International Workshop on Cadastre Integration, Natural Resources Valuation and Resilient Planning in Cities

China provides an illustrative example of leveraging integrated land information for climate-sensitive urban development. The country's ecological civilization aspiration marks a crucial shift from resource-intensive growth to a model focused on green, high-quality urbanization. Cities are tasked not only with maintaining growth and improving living standards but also with reducing pollution and energy consumption, conserving resources, and enhancing climate and disaster resilience.

Since 2013, China has worked to integrate its land, buildings, forests, grassland, wetlands, farmland, waterbody, and marine records. This integration supports the creation of comprehensive balance sheets for natural resources, providing trackable data for government authorities, including municipalities. In 2020, the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) launched a plan to develop a Natural Resources Valuation and Monitoring System, which is now being piloted in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, and Zhuhai, Guangdong Province. The system integrates with the Valuation System for Construction Land, which has already been implemented in 105 cities.

The study on "Cadastre Integration, Natural Resources Valuation and Urban Resilience Assessment in Cities" is an important part of the "Low Carbon, Resilient and Nature Positive Urban Development" advisory and analytical project. The World Bank partners with the Ministry of Natural Resources and aims to provide technical assistance and international peer-to-peer learning to China in land records integration and natural resource valuation and their application to green, low-carbon, and resilient spatial planning.

This international workshop will present the latest findings regarding successes, challenges, and lessons learned from seven countries: Canada, China, Finland, Korea, the Netherlands, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. The workshop aims to provide a platform for knowledge sharing, focusing on the topics of natural resource valuation and cadaster integration. Furthermore, the workshop will help refine the research focus of the project.

Note: Each 30-min case study session will feature a presentation, followed by Q&A. Simultaneous English-Mandarin translation will be available.

• Francois Soulard

  Natural Capital Accounting Consultant; Former Research Manager for the "Census of Environment" Program at Statistics Canada

  François Soulard is a natural capital accounting expert, with over 20 years of experience in the domain. During this time, he led key environmental statistics initiatives at Statistics Canada. He spearheaded the novel Census of Environment as Research Manager, and coordinated major projects like the Canada-China Environmental Accounting Cooperation Program (SIMP II) and the Measuring Ecosystems Goods and Services (MEGS) project; as well, François headed StatCan's involvement in the Convention on Biological Diversity Global Biodiversity Framework (CBD GBF) and was responsible for Statistics Canada's environmental flagship publication 'Human Activity and the Environment'. François also actively participated in the development of the United Nations' System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA). Since leaving StatCan earlier this year, François has been working as a consultant with the World Bank Group in several countries to support the development of environmental accounts and statistics programs. A Commonwealth Scholar, he holds a Ph.D. from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

• Dong Kyu Kwak

  Senior Land Administration Specialist, World Bank

  Dong Kyu Kwak is a Senior Land Administration Specialist with the Urban, Resilience, and Land Global Practice at the World Bank Group. He has over 20 years of professional experience in cadastral surveys, mapping, geospatial analysis, drone operations, and ICT development, ranging from data acquisition to practical service implementation. He has provided technical support and project management for a cost-effective approach to improving land tenure security since he joined the Bank in 2016. He has worked for land administration and geospatial information management in various countries and regions, including East Asia, South Asia, and West Africa.

• Zhai Guofang

  Professor, Director of Centre for Urban Safety and Development, Nanjing University

  Professor Zhai is the Director of Centre for Urban Safety and Development, School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Nanjing University. He is also an expert in the formulation of national spatial planning (2021-2035) of MNR of China and a member of the National Board of Urban Planning Accreditation of China. Prof. Zhai specializes in resilient city planning. He has published more than 400 academic papers and books.

• Mika-Petteri Torhonen

  Lead Land Administration Specialist, World Bank

  Mr. Mika-Petteri Torhonen is the World Bank's Global Lead on Land based in Singapore. The World Bank operates a 4,3-billion-dollar portfolio of land investments and some 40 analytical and technical assistance projects and has recently announced a Global Program for Land Tenure Security and Access to Land for Climate Goals, which Mika leads. He is a land surveyor with over 30 years of global work experience in tenure security, access to land, and sustainable land registration. His current focus centers on climate change and includes digitalization of land and urban systems, property and natural resources valuation, and public lands monetization. Mika is a Finnish National and holds a Doctor of Science Degree from the Helsinki University of Technology.

• Sing Tien Foo

  Provost's Chair Professor, Department of Real Estate, National University of Singapore

  Tien Foo is the Provost's Chair Professor at the National University of Singapore's Department of Real Estate. He has been serving on the Management Board of the Institute of Real Estate and Urban Studies (IREUS) since January 2023. He was previously the Director of IREUS (2017-2022), Head of the Department of Real Estate (2020-2022) at NUS, and the President of the Asian Real Estate Society (AsRES) (2019-2021). Tien Foo serves on the Boards of AsRES (since 2000) and the Global Chinese Real Estate Congress (GCREC) (since 2008).

  Tien Foo has been the Editor of the International Real Estate Review (IRER) since 2020 - an official journal of AsRES and GCREC. He is the Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC) Fellow (2024-2026), a Fellow of the Asian Real Estate Society (AsRES) (since July 2024), and a Post-doctoral Honoree (2012) and Fellow (2017) of the US-based Weimer School of Advanced Studies in Real Estate and Land Economics, the Homer Hoyt Institute.

