RS and GIS for Monitoring and Enhancing the Resilience of Urban Environments

Dear Colleagues,

The shift from rural to urban living and the growth in the world’s population are rapidly increasing population density in cities. In fact, the “World Urbanization Prospects” of the UN states that in 2050, almost 70% of people globally will live in urban areas. In the coming years, among other factors, these phenomena will translate into growing pressures with repercussions on urban assets (e.g., infrastructures, buildings, and cultural heritage) and on the people themselves (e.g., citizens and tourists). This urban heritage will be subject to natural risks and threats related to climate change, as well as human pressure; however, it will be even more important to ensure an increase in resilience by guaranteeing an adequate level of liveability for the growing numbers of people.

In this context, the continuous development of GIS analysis and remote sensing techniques (from ground sensors to satellites) will help us to control and monitor physical quantities to be used as a proxy, as well as to assess the induced effects, to solicit and support interventions by decision makers.

This Special Issue aims to collect articles with case studies and methodological studies to cover the different fields in which GIS analysis, remote sensing techniques, and spatial decision support systems can find application in the urban environment. Topics may include the monitoring of urban heritage subject to natural hazards and threats related to climate change, as well as those induced by human activities. The following a list of more potential topics:

• The effects of air pollution on people and building materials;
• The effects of urban heat islands on people;
• Protection of the built environment against seismic risk;
• The monitoring of cultural assets subjected to anthropic activities;
• GIS approaches and platforms for monitoring critical infrastructure/assets in urban areas;
• Remote sensing applications in urban environments;
• Damage assessment and loss estimation.

Dr. Antonio Costanzo
Dr. Sonia Giovinazzi
Dr. Maurizio Pollino
Dr. Deodato Tapete
Dr. Antonio Montuori
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• GIS approaches and platform
• satellite monitoring
• proximal remote sensing
• monitoring critical infrastructure\assets
• protection of built environment against urban risks
• remote sensing applied to damage assessment