dr. M.N. Koeva (Mila)

Mila Koeva is a Vice Dean Research and senior Associate Professor (ius promovendi) in “3D city digital twins based on geospatial technologies for improved land management and urban planning” at the University Twente, International Institute of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation ITC, The Netherlands. She has a PhD in “3D modelling in architectural photogrammetry” from the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering, and Geodesy in Sofia. She also holds an MSc. degree in Engineering (Geodesy) from the same institution.  

Her expertise includes geospatial and remote sensing data processing and fusion using innovative methods and user engagement.  She is working on 3D modelling and Digital Twins (SPSS/SDSS, LDT, Gaming) in support of resource management and decision-making for cadastral and urban planning applications, among others. During her academic career, she has been actively involved in education, research, and international projects both within Europe and across the globe, including countries such as Rwanda, Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, Indonesia, India, Nepal, Colombia, Brazil, Ghana, Afghanistan, and Zimbabwe among others.

Her career includes ten years of working as a photogrammetric specialist and head of the photogrammetry department (www.gis-sofia.bg) with the main aim of producing accurate cadastral and topographic maps and three years of work in a private organisation (www.mapex.bg) leading three EU projects related to geodetic, cadastral and photogrammetric activities.

Currently, she is leading the UT Digital Twin Geohub, on the board of directors of Digital Twin City Centre (DTCC) and Geospatial World Forum (GWF) and a partner of Open&Agile Smart Cities (OASC) and is part of several ongoing European projects.  She is a member of the Minimal Interoperability Mechanisms (MIMs) working group on Local Digital Twins. This working group operates under the coordination of OASC  and Living‑in.EU—to define a minimal yet sufficient set of standards, best practices, and semantic models for managing urban ecosystem indicators in Local Digital Twins, ensuring interoperability, scalability, and alignment across European cities.

She was a Project Coordinator/Leader of its4land, a multidisciplinary European Commission Horizon 2020 project involving 8 academic and private-sector partners and 6 countries in Europe and Africa. The project received the Geospatial World Innovation award in 2021. Due to her scientific activities, she has been selected to have an active part in international professional organizations, chairing working groups and organizing scientific events, e.g. chairing ISPRS WG IV/9 on Digital Twins, FIG WT 7 on AI4LA, etc. She is regularly invited to give invited talks or to be the keynote speaker at international events, e.g. Gi4DM and Urban Geoinformatics 2022,  3D GeoInfo 2021, UASG2021, GATE Big Data, FIG Cmmision7, GLTN 2020, GI Forum (WWU) 2020,  etc. She is serving as guest editor for several special issues, The Photogrammetric Records, 3D Land Administration in LUP, MDPI RS4LA1, MDPI RS4LA2, MDPI RS43DLA, and MDPI Digital Twins. She serves as a Reviewer Board Member of ISPRS IJGI, MDPI Geomatics, and Frontier Remote Sensing. A full list of scientific publications can be found on Google Scholar and UT-site. Besides research international project activities, she is involved in education, including lecturing, course development, and supervision of MSc and Ph.D. students. In March 2017, she was ranked as one of the TOP 3 teachers of ITC 2016 - 2017; in 2016, her student obtained 3rd place in the Copernicus Masters Competition; in 2021, her student was awarded the Best 3D GeoInfo paper,  and in 2023, her student received the second-best MSc thesis award in The Netherlands. 

Expertise

• Earth and Planetary Sciences

  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
  • Cadastral
  • Pilotless Aircraft
  • Digital Twin
  • Land Right
  • Rwanda
  • Remote Sensing
  • Pattern Recognition

Organisations

Mila Koeva is a Vice Dean Research and senior Associate Professor (ius promovendi) in “3D city digital twins based on geospatial technologies for improved land management and urban planning” at the University Twente, International Institute of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation ITC, The Netherlands. She has a PhD in “3D modelling in architectural photogrammetry” from the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering, and Geodesy in Sofia. She also holds an MSc. degree in Engineering (Geodesy) from the same institution.  

Her expertise includes geospatial and remote sensing data processing and fusion using innovative methods and user engagement.  She is working on 3D modelling and Digital Twins (SPSS/SDSS, LDT, Gaming) in support of resource management and decision-making for cadastral and urban planning applications, among others. During her academic career, she has been actively involved in education, research, and international projects both within Europe and across the globe, including countries such as Rwanda, Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, Indonesia, India, Nepal, Colombia, Brazil, Ghana, Afghanistan, and Zimbabwe among others.

