Empowering & engaging communities

This field deals with bringing geo-information into “business” and for societal benefits by empowering and engaging communities. Our communities, with agro-environmental focus, range from local communities, national decision makers to global policy stakeholders such as UN Conventions and the general public. We increase the role of earth observation by its application in large-area land change assessments. We engage societal actors in community-based monitoring and geo-information product development. We contribute to competence development for improved spatial awareness.

This field is best described by highlighting our ongoing activities:

  • Chairing the activities of the land cover team of Global Observations of Forest Cover and Land Dynamics (GOFC-GOLD) panel of the Global Terrestrial Observing System of the UN (GTOS) and the CEOS Working Group on Calibration and Validation (land cover subgroup)
  • Implementation of work plan for user assessments and the development of standardization documents for the Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) required by the UNFCCC (focus: land cover and biomass)
  • Lead the further development of the GOFC-GOLD Sourcebook on REDD MRV
  • Participate in the Worldbank Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (Technical Advisory Panel) and review of Country REDD MRV activities
  • Contribution to the historical degradation monitoring part of FAO’s global Forest Resources Assessment special study and remote sensing survey
  • Advising of countries’ technical bodies and governments on REDD monitoring, reporting and verification with particular emphasis on the role of capacity building and remote sensing
  • Contribution to spatial data infrastructure development, both nationally and internationally
  • Participation in national geo-information curriculum development (SAGEO)
  • Empowering arable farmers with precision geo-information support (GAOS)

PhD projects:

  • Ximena Tagle Casapia: Integration of high resolution imagery from UAVs for Mapping of Provisioning Ecosystem Services in the tropics
  • Christopher Agyekumhene: Enhancing Farmer Credit Access: Facilitating Network Collaboration through Digital Information System
  • Nyamwaya Munthali: ICT-based Extension Services: Shifting Institutional and Knowledge Paradigms towards Sustainable Intensificatio
  • Hedwig van Delden: Development and use of integrated land use models for policy support
  • Watse Castelein: Assessment of spatial data infrastructures developments
  • Marije Louwsma: E-governance in spatial planning
  • Renée de Waal: Shaping sustainable energy landscapes: the need for and elaboration of a narrative design approach
  • Cristina Rozales Sanchez: Social web as urban sensors: feasibility of user-generated internet-based data as a source for quality of life indicators

Post-doc projects:

Recently finished PhDs:

Key publications: