The mission of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Geo-Information Management is to empower society with specialized knowledge and expertise on spatial and temporal interactions between people, land tenure, land use, urban systems and the underlying governance processes to support inclusive planning and decision-making
The Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Geo-Information Management (PGM) is responsible for developing capacity of organisations that are involved in the field of Geo-Information Management for multi-level governance of urban regions, primarily for and in countries that are technologically and/or economically less developed (LDC's)
The PGM department contributes to ITC's mission by developing capacity for the provision of (geo-) information to solve problems related to the management of space and resources (in the urban region), in an institutional setting (governance). This is done through a mix of education, research, advisory services and information dissemination, within a worldwide network of academic and professional partners and in the framework of Official Development Assistance (ODA).
The department also contributes to the strategies of the main organisations of Official Development Assistance that either focus on development to be achieved (the what) or how development should be achieved (the how). The United Nations has defined Millennium Development Goals, (the what) for the year 2015 (United Nations, 2000), each goal having specific targets. The PGM department has selected specific "what's" and "how's". On the one end, the Millennium Development Goals are our context (poverty alleviation, environment protection and socio-economic development), on the other hand, capacity development of organisations that are involved in the field of geo-information management for multi-level governance of urban regions is our focus. Most of the department's activities contribute to the focus but only to parts of the context.
The department of Urban and Regional Planning and Geo-Information Management client's market is acting towards the achievement of higher civil society goals related to poverty alleviation, environment protection and socio-economic development in urban regions as expressed in the Millennium Development Goals, the World Bank Urban Development programme, the UN-Habitat Global Campaigns for Secure Tenure and on Urban Governance and the action lines of the Dutch policy for development cooperation on poverty alleviation and environment and on water as key for development.
The department's clients' market consists of:
- national, regional and local governmental and non-governmental and private organisations providing and/or using spatial information to support multi-level governance of the urban region.
Also, the department's activities focus primarily on less developed countries but also on countries in transition and emerging economies, making as much as possible use of regional synergy. - international Official Development Assistance (ODA) organisations like UN-Habitat, World Bank and other regional banks, Europaid, Dutch Directorate General for International Cooperation and other bi-lateral international cooperation agencies, etc.
- national, regional and local governmental and non-governmental and private organisations providing and/or using spatial information to support multi-level governance of the urban region.
The contribution of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Geo-Information Management to capacity development is achieved through an integrated approach to research, education, project services and information dissemination; it focuses on Geo-Information Management for multi-level governance of urban regions.
Capacity development comprises three interrelated activities, closely related to the requirements of the department's client organisations:
HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT
Three types of professionals are targeted:
- specialists in relevant thematic areas
- managers of business processes in organisations
- Senior managers involved in strategic decision making
ORGANISATION STRENGTHENING
Strengthening the management capacity of organisations in terms of planning and decision making, using information and communication technology (ICT), to improve organisation's performances
INSTITUTIONAL STRENGTHENING
Enhancing the capacity of organisations in negotiating appropriate mandates, legal frameworks and modus operandi to effectively act towards the achievement of higher civil society goals related to poverty alleviation, environment protection and socio-economic development in urbanising regions
The department is not only committed to contributing to capacity development but also to measuring the impact of its interventions, making use of qualitative and quantitative capacity development indicators (e.g. using the "UNDP indicator framework").
Contribution from the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Geo-Information Management focus on Geo-Information Management for multi-level governance of urban regions to the development of an international network of partners with ITC acting as a gateway facilitating the development and transfer of knowledge.
The network of partners comprises academic and professional institutes in the Netherlands, Europe, emerging economies and Less Developed Countries (LDC), working as a network of excellence/virtual enterprise providing complementary services in education, research and advisory services
The network closely relates with Official Development Assistance (ODA) organisations, to ensure relevance of its activities.
To develop and apply concepts and methodologies incorporating geographic information and communication technologies to improve the capacity of organisations involved in urban and regional planning to develop appropriate and effective spatial policies, plans and management practices to address development issues.
Contemporary spatial planning practice is problem-driven and action-oriented and guided by concerns related to the environment, social equity, economic development and disaster mitigation and management within multi-stakeholder settings. These concerns therefore frame the development and application of GIT based methodologies that are appropriate to the specific geographic setting. Our expertise is applied at various scales, ranging from community planning to the planning and management of extended urban regions where the interactions and linkages between urban and rural areas are key issues.
To develop and apply concepts and methodologies incorporating geographic information, remote sensing and communication technologies to model, describe and understand urban infrastructure systems to support the capacity of organisations in developing effective responses to the changing demands for good quality urban infrastructural services from all groups within society.
The Urban Infrastructure knowledge field refers to the provision, operation and maintenance of physical infrastructure, social services and transport. The knowledge field is based on a number of recognised academic and practical focus areas within civil engineering and geography that are relevant in both the developed and the developing world. Contemporary notions of infrastructure development form the context in which the knowledge field operates: infrastructure needs to be planned and developed with multi-stakeholder involvement guided by policies of social equity, access to all, cost recovery, affordability and appropriate technology. These concerns are present in the research theme Planning support for infrastructure development that will guide the short and medium term research activities.