Her career includes ten years of working as a photogrammetric specialist and head of the photogrammetry department (www.gis-sofia.bg) with the main aim of producing accurate cadastral and topographic maps and three years of work in a private organisation (www.mapex.bg) leading three EU projects related to geodetic, cadastral and photogrammetric activities.

Currently, she is leading the UT Digital Twin Geohub, on the board of directors of Digital Twin City Centre (DTCC) and Geospatial World Forum (GWF) and a partner of Open&Agile Smart Cities (OASC) and is part of several ongoing European projects.  She is a member of the Minimal Interoperability Mechanisms (MIMs) working group on Local Digital Twins. This working group operates under the coordination of OASC  and Living‑in.EU—to define a minimal yet sufficient set of standards, best practices, and semantic models for managing urban ecosystem indicators in Local Digital Twins, ensuring interoperability, scalability, and alignment across European cities.

She was a Project Coordinator/Leader of its4land, a multidisciplinary European Commission Horizon 2020 project involving 8 academic and private-sector partners and 6 countries in Europe and Africa. The project received the Geospatial World Innovation award in 2021. Due to her scientific activities, she has been selected to have an active part in international professional organizations, chairing working groups and organizing scientific events, e.g. chairing ISPRS WG IV/9 on Digital Twins, FIG WT 7 on AI4LA, etc. She is regularly invited to give invited talks or to be the keynote speaker at international events, e.g. Gi4DM and Urban Geoinformatics 2022,  3D GeoInfo 2021, UASG2021, GATE Big Data, FIG Cmmision7, GLTN 2020, GI Forum (WWU) 2020,  etc. She is serving as guest editor for several special issues, The Photogrammetric Records, 3D Land Administration in LUP, MDPI RS4LA1, MDPI RS4LA2, MDPI RS43DLA, and MDPI Digital Twins. She serves as a Reviewer Board Member of ISPRS IJGI, MDPI Geomatics, and Frontier Remote Sensing. A full list of scientific publications can be found on Google Scholar and UT-site. Besides research international project activities, she is involved in education, including lecturing, course development, and supervision of MSc and Ph.D. students. In March 2017, she was ranked as one of the TOP 3 teachers of ITC 2016 - 2017; in 2016, her student obtained 3rd place in the Copernicus Masters Competition; in 2021, her student was awarded the Best 3D GeoInfo paper,  and in 2023, her student received the second-best MSc thesis award in The Netherlands. 

Publications

Research profiles

From the University of Twente she holds a university teaching qualification (UTQ) and has diverse teaching background in small and large groups. Current teaching activities cover areas of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 3D Cadastre, GNSS, cadastral rejuvination, 3D modelling, BIM and Smart Cities. She supervised more than 15 MSc students of their master research and is regularly invited for external examiner.

She was voted as one of the TOP 3 teachers in ITC for 2016-2017.

Affiliated study programs

Courses academic year 2026/2027

Courses in the current academic year are added at the moment they are finalised in the Osiris system. Therefore it is possible that the list is not yet complete for the whole academic year.

Courses academic year 2025/2026

Courses academic year 2024/2025

Project Coordinator of its4land, a multidisciplinary European Commision Horizon 2020 project, involving 8 academic and private-sector partners and 6 countries in Europe and Africa - www.its4land.com.

The main goal of its4land, an European Commission Horizon 2020 project is to develop innovative tools inspired by the continuum of land rights, fit-for-purpose land administration, and cadastral intelligence. its4land is using strategic collaboration between the EU and East Africa to deliver innovative, scalable, and transferrable ICT solutions. The innovation process incorporates a broad range of stakeholders and emergent geospatial technologies, including smart sketchmaps, UAVs, automated feature extraction, as well as geocloud services. The aim is to combine innovative technologies, capture the specific needs, market opportunities and readiness of end-users in the domain of land tenure information recording in Eastern Africa. The project consists of a four year work plan, €3.9M funding, and eight consortium partners collaborating with stakeholders from six case study locations in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Rwanda. The major tasks include tool development, prototyping, and demonstration for local, national, regional, and international interest groups. The case locations cover different land uses such as: urban, peri-urban, rural smallholder, and (former) pastoralist.

Personal webpage - Mila

LinkedIn - Mila

ResearchGate - Mila

ORCID

Scopus - Author details (Koeva, Mila N.)

Address

University of Twente

Langezijds (building no. 19), room 1301
Hallenweg 8
7522 NH Enschede
Netherlands

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Organisations