Alexander Kmoch from the WaterSmartLand team presented “Efficient Neighbourhood Computation and Cloud-Native Storage for the IGEO7 DGGS Using the Z7 GBT Indexing” at FOSS4G Europe 2026, held in Timișoara, Romania, from 29 June to 3 July 2026. FOSS4G Europe brings together the European open-source geospatial community to share new developments in geospatial software, open data and reproducible spatial analysis.
The presentation introduced recent developments in the IGEO7 Discrete Global Grid System (DGGS), focusing on efficient neighbourhood calculations and cloud-native storage of large geospatial datasets. The work contributes to building a scalable, reproducible and open geospatial data infrastructure for WaterSmartLand. Developing such solutions with open-source technologies is also increasingly important for European digital sovereignty, as it reduces dependence on proprietary technologies, supports interoperability and reuse, and allows research infrastructures and their underlying methods to remain transparent and accessible. These principles are also central to the EU’s new Open Source Strategy, which places open-source technologies at the heart of strengthening Europe’s technological sovereignty.
By contributing these developments back to the open-source geospatial community through FOSS4G, WaterSmartLand supports not only better environmental modelling, but also a more open and resilient European geospatial ecosystem.
