FOSS4GNL at Wageningen Campus
FOSS4GNL 2025, held on July 2–3 in the stunning new Omnia building at Wageningen Campus was another great edition of FOSS4GNL with over 200 participants! Over two days, the Dutch open geospatial community gathered to share breakthroughs, build skills, and have a ridiculously good time.
Workshops in Action
Day one was all about rolling up sleeves and diving into hands-on learning. I had the pleasure of leading two workshops:
WaPlugin: Participants explored how the WaPlugin, a QGIS plugin, unlocks FAO WaPOR satellite data to assess irrigation efficiency and water productivity indicators. You can find the workshop materials at GIS OpenCourseWare.
Mesh Data in QGIS: This workshop introduced participants to QGIS capabilities for visualizing and analyzing mesh datasets—ideal for hydrological models, flood simulations, and time-based layers. You can also find these workshop materials at GIS OpenCourseWare.
Breaking the Ice with GIS Lyrics
After a brain-boosting day, we gathered at Café Daniels for a legendary icebreaker party featuring the one and only MGI band. The band didn't just play hits, they rewrote lyrics with hilarious GIS twists.
Keynotes, Cases & Community
Day two launched with two inspiring keynotes:
Peter de Graaf tackled data sovereignty, shining a spotlight on the importance of local control and stewardship in the open data era.
Prof. Kirsten de Beurs walked us through hercareer, contrasting open-source and proprietary tools.
Then came the presentations, some highlights from me and my (ex) students:
Kausar Hossein (IHE Delft) shared his internship work on detecting dune slacks—a unique coastal ecosystem.
Yonas Asfaha (Blue Arrows and IHE Delft alumnus) showed his use of PCRaster Tools plugin in modeling urban drainage challenges.
I presented Mergin Maps, a sleek field data collection app that syncs effortlessly with QGIS.
In my role as a scientific advisor of the Friedenau Society, I presented together with Amber van de Kerkhof from Climate Adaptation Services (CAS), a new raster dataset that's being produced by Friedenau Society: a detailed 25 cm raster layer with 19 imperviousness classes, vital for water management planning.
From Idea to Plugin: A Community Pathway
To close the conference, Raymond Nijssen, Marco van Antwerpen, and Erik Leemreijze from Provincie Zeeland delivered a riveting keynote on the plugin journey: from idea to practical tool. This sparked great discussions with the participants.
A heartfelt thanks to all organizers, volunteers, and our host Geodesk, Wageningen University. The drinks flowed, the conversations lingered, and the geospatial vibes were strong.