Rita Nicolau is a principal investigator at DGT (Directorate-General for Territory) and research collaborator of CiTUA (Center for Innovation in Territory, Urbanism, and Architecture of the Lisbon University). Her background is in environmental engineering (undergraduate in 1996 and PhD in 2002, by New University of Lisbon) and operational research and systems engineering (Master by Lisbon University in 1994). She is a GIS specialist accredited by the Portuguese Engineers Order. Until 2002, she worked at the National Centre for Geographic Information (CNIG) in the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (SNIG) implementation, mainly through the standardisation of metadata and the structuring and analysis of geographic information. During 2003-2006, she lectured courses on GIS, standards for geographic data, land use planning and cadastre, and statistics at the University of Coimbra. From 2006 to 2010, she was a researcher at the National Institute of Health Doutor Ricardo Jorge (INSA), participating in projects concerned with the spatial analysis of mortality and morbidity and their determinants, smoking habits characterisation, and assessment of the impact of atmospheric pollution on human health. Since 2011, at DGT, she has participated in research projects that have entailed the analysis of urban systems, the identification and delineation of settlements and built-up structures, the delimitation of rural-urban interfaces, the assessment of changes in land use, and the creation of indicators for monitoring sustainable urban development and spatial planning in general. Her current research relates to land consumption for urban development (land take, soil sealing, developed land recycling and re-naturalisation).