Joep Crompvoets
Professor
KU Leuven - Public Governance Institute
Belgium

Biography
Joep Crompvoets is associate professor at KU Leuven Public Governance Institute (Belgium) and Secretary-General of EuroSDR - a European spatial data research network linking national mapping agencies with research institutes and universities for the purpose of applied research. He has been involved in several projects related to the development of the INSPIRE Directive and SDIs around the world (e.g. Kosovo).

Abstract
Geospatial Convergence in Kosovo

Co-Authors:
Murat Meha, Professor, Kosovo Cadastre Agency
Muzafer Çaka, Head of PCO, Kosovo Cadastre Agency

The Republic of Kosovo is undergoing enormous political, cultural and social transformation. As part of this ongoing transformation of the country, there is increasing recognition of the importance of geospatial information underpinning effective decision making for policy, spatial planning, implementation, and analysis purposes at national and local levels. The Republic of Kosovo is interested to become a member of the European Union. The government of Kosovo has placed a high priority on the integration with the European Directives including the INSPIRE Directive. The Government of Kosovo has recognised the importance of developing a National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). Pursuant the Law on Cadastre No. 04 L/013, article 23, the Kosovo Cadastral Agency (KCA) has given responsibility for its coordination. In order to coordinate and establish a successful NSDI, it is necessary to have a high level plan to achieve one or more goals related to the development of the NSDI. Therefore, KCA initiated the project 'Development of a strategy for National Spatial Data Infrastructure of the Republic of Kosovo' funded by The World Bank as part of the overall project 'Real Estate Cadastre and Registration Project'. The main objective of this NSDI Strategy is to transform the way geospatial data is shared within Kosovo so it may underpin national social and economic development to the benefit of all. An incremental and sustainable implementation is needed so stakeholders move from the current state of disparate GIS systems to an integrated and harmonised infrastructure for sharing geospatial data. The implementation of this strategy is strongly aligned with the CONVERGENCE conference theme as is it addresses the need for greater coordination among policy-makers, technology providers and users to benefit the spatially enabled society of Kosovo, and to highlight geospatial workflows as an enabler by facilitating more informed decision making among the stakeholders. This strategy will be explained and presented in more depth during the conference.