3D City Modelling and Remote Sensing: Advances, Challenges, and New Technologies (Second Edition)

Dear Colleagues,

We are launching the second Special Issue of Remote Sensing, titled “3D City Modelling and Remote Sensing: Advances, Challenges, and New Technologies”.

Today, digital societies are largely dependent on information. However, several tasks in urban and architectural design are undertaken in a geospatial context. Building information models (BIMs) and geospatial technologies offer 3D city models that provide information about buildings and the surrounding environment. A 3D city model is generally defined as a digital representation of the Earth’s surface and the built environment within a city. Using such a model, a variety of applications can be created, including ones that cover the whole city or focus on a specific building model. As models become more detailed, the relationships between the spatial objects have to be modelled.

The recent developments in technology, especially in the restoration and storage of data, have introduced several advantages for the construction of more detailed city models that can be used in different applications. As a result, two domains, BIM and GIS, are moving closer to each other in terms of easier integration and interoperability processes between them. BIM-GIS integration provides a unified view of geospatial information and is seen as the future development of urban planning and smart city applications.

As a result of the increasing demands for integrated views and data standards in urban planning, unified applications have received great amounts of attention at both the national and international levels. At the EU level, different initiatives, such as the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) directive (European Commission—INSPIRE, 2007–2021), have suggested building common geospatial applications for EU countries based on BIM-GIS integration. This has contributed to smart cities having different applications in smart planning, end-to-end solutions, services, management, sustainable practices, outcomes and policy making, emergency, and security, among others. In a smart city ecosystem, the geospatial structure can serve any or all of the above functions.

Research and development in the above-described areas is sought for this Special Issue on “3D City Modelling and Remote Sensing: Advances, Challenges, and New Technologies”. Potential topics include, but are in no way limited to, the following:

• Three-dimensional city modelling;
• BIM-GIS integration;
• Urbanization and settlements;
• The sustainable development of cities;
• Smart cities and regions;
• Different applications of 3D city modelling (e.g., 3D cadastre, crisis management, etc.).

Dr. Mohamed El Mekawy
Dr. Ihab Hamzi Hijazi
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.

• three-dimensional city models
• BIM-GIS integration
• urbanization
• smart cities
• crisis management
• artificial intelligence

• 3D City Modelling and Remote Sensing: Advances, Challenges, and New Technologies in Remote Sensing (9 articles)