Urban Planning and Management | Courses & research | Geo-information Science and Earth Observation

During your Master’s in Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (GEO), you will collect a total of 120 EC within two years. In addition to the three mandatory courses of the Master’s, you will take four specialisation courses and elective courses. You can also do an optional internship and complete your studies by writing your master’s thesis.

European Credit Transfer System

Student workload at Dutch universities is expressed in EC, also named ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System), widely used throughout the European Union. In the Netherlands, each credit represents 28 hours of work. The recognition of credits is at the discretion of your Master's.

Structure

Year 1	Number of EC
Compulsory courses Mandatory courses for all students of the Master’s.	25 EC	GIS & Remote Sensing for Geospatial Solutions Geospatial Data: Concepts, Acquisition and Management Geospatial Analysis and Interpretation Global Challenges, Local Action Academic Skills
Specialisation courses Mandatory courses for all students of the specialisation in Urban Planning and Management.	28 EC	Planning Sustainable Cities Building Inclusive and Competitive Cities The Compact City Risk-Sensitive Urban Planning Studio
Elective course You can choose a course that matches your interests and career ambitions.	7 EC	Some examples of elective courses you can take are: Intra Urban Spatial Patterns and Processes Land Use and Transport Interaction Participatory Planning 1: Theory and Development of PSS For Decision Rooms, Web Applications, and Serious Games Participatory Planning 2: Theory and Application of PSS and Serious Games in Planning and Decision Processes
Year 2
Individual study programme	15 EC	In the second year, you can personalise your individual study programme by doing an internship or taking elective courses.
MSc research proposal and MSc research	45 EC	You will complete your Master’s in GEO by writing a master’s thesis. Your research theme is defined by the research group that is part of the respective specialisation. In Urban Planning and Management, you will conduct your research within the research group People, Land, and Urban Systems (PLAN).
Total EC	120 EC

Internship

In the second year of your Master’s in Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, you can apply the knowledge and skills you have acquired during your studies by doing an internship at a research institute or a think tank, government, international earth observation service provider, sustainable urban development organisation, non-governmental organisation, or urban planning and design company in the Netherlands or abroad. ITC has a broad network of organisations where you can do your internship project.

Examples of internships that students have done are:

"Research on personal and road safety of women and girls” at Despacio, Colombia
"Developing a framework for building-level analysis of green facade potentials on mitigating urban heat islands using BIM and GIS integration” at Witteveen and Bos (Deventer), the Netherlands
"Flood risk assessment in Dhaka. Effect of risk mitigation in future scenarios and its contribution to the sustainable development goals” at PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency

Discover the exciting internship options at ITC!

Join us on a journey as we follow two Master students, Carolina Pereira Marghidan and John Ifejube, during their internships at the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) at the University of Twente. Get ready to witness the impactful work they're doing in their respective placements and gain a glimpse into the future that awaits you as a prospective student. Watch the video!

Master's thesis

You will complete your Master’s by writing your Master’s thesis. Your research will be part of the research group People, Land, and Urban Systems (PLUS) and you will write your thesis under the supervision of one of the members of that research group. You might research ways to convert vacant, abandoned buildings to useful spaces that improve people’s quality of life, such as parking or public transport facilities or to repurpose them as cultural centres or residential areas. What about analysing the risks of impoverishment faced by relocated households and coming up with solutions to minimise these risks using a GIS-based multi-criteria technique?

In your master’s thesis, you can undertake research projects such as:

Analysing the relationship between women garment workers’ quality of life and the walkability problems of the routes they use to go to work: case study in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Developing a nature-based solution for local adaptation to urban flooding in a neighbourhood in Enschede, the Netherlands.
Conducting a qualitative GIS methodological investigation of children's perception of their city centre in a Dutch city.

Career