  Tien Foo serves on the Panel of Assessors of the Appeal Board (Land Acquisition), Ministry of Law, Singapore (since 2010), the Valuation Review Board, Ministry of Finance (2019-2025), and the Requisition of Resources Compensation Board (RORCB). He was a Member of the Professional Development Committee (formerly known as Examination and Professional Development Committee) of the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA), Ministry of National Development (2014-2018). He serves on the Singapore Chapter Board and Singapore Advocacy Committee of Asia Pacific Real Estate Association (APREA) (since 2021). He is the Honorary Advisor of the PropTech Association of Singapore (SPTA) (since 2018) and the Singapore Estate Agencies Association (SEAA) (since 2019). Tien Foo is a member of the Fair Tenancy Industry Pro-Tem Committee and the Chair of the Rental Data Transparency Subcommittee (2020-2021).

  Tien Foo holds a Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Philosophy in Land Economy from the University of Cambridge, U.K., and a Bachelor of Science with 1st Class Honors in Estate Management from NUS.

• L. Roman Carrasco

  Associate Professor and Deputy Head, Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore

  Roman completed his PhD in spatial bioeconomic modeling at Imperial College London in 2010 and joined the Department of Statistics and Applied Probability of NUS as a research fellow. In 2012, Roman joined the Department of Biological Sciences of NUS as an Assistant Professor. He was appointed Associate Professor in 2019. Roman develops spatial models that combine ecology and economics to identify sustainable solutions that reconcile economic development with biodiversity conservation.

  Roman is the handling editor in the journals Conservation Letters, Conservation Biology, People and Nature, and Conservation Science and Practice. Roman acted as the scientific program coordinator of the main biannual meeting of the Society of Conservation Biology in 2019. He has given over 50 invited talks and published over 120 research articles. He has published in journals such as Nature Sustainability, Nature Communications, Science Advances, PLOS Biology, and PNAS, with his research frequently covered by international media.

  Roman helps coordinate the MSc in Biodiversity Conservation and Nature-based Climate Solutions and acts as Deputy Head of Graduate Matters in the Department of Biological Sciences.

• Natasha Bhatia

  Senior Lecturer, Asian School of the Environment (ASE); Assistant Dean (Academic), College of Science, Nanyang Technological University

  Dr. Natasha Bhatia is a Senior Lecturer and environmental socio-economist at the Asian School of the Environment, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her research focuses on marine and coastal ecosystem service assessment and quantification, especially for non-material benefits such as the cultural services society gains from natural systems. This information can then be used by decision makers for management and planning policies.

• Leena Kopperoinen

  Senior research Scientist, Finnish Environment Institute SYKE

  Senior Researcher Leena Kopperoinen, with background in geography and environmental sciences, has 33 years of working experience in environmental issues. She carries out research on green infrastructure and ecosystem services with a special focus on urban regions. Her main interest is to develop GIS-based methodologies to enhance sustainable land use planning in different scales and human well-being by building on the services provided by nature. In addition, she has special interest in participatory methods and co-creation of knowledge jointly by researchers, practitioners, and citizens. She has participated and is also currently involved in several international research projects, mostly as a Task or Work package leader: European Union funded projects DRYvER - Securing biodiversity, functional integrity and ecosystem services in drying river networks, BioAgora - Biodiversity Knowledge Agora: Developing the Science Service for European Research and Biodiversity Policymaking, BIONEXT - The Biodiversity Nexus: transformative change for sustainability, SELINA - Science for evidence-based and sustainable decisions about natural capital, BiNatUr - Bringing nature back - biodiversity-friendly nature-based solutions in cities and Priodiversity - Prioritized actions for promoting biodiversity targets in Finland.

  In addition, Leena is involved in the European Topic Centre on Ecosystems and Biodiversity. She has also led several national research projects related to practical spatial planning processes both in regional and local level and has carried out research also specifically related to the biophysical and social valuation of cultural ecosystem services. During the past years these projects have focused on developing municipal ecosystem accounting Kopperoinen is an expert in working in transdisciplinary science-practice interface and using different methods of stakeholder involvement in research. Her publications can be found at:

  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1672-6087

  https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Leena-Kopperoinen

  https://scholar.google.fi/citations?user=E6hgxfwAAAAJ&hl=en

• Krista Patrick

  Natural Capital Coordinator, Greater Manchester Combined Authority

  Krista has over 25 years of experience working as an environmental planner in the public, private, and community sectors and joined the Greater Manchester Combined Authority as a Natural Capital Coordinator in 2016. In this role, Krista provided strategic support on delivering a natural capital approach as part of the Natural Course EU LIFE Integrated Project and the Greater Manchester Natural Capital Group. Current projects include the development of an Environment Fund for Greater Manchester; delivery of biodiversity net gain and natural environment priorities set out in the Greater Manchester 5-Year Environment Plan; promoting the work being delivered across Greater Manchester to manage the natural environment as part of a coordinated communications campaign.

• Christelle van den Berg

  Regional Manager, Kadaster International

  Mrs. Van den Berg is the regional manager for Kadaster International, where she plays a pivotal role in extending the organization's expertise to countries undergoing land administration development. Her work involves close collaboration with ministries, embassies, universities, global businesses, and financial partners.

  In her position, she manages expert teams across multiple countries and actively participates on the board of the National Land Administration Modernization Program in Benin. Mrs. Van den Berg is a prominent representative of Kadaster on both national and international platforms, including the International Federation of Surveyors.

  Additionally, she serves as a board member of the Dutch Professional Association for Geo-Information. Mrs. Van den Berg holds a Master's degree in Forestry and Nature Management. From 2010 to 2016, she was a member of both local and provincial parliaments in the Netherlands, where she was a spokesperson for the new Environmental Act.