Sustainable and Smart Spatial Planning in Africa

Dr. Charles Chavunduka, has degrees in Geography, Regional and Urban Planning (University of Zimbabwe) and Land Resources (PhD, Wisconsin-Madison) and is a chartered town planner. He is a Senior Lecturer and Deputy Dean in the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Zimbabwe. He has worked for the Government of Zimbabwe as a town planner and in numerous international projects in eastern and southern Africa focusing on land governance and administration, land policy and participatory land use planning. His current research interests at the University of Zimbabwe include sustainable and smart human settlements planning, land reform, and land readjustment. He has published in international journals of repute, serves as a reviewer for several journals and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Urban Systems and Innovations for Resilience in Zimbabwe. Prof. dr. ir. Walter Timo de Vries, is Chair of Land Management at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) since 2015. He is Study Dean Geodesy and Geoinformation and director of the Master and PhD programs in Land Management and Geospatial Science and holds several positions at TUM regarding international cooperation in Africa. He has worked in numerous international projects in Asia, Africa and South America, dealing with land information and land reform, urban and rural development, geospatial data infrastructures and professional training and education in land issues, cadastre and spatial planning and development. His current research includes smart and responsible land management, urban and rural development and land consolidation. Recent publications include the CRC / Taylor and Francis books: ‘Responsible and Smart Land Management Interventions: An African Context’ and ‘Advances in Responsible Land Administration’. Dr. Arch. Pamela Durán Díaz, is an Architect, PhD in Urbanism (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain) and postdoc in Sustainable Management of Cultural Landscapes in China, Mali and Mexico. She is a scientific researcher and lecturer at the Technical University of Munich since 2016, with a research focus on land governance, anthropologies of water, WEF nexus, and (in)tangible heritage. She coordinates the Doctoral and MSc programs on Land Management and Geospatial Science, and is Project Manager of ADLAND “Advancing Collaborative Research in Responsible and Smart Land Management in and for Africa” (financed by GIZ) in collaboration with 6 partner universities and the Network of Excellence on Land Governance in Africa (NELGA). Within ADLAND context, she has been coordinating and facilitating capacity-building activities, including curricula reviews, refresher courses, research development workshops, digital education and staff exchange, among others, across the entire African continent.