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
- Profile
- Mission
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.
- Market
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.
- Capacity Development
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").
- Role as Gateway
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.
- Fields of Expertise
- Spatial Planning
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.
- Urban Infrastructure
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.
- Land Administration
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.
- Geo-Information Management
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
- Planning and Decision Making Methods
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.
- Our People
For the complete (and up-to-date) list of PGM Staff, Guest / Visiting Scientists, PhD / Promovendus visit the ITC Who-is-who or the UT People Pages.
For information about former PGM Staff, Guest / Visiting Scientists, PhD / Promovendus, contact the departmental Management Assistant.
P.D. Weber (Petra)Management Assistant / Office Assistant - Contact
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
Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation | Master of Science
Geo-Information Management for Land Administration | Specialization
Urban Planning and Management | Specialization
Spatial Engineering | Master of Science
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).
On the photo, Funda us with Prof. Dr Ana-Maria Cruz (the president of IDRiM Society.
In addition, M-GEO graduate Pritam Gosh received 2nd place award for his online presentation during the IDRiM Young Scientists Session.
Ivan Cardenas awarded 2nd place at the 2023 Best Master Thesis on Geo-information sciences of The Netherlands!
Mila Koeva represented the University of Twente (Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) of the University of Twente) at the grand opening of the new building of the GATE Institute and its annual forum entitled "Up to Gate: Technology, Big Data & Beyond. Open Up for Innovation".
"Thank you" to Sylvia Ilieva and Dessislava Petrova-Antonova for the kind invitation and to all great GATE organisers!
How can city digital twins support the attainment of SDG11? They can be used to manage infrastructures (e.g. roads, transportation and public services, smarter energy grids and water networks), support planning and decision-making, as well as to provide up-to-date data for simulations and resource allocation. However, city digital twins (DTs) are not without their challenges in terms of creation and implementation. This article includes three recent examples of city digital twins that have been successfully developed and implemented.
By Mila Koeva, hashtag#Ivan L. Cardenas, hashtag#Luis Rodrigoandrés Morales https://lnkd.in/eDx3G-5q
On October 19 and 20, the University of Twente and Digital Twin GeoHub organised their first symposium, "Digital (T)win it".
The seminar was a practical overview of the development and applications of City Digital Twins, where cutting-edge 3D technology meets real-world applications. The expert speakers from Academia, Government and Industry shared their insights on the topic, paving the way for a future where technology reshapes our understanding of the physical world around us.
12 December was the first day of the Children Citizen Geoscience Project with year 6 students in the International School Twente (IST). Children are knowledgeable agents who can understand complex phenomena like climate change. In this project, children will conduct research to develop innovative and responsible solutions to create a liveable environment that will contribute directly to achieving strategies and solutions for climate-adaptive cities.
Javier Martinez / Martin van Hooijdonk / DesignLab University of Twente / Provincie Overijssel / Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) of the University of Twente / University of Twente
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
"Different stakeholders, such as humanitarian organizations, first responders, local authorities dealing with transport, housing and education: each requires different information on impact chains, which are co-developed, visualized and wherever possible, quantified using the PARATUS platform."
Funda Atun and Cees van Westen, PARATUS coordinators from the University of Twente, speak about the importance of our project on U-Today ⬇
https://lnkd.in/djMMZU4G
After the successful accomplishment of my Master's at the University of Twente, under the guidance of my supervisors Funda Atun and Karin Pfeffer and chair Javier Martinez, I started working under their supervision to publish an article based on my thesis. Apart from that, I will work at the UT Climate Centre for part of my time under Cheryl de Boer, UT Climate Centre Coordinating Team Lead. I thank my supervisors and Cheryl for this amazing opportunity and look forward to having a successful collaboration.
Last week Mafalda Madueira co-organized, together with Javier Martinez and Marija Bockarjova, a workshop on geo-citizen science and the 15-min campus. Thank you all that made the event lively, inspiring and contributed to a discussion about how we would like our campus to continue developing! Thank you to the Design Lab for hosting us! And thank you to Geographic Citizen Science Hub at ITC who financed out initiative
On 29 June especially for the delegation coming from South Africa, Mila Koeva and Digital Twin Geohub organised one-day seminar in ITC. Thank you to all colleagues and students that gave inspiring talks and demonstrations!