To contribute to education, research and advisory services activities of ITC where it concerns the field of land administration, which is defined as the ‘process of determining, recording and disseminating information about tenure, value and use of land, when implementing land management’ (UN, 1996).
As land administration is not an end in itself, but serves society, the knowledge field develops understanding of the way land administration systems should support:
- the development of a land policy in a multi level government environment
- the implementation of such land policy trough measures regarding land tenure, land markets, land taxation, land use planning, land reform and the management of natural resources
- the principles of good governance and the rule of law as a context
- adequate institutional conditions of legal framework and mandates in the public administration which the land administration system needs in order to serve these functions
- organisational conditions of business goals and IT policy at strategic level, and work processes and supportive IT architecture at operational level to make land administration systems work, and development of geo-information systems for land administration.
To develop concepts and methodologies for structuring (architectural and socio-technical issues), monitoring (performance, quality and implementation measurement issues) and financing geo-information assets, in the context of multi-level governance of urban regions.
The knowledge field draws upon concepts and methodologies from the reference fields of information science, management science and social studies of technology.
Key fields of interest are:
- Related to structure
Architectures for the design and management of multi-dimensional SDI in the government hierarchy (central, regional, local levels) for the delivery of complex services, aggregated from different stakeholders - Related to monitoring
Architectures to manage performance and quality of geo-services
Capacity Development Indicator Frameworks (CDIF) for monitoring Information Infrastructure development
Monitoring the dynamics of SDI implementation with socio-technical approaches - Related to financing
Costing and funding models for geospatial data updating and provision
The national budget as an instrument for inter-agency SDI coordination
- Related to structure
To develop concepts and methods to support planning and decision making for resource allocation in complex environments characterised by multi-system and multi-stakeholders. It supports problem structuring, preparatory planning and decision-making prior to the actual employment of resources. From this angle the knowledge field is engaged in the development of concepts, methods, models and techniques that enhance the use and application of geo-information.
Planning and Decision Making Methods is anchored in Operations Research Science and Planning Theory, with a particular emphasis on the spatial characteristics of collaborative and participatory modelling to support development and assessment of resource allocation scenarios to support resource allocation decisions. Planning and Decision Making Methods thus concerns with two related yet separated fields of theory and practice, as follows:
- Spatial Planning Support Systems (SPSS), focusing on modelling demand and supply of resources, suitability assessment, generation and evaluation of plans and policy scenarios through qualitative, quantitative, dynamic and static spatial simulation models.
- Spatial Decision Support Systems (SDSS), focusing on spatial multi-criteria decision analysis, group decision making, adaptive collaborative management approaches, trade-off analysis, development of intelligence and interactive SDSS through knowledge based DSS, visual interactive modelling and visualisation of results, and impacts.
For the complete (and up-to-date) list of PGM Staff, Visiting Scientists, PhD / Promovendi visit the UT People Pages.
For more information on the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Geo-Information Management, please contact
P.D. Weber (Petra)Management Assistant / Office Assistant
PGM is highly present in the fields of ‘Disaster Resilience’ and ‘Urban Futures’. Our colleague Dr. Funda Atun attended the Security Research Event 2025 in Warsaw on 24-25 June 2025 as a speaker. She represented the PARATUS project in the thematic panel ‘Building a disaster-resilient Europe: Innovation as a catalyst for crisis preparedness’.
You can watch the speech of Funda following this link: https://utwente.yuja.com/V/Video?v=926706&node=5001269&a=182710199
The best confirmation for our work is unexpected appreciation from the students we teach!
On Wednesday, 7 May, the JURSE 2025 event has been successfully closed: https://2025.ieee-jurse.org/
At this event, it was announced that JURSE 2027 will be (jointly) hosted by VU (Jasper van Vliet) & ITC (Monika Kuffer) in Amsterdam: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7326257446870544384/
A new study developed in the context of the LOCALISED project (https://www.localised-project.eu/) and published in Energy Research & Social Science provides a novel, comprehensive, and spatially explicit analysis of the energy poverty risk of households due to a forced transition to low-carbon lifestyles.
Download the paper: Unveiling energy poverty risk: A multidimensional analysis of the heat-or-eat dilemma - ScienceDirect
The MLUMSE project has officially started!
Prof. Jaap Zevenbergen and Dr. Dimo Todorovski joined the kick-off meeting of the MLUMSE Erasmus+ project, which is uniting partners from Belgium, Croatia, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and the Netherlands to enhance higher education in geospatial technology. The meeting took place at the Faculty of Engineering at Shoubra, Benha University, Cairo, Egypt
The general objective of the project is strengthening the quality of higher education in usage of geospatial technology supporting urban and rural areas planning and sustainable and resilient management under climate change threats in Southern Mediterranean (SM) partner countries.
We look forward to a fruitful collaboration!
The Digital Twin Geohub (UT/ITC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Open & Agile Smart Cities & Communities (OASC).
The collaboration is expected to bring mutual benefits, aligning our goals with OASC's mission, while developing a strategic partnership between ITC and OASC.
