Land Management and Geospatial Science

Did you know that ninety percent of land holdings in developing countries are not documented, administered, or protected? Yet land administration systems and practices do not cater to the complexity of land issues, including urban sprawl, land tenure insecurity, and climate change. Deriving solutions to these challenges requires a combination of contextual insights, technical-methodological instruments, and communication skills to accelerate land rights documentation, land tenure security, and sustainable land use. It requires responsible governance of land tenure and fit-for-purpose land information systems to document relationships between people and land in a politically, legally, and socio-culturally sensitive manner. The Land Management and Geospatial Science programme combines two inter-connected scientific domains: Land Management and Geospatial Science. The aim of the Master’s programme is to train land professionals who can apply land and spatial-related concepts and tools to analyse international contemporary land issues and have the executive soft skills to carry out land administration functions to solve these land issues. Required modules offered as part of the Master's programme: Land management Real estate economics Photogrammetry and remote sensing Geodesy for land management International professional practice in land management and geospatial science Property rights and land tenure systems Land administration and land information systems Geoinformatics for land management Decision support systems Elective modules include (amongst others): Land management and land policy Spatial planning and policies Remote sensing in urban planning and development Land management international Instruments of land mobilisation International rural development Urban ecology Advanced real estate management Advanced GIS Introduction to earth system science Remote sensing – selected chapters Acquisition and analysis of photogrammetric data Spatial data management and visualisation Environment and climate transformation Energy transformation Urban Water-Energy-Food Nexus Big geospatial data analysis and management Scientific paper writing The degree programme comprises four semesters and 120 CP in total. Within the first two semesters, the students gain knowledge and skills in land management sciences, geospatial engineering sciences and policy, governance, management and research sciences. In the third semester, the students choose one of three areas of concentration: Systems of land use and land rights Systems of geospatial engineering for land, water, and forestry management Systems of planning, policy, and governance. This enables students to select combinations of modules based on their specific interests, which also offers a good opportunity for international mobility. Finally, students finish their studies in the fourth semester by writing their Master's theses.