On 13 June 2023, the final results of developing “Digital Twin for PET calculation for Urban Heat Island mitigation” was demonstrated by our MGEO students Ivan Cadrenas and Rodrigoandrés Morales in the Municipality of Enschede with 17 participants with diverse expertise. The work was part of the collaborative project “Twinning for climate-resilient urban solutions” funded by the VU-UT Collaboration between VU-Spatial Economics (Eric Koomen, Eduardo Dias) and UT-ITC (Karin Pfeffer, Funda Atun and Mila Koeva)
- Fitness of multi-resolution remotely sensed data for cadastral mapping in Ekiti State, NigeriaIn developing nations, such as Ekiti State, Nigeria, the utilization of remotely sensed data, particularly satellite and UAV imagery, remains significantly underexploited in land administration. This limits multi-resolution imagery’s potential [...]
- Gender-responsive good practices in documenting customary and statutory land in Mozambique: Promoting women's land rightsSustainable growth and development in Africa will continue to depend mainly on how land and land-related resources are secured, used, and managed, which is extremely important for the socio-economic development of women and men. [...]
- Urban digital twin-based solution using geospatial information for solid waste managementWith over 2 billion metric tons generated annually, global solid waste production has severe environmental consequences. Although it is not a primary Sustainable Development Goal, effective solid waste management (SWM) is vital for meeting [...]
- Forensic analysis of historical disasters to develop quantifiable multi-hazard impact chains modelsTo develop quantifiable multi-hazard impact chains, it is essential to base the analysis on historical data. Currently, available disaster databases often focus only on single hazards and direct impacts. They do not enable the attribution of [...]
- Heat exposure of deprivation through air temperature modellingMany studies are pointing to the fact that cities are experiencing higher temperatures than non-built-up areas. Yet limited can be found on thermal inequalities in the context of vulnerable groups, specifically linked to people living in deprivation.
- Large area mapping of urban deprivation from Sentinel-2 and Google Open Buildings using deep learningThis study explores the potential of a synergistic approach combining Sentinel-2 data and Google Open Buildings (GOB) for mapping urban deprivation over large areas at a 100m spatial resolution. Urban deprivation, including slums, is a crucial [...]
- IDEAMAPS: Modelling sub-domains of deprivation with EO and AIIDEAMAPS is developing a participatory data-modelling ecosystem to produce maps of deprived areas ("slums") routinely and accurately at scale across cities in lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The Ecosystem is co-designed with local [...]
- Monitoring Indicators of International Guidance Documents and Frameworks through LADMEvaluating the performance of a land administration system (LAS) is a critical task as it can provide input for improving the operational system. Through such an evaluation, the strengths and weaknesses of the existing system can be identified [...]
- ONEKANA: Modelling thermal inequalities in African cities. In IGARSS 2024Africa, as a major climate change hotspot, faces severe impacts, including extreme temperatures. Notably, urban areas are unequally affected by these impacts. The urban poor are particularly vulnerable to extreme temperatures, because of [...]
- Semi-supervised ‘soft’ extraction of urban types associated with deprivationMapping deprived urban areas in low- and middle-income countries is essential for policy development. While urban deprivation is a complex concept encompassing multiple dimensions, we propose an approach to capture its physical traits reflected [...]
- Solid Waste in the Virtual World: A Digital Twinning Approach for Waste Collection PlanningSolid waste (SW) management is a crucial challenge for urban sustainability. With global waste generation exceeding two billion metric tons every year, it poses various negative impacts, including health risks and environmental contamination.
- User and data-centric artificial intelligence for mapping urban deprivation in multiple cities across the globeThe rapid urbanization in many regions worldwide results in the proliferation of deprived urban areas, also known as slums or informal settlements. Our study addresses the pressing need for accurate information by investigating User and [...]
- Digital Twin-based Framework for Heat Stress CalculationAccording to the KNMI Klimaatsignaal'21, the average surface temperature in The Netherlands has increased by 2.3°C between 1901 and 2020. Moreover, The Netherlands is also experiencing more frequent and intense heatwaves.
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.
Unlike the cool Summer so far in the Netherlands, during their visit to Philadelphia it was high in the 30s and very humid, the sticky kind of humidity. Next to their joint lunch they also visited some of the main attractions in Philly, among which Liberty Bell stood out. The bell symbolizes liberty all over the world, and peoples from many countries have come to mark them becoming independent there. Next door is Independence Hall which played a major role in the formation of the USA.
During his sabbatical leave from mid-June till mid-October 2024, Jaap stays mainly in Washington DC, USA at the World Bank to look into property taxation and land indicators.
