, and one project funded by Transport Infrastructure Ireland. He was a working group leader in the ArchaeoLandscapes Europe project (7th FP), which included 27 co-organising members and 51 associated partners. He also works closely with the main national professional organisation in the field of nature conservation.

A regular active participant in scientific conferences, symposia, and workshops, Žiga also lectures at foreign universities on spatial modelling using geographic information systems and remote sensing and has delivered 40 invited lectures. He has chaired conference sections and served on the scientific committees of several international conferences and symposia. His professional memberships include the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), the Aerial Archaeology Research Group (AARG), and Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA). He was also a founding member of the first Slovenian-French joint European laboratory, ModeLTER (CNRS, France – ZRC SAZU).

Žiga is the (co-)author of more than 70 scientific papers and three books, with 1,463 citations recorded in WoS or Scopus. He serves as editor of the monograph series Space, Place, Time, published by Založba ZRC, reviews for numerous scientific journals, and is a member of the editorial boards of Scientific Data and Geodetski Vestnik. He also acts as an evaluator for the Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA) programme and the Royal Society of Edinburgh Research Awards. In addition, he is one of the organisers of TRAIL (France 2011, 2014, 2016; Slovenia 2018, 2022, 2025), an international meeting devoted to lidar applications in archaeology and organised in a modern discussion-oriented format.

He designed the Relief Visualization Toolbox, which has proved highly useful for the analytical processing of airborne laser scanning data, as well as for university teaching, professional training, and the preparation of awareness-raising and communication materials. The software has been recommended by the European Archaeological Council and has been mandated by Historic England since 2015. PTS Consultancy reports that, with its help, they have conducted 50 courses and trained more than 700 individuals, ranging from 10-year-old participants in the Young Archaeologists’ Club to undergraduate and graduate students, archaeologists working in the private and public sectors, and volunteers from local communities, including participants over 70 years of age. The RVT QGIS plugin has been downloaded more than 100,000 times and ranks among the 30 most useful plugins for the most widely used open-source geographic information system. Žiga is also a member of the team developing ADAF – Automatic Detection of Archaeological Features, an easy-to-use toolbox for generating predictions and training new deep-learning models on airborne laser scanning data.

As an associate professor of geography at the ZRC SAZU Postgraduate School, Žiga also contributes to the education of younger generations through regular cooperation with the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Geodata Paris, France. He has lectured within an ERASMUS Intensive Programme and serves as a mentor within ERASMUS+. He has (co-)supervised several master's and diploma theses in Slovenia and abroad. Among his former students are Žiga Maroh, who received Esri’s Best Master Thesis Award, and Liza Stančič, who received cum laude distinction for her PhD thesis. Six high-school research theses supervised by Žiga received national gold medals at the Slovenian Young Researchers Meeting. One was also awarded first prize in the Slovenia from Space competition, while two received awards at the International Competition of Research Projects organised by MEF Educational Institutions in Istanbul, Turkey. He is currently co-supervising four doctoral students.

• Earth Observation and Geoinformatics (research programme • January 1, 2019 - December 31, 2025)
• Investigation of microrelief structures with airborne lidar (postdoctoral research project • July 1, 2011 - June 30, 2013)
• The Chactún Regional Project: Study of an Archaeological Landscape in the Central Maya Lowlands (research project • January 1, 2016 - December 31, 2018)
• CEOIS – Customized Earth observation based information services (applied project • December 1, 2017 - September 30, 2019)
• SILIS - Satellite images for a Slovenian land information system (research project • April 15, 2015 - April 14, 2017)
• Automatic orthorectification service for very high-resolution optical satellite data (research project • June 17, 2019 - June 16, 2020)
• Automatic object­-oriented land cover classification of optical remote sensing data (August 1, 2014 - July 31, 2017)
• High-resolution drought monitoring based on satellite and ground data (research project • July 1, 2018 - June 30, 2021)
• Geospatial Information Technologies for Resilient and Sustainable Society (GeoAI) (fundamental project • July 1, 2025 - June 30, 2028)
• "Unde venis?" Unravelling the enigma of the stećci tombstones (May 1, 2024 - April 30, 2029)

• Student Prešeren award, 2004
• ZRC SAZU gold award, 2017