Its4land wins Geospatial World Innovation Award 2021

During the Geospatial World Forum 2021, there was an official awarding ceremony where Dr Mila Koeva (ITC faculty) the project leader, received the award on behalf of the consortium. Its4land was chosen out of the one hundred applications for projects. “It is a big honour and international recognition and we are all very proud!”

The Geospatial World Innovation Awards acknowledges human creativity and perseverance even in the face of such adversities as the COVID-19 crisis. The awards are a tribute to the ongoing efforts towards building a better, more sustainable future through the use of cutting-edge geospatial technology.

Its4land

The project its4land – led by the University of Twente – is a Horizon2020 project that ran from 2016 till 2020. “It was really positively evaluated by the European Commission”, says Koeva, “We managed to finish everything we planned and got a very positive evaluation from the European Commission in their final evaluation report.” The main goal of the project was to deliver a set of land tenure recording tools that are cheap, fast, easy and responsible. In 2020, the project delivered this land administration toolbox.

Start-up

The work from Koeva on land administration tools is not done yet. Koeva explains: “The project might be over, but we don’t stop here. We continue searching for project opportunities to continue our work and implement our scientific ideas into practice. One successful example in that vein is the co-launched start-up with the University of Münster, called SmartLandMaps, which aims to provide bottom-up approaches to record customary land rights worldwide.

More information

Mila is an Associate Professor at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Geo-Information Management (PGM; ITC Faculty) working in 3D Land Information. She holds a PhD in 3D modelling in architectural photogrammetry from the University of Architecture, Civil engineering, and Geodesy in Sofia.

K.W. Wesselink - Schram MSc (Kees)
Science Communication Officer (available Mon-Fri)