ITC/PGM has developed an interactive dashboard on sustainable drinking water management for Vitens. Vitalens 1.0 supports the dialogue on strategies to balance drinking water supply and demand by 2035.
Mila Koeva was invited to become part of the Board of Directors for Digital Twin Cities Centrs (DTCC).
The centre’s vision is to establish the Digital Twin City concept as the foundation for digital planning, design, construction, and management of sustainable, intelligent, and liveable cities and regions throughout Sweden by 2030.
Rising temperatures and urban heat islands (UHI) are pressing challenges for cities worldwide. At Track 1 of the Digital Twin session at the Climate Event, we explored how Urban Digital Twins can help address these issues.
Urban Digital Twins are revolutionizing how cities manage infrastructure, resources, and resilience. At Track 2 of the Digital Twin session at the Climate Event, we explored diverse applications, from traffic flow optimization to disaster preparedness, showcasing real-world implementations.
The MoU between ITC and the UDESC has been signed on 9 April 2024. The MoU emphasizes e.g. the importance of continuing education programmes, exchange of staff and students, research and capacity development.
Funda received the Integrated Disaster Risk Management - IDRiM Society Aniello Amendola Distinguished Service Award 2024. The award acknowledges member(s) who contributed significantly to the IDRiM Society by providing distinguished service. The IDRiM Society and its Journal (IDRiM Journal) were officially launched on October 15, 2009 in Kyoto, Japan, at the 9th IIASA-DPRI Forum on Integrated Disaster Risk Management (IDRiM Forum).
PARATUS project partners gather in Antalya 🇹🇷 for the General Assembly to discuss what we have learned in the first year and to set goals for the years to come!
A great consortium that thrives on promoting hashtag#emergency preparedness and improving hashtag#disaster management
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- What Have Urban Digital Twins Contributed to Urban Planning and Decision Making? From a Systematic Literature Review Toward a Socio-Technical Research and Development AgendaUrban digital twins (UDTs) were first discussed in 2018. Seven years later, we ask: What has been their contribution to urban planning and decision making so far? Here, we systematically review 88 peer-reviewed articles to map and compare UDTs’ ambit
- Reporting the Delta: An Exploration of Climate, Space, and Society Through Archival DocumentariesThe Dutch delta tells the story of constant struggle, resistance and negotiation between land, water, and people. It is always in motion - from fluctuating tides and historic floods to flows of global trade and engineering mega works.
Together with the Hague Academy for Local Governance and Kadaster International Jaap Zevenbergen visited the Moldovan Agency for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre in Chisinau from 5-8 October during the Inception Mission of the Matra project Cross-Border Democracy and Good Governance Exchange Project Moldova and The Netherlands (GEO CODEX) and spoke at the Opening Event.
In the last week of July, Jaap Zevenbergen attended the Joint 8th AGRC & 14th EALAN Conference 2025 in Kampala, which was preceded by a pre-event on Fit-for-Purpose Land Administration in Uganda. Jaap delivered a key note speech in both the conference and the pre-event, and met up with many known and new East-African land administration academics.
As a member of the Land-at-Scale Knowledge Management Partners, UT/ITC/PGM was invited by the Netherlands RVO to take part in the 4th Land-at-Scale Exchange event 2025 in Colombia. The first part of the event was a study visit to the pilot location of the Land-at-Scale project in Colombia, specifically in Santa Marta, at the Indigenous community of Katanzama. The highlight statement in the study visit by one of the heads of the indigenous group was: "When Cadastre was implemented in our community, the development and better life began". The second part of the exchange event is participation at the 10th Global Land Forum - GLF, organised by the International Land Coalition – ILC. Dimo took an active participation in both knowledge exchange events.
Andre, Mafalda and Flavia met with colleagues from IPPLAN (Institute for Research and Planning) of Fortaleza, and the Federal University of Ceara (UFC) in Brazil. ITC is contributing its expertise in Spatial Data and Analysis of Intra-Urban Inequalities, and Climate-Related Challenges at the Urban Scale, that are also experienced in the city of Fortaleza. IPPLAN and UFC are interested in collaborations where new ideas and expertise help to solve their real-world problems. Fortaleza is reinventing itself as a nature and sea city, and is privileged to host the vibrant university UFC and an enthusiastic team of experts at IPPLAN. The ITC team is looking forward to further collaborating with the PLUS Hub Brazil!
Jaap and Robbin Jan met up early July for lunch in Philadelphia, following a plan that had been made months ago. Robbin Jan has been seconded to Colombia University’s Climate School in New York City since January 2023 under an NWO-Rubicon grant, and Jaap is on sabbatical at the World Bank in Washington DC since June. We decided to meet halfway between our cities, so Philadelphia became our chosen spot! Unforeseen at the time of planning, the meet-up also turned into a celebration because Robbin Jan was awarded a Veni grant by NWO last week.
Mila Koeva was part of the Local hashtag#digitaltwin (LDT) forum and Digital Twins Cities Conference in Göteborg. She had the opportunity to share with more than 250 people some of UT(ITC’s) experiences with the practical value of science based innovations on Digital Twinning of Cities in Chalmers University.