Mila Koeva is a Vice Dean Research and senior Associate Professor (ius promovendi) in "Geospatial digital twins for 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 co-development of innovative methods for land management and urban planning including 3D modelling and Digital Twins (SPSS/SDSS, LDT, Gaming) in support of resource management and decision-making. 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 Jordan, China, 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, Co-founder of TwinLink,  part of the Board of Comission IV ISPRS, 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. 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. Awards and recognition: In June 2026 the group she was leading WG ISPRS on Digital Twins got awarded from Comission IV for best achievements. In July 2026 she was ranked as the top teacher of the year and in March 2017 she was 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.