Blaise Nkubiyaho

I am an Urban Planner and GIS Specialist trained in the Netherlands, Estonia, and Turkey.

I have contributed to urban planning, geospatial analysis, and sustainable mobility projects with UN-Habitat (Kenya), KoPlac (Czech Republic), and GIZ (Germany).

My current PhD research sits at the intersection of urban planning and spatial data analytics, applying geospatial methods to support evidence-based planning and policy. I explore complex systems thinking across urban planning, mobility, and food systems, examining how these systems interact to shape and constrain spatially just and inclusive development outcomes.

I am fluent in English, French, Turkish, and Kinyarwanda, and I am open to connecting across disciplines and sectors, working toward sustainable development.

Integrated Urban Transport Planning | World Bank Group-Open Learning Campus

• World Conference on Transport Research Society (WCTRS) | Topic Area: Transport, Land Use and Sustainability | Special Interest Group: Transport and Spatial Development.
• Planning for Land Use Planning and Sustainable Transportation | Association for European Transport (AET).
• Student Membership | American Planning Association.
• Academy of Architecture and Urban Studies (TalTech)

• Erasmus Mundus Scholarship | Award value: 48,000 USD | August 2022 - August 2024
• Turkish Government Scholarship | Award value: 20,000 USD | August 2017 - July 2022
• Holland Busathon Entrepreneurial Ideation | Award value:150 USD | August 2023
• Department's Salutatorian Award |100 USD | July 2022
• Winner of the 4th Rwandan Science Competition | Award value: 200 USD | October 2014

• Research Ethics | Dr. Fran Meissner | University of Twente | September 2023
• Why is sustainable mobility so hard? Some observations on the paths forward | Prof. Harvey Miller, Center for Urban and Regional Analysis, Ohio State University | April 2023
• Policy for successful bike share in cities big and small: Helsinki vs. Tartu | Karl Erik Thuber Saidla, Research Fellow in Sustainable Transportation, | February 2023
• Geospatial methods and analysis applied to monitoring/intervention of mental health disorders| Assoc. Prof. Carlos Granell, Universitat Jaume I of Castellón, Spain | March 2023
• How to visualize data in thesis? | Jānis Zālīte, PhD Student, University of Tartu | February 2023

• President of Erciyes University African Students Association (EASA) | May 2021- July 2022
• Vice Coordinator of Rwandan Community Abroad-Turkey | February 2021 - February 2022
• Vice President in Charge of Academics and Research | Erciyes University African Students Association (EASA) | September 2019 - May 2021
• Representative of Rwandan Community in Kayseri City, Turkey | February 2020 - February 2021
• General Secretary of Horizon Africa | Kayseri City, Turkey | October 2019 - September 2021

Master's Thesis

• Towards improved public transport in developing cities: Stakeholders’ perspectives on Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) planning support tool in Kigali City, Rwanda.

Bachelor's Thesis

• Accessibility and Co-living: A Case study of Bunyan District, Kayseri City, Turkey.

• Just Mobility: The project aimed to make mobility data accessible to stakeholders in Global South countries, supporting their transition to more sustainable transport modes, including e-mobility, active mobility, and public transport. I contributed to this goal at the Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative (TUMI) of the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) by collecting, ensuring the quality of public transport data, and uploading it to the TUMI Data Hub for public access.
• Eurovelo Project: EuroVelo is a network of long-distance cycling routes across Europe that aims to promote sustainable travel and cycle tourism. During my 2023 summer internship in Brno, Czech Republic, I digitized cycling routes for the segment in France.
• European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF Africa): This project aimed to transform refugee and host communities into permanent and integrated settlements in Kakuma and Dadaab, Kenya. I supported the Humanitarian Development Practice Team at UN-Habitat by managing data for this project, collecting and analyzing survey data from local authorities and communities, and drafting and proofreading the project's initial phase report. The report was published by UNHCR in October 2023.

Conference Presentations

• Nkubiyaho, B., Partanen, J., & Mozaffaree Pour, N. (2026, September 22–25). Rethinking food accessibility: A systems-based framework for food-oriented development in Tallinn, Estonia [Conference presentation]. AESOP Young Academic PhD Workshop 2026, Drosendorf, Austria.

• Nkubiyaho, B., Partanen, J., & Mozaffaree Pour, N. (2026, June 9–11). Rethinking food access in 15-minute cities: The role of pedestrian network hierarchy in Tallinn, Estonia [Poster presentation]. Space, Technology and Environment – An Interdisciplinary Dialogue, Türi, Estonia.

• Nkubiyaho, B., Partanen, J., & Mozaffaree Pour, N. (2026, May 10–11). Spatial analytics of urban food and sustainable mobility systems: A case study of Tallinn, Estonia [Conference presentation]. Geoinformatics Research Day Conference, Helsinki, Finland.

• Nkubiyaho, B., Partanen, J., & Mozaffaree Pour, N. (2026, April 8–11). Spatial interdependencies between urban food and sustainable mobility systems: Towards a food-oriented development framework for Tallinn, Estonia [Conference presentation]. International Conference on Urban e-Planning, Lisbon, Portugal.