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.
Thanks to GATE Institute and especially to Dessislava Petrova-Antonova for inviting me and chairing this very inspiring session on AI Digital Twins and to the organisers from Chalmers and Bernd Ketzler!
From 1 to 12 August 2022, PGM’er Jaap Zevenbergen visited the National Land Agency’s (BPN) main office in Jakarta, Indonesia. The visit is part of the current assignment as ‘land tenure international’ expert for the Program to Accelerate Agrarian Reform (PPRA), a component of the World Bank supported ‘One Map Program’. Jaap will work with staff from several units of BPN, study (draft) laws and regulations, visit several locals offices and share international experiences, specifically linked to RRR, 3D property and e-conveyancing within the broader land administration context. The work will continue also once back in Enschede, but a second visit later in the year is foreseen.
From 1 August until 31 October 2022, PGM’er Robbin Jan van Duijne will be working as a research attaché at the Dutch Embassy in New Delhi, India. The aim of the placement is to conduct research on the country’s agrarian crisis, as thousands of vulnerable rural communities in the countryside are heavily affected by climate change impacts. He will be working with the Dutch Ambassador in India on these issues, setting up direct lines of communication with top-level policymakers and diplomats. The fellowship is used as a stepping stone to prepare for a workshop at the G20 summit in 2023, hosted by India.
From the 9 September to 11 November 2022, our PhD candidate Sergio Alvarado Vazquez will be conducting a Public Space Quality Evaluation (PSQE) in Mexico. His research aims to collect data regarding the perception and use of Public Spaces at a Neighbourhood scale in Mexico City and Puebla. This research intends to understand how local residents perceive the quality of their public spaces. The digital web platform AMACHAN (http:amachan.io) has been used for the data collection. The research aims to understand if the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can enhance the discussion in participatory processes within local communities to improve the quality of public spaces. Sergio collaborates with several local actors, including local NGOs such as Barriopolis, Neighbourhood organizations and the Benemerita Autonomus University of Puebla. More info about the research in www.itc.nl/eep
From 23 to 25 October 2023 Jaap Zevenbergen visits colleagues of the geomatics programme at UPV in Valencia, Spain, as part of an Erasmus plus Staff Mobility. He met with the leadership of the School and Department, gave a guest lecture and will visit the key players in the (quite unique) Spanish land administration system.
Great session in IGARSS 2023 on SDGs through Earth Observation and Remote Sensing! We presented our latest research on automatic cadastral boundary extraction! hashtag#igarss2023 hashtag#itc
From 27 May till 1 June 2023 the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG), to which ITC is an academic member, holds his annual Working Week, this time in Orlando, Florida. From 28-31 May there are many presentations, mainly in up to 10 parallel sessions, on diverse topics linked to land professionals. This year’s topic is “Protecting Our World, Conquering New Frontiers’, focussing on the key role land professionals should take in implementing the climate actions. The first and last day is the General Assembly, which among others, approves the workplans of the commissions. Commission 2 on Professional Education is currently chaired by Dimo. Many PGM or ITC alumni are present, with whom we catch up as well as making new contacts.
Dr. Rosa Aguilar research focuses on mapping open spaces. In this video she explains what open spaces are and how they can be mapped. Get in touch with Rosa for collaboration on this topic!
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Lorraine Oliveira discusses her efforts to develop machine learning techniques to better classify deprived areas to better support decision making. This is also a commemorative video as Ms. Lorraine was awarded the prize for writing the best thesis at the ITC Faculty in 2021.
The award winning thesis "The diversity of deprived areas: applications of unsupervised machine learning and open geodata" can be found here: http://essay.utwente.nl/88986/
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Dr. Mila Koeva explains how to reach sustainability goals faster we can speed up the mapping of land rights with open source software, machine learning, and drone images.
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Dr. Mila Koeva explains what are Digital Twins and how they can solve problems in a wide range of applications.
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Dr. Caroline Gevaert explain why and how she used drones to map slums in Kigali, Rwanda and how she sees that drone technology can benefit people in slums areas in the future.
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GeoHero guest Dr. Michael McCall, former ITC professor, currently Senior Investigator in the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México, explains Participatory Mapping and gives us some insight on his incredibly broad experience with this technique all over the world.
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Professor Jaap Zevenbergen talks about the use and rights for land and how Earth Observation techniques play a role in that.
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