Complexity Research in Earth Sciences and Geography: Recent Progresses

Dear Colleagues,

With global warming accelerating, extreme weather events and natural disasters becoming more frequent, natural resources diminishing, and international conflicts multiplying, humankind has been facing increasingly bigger challenges as time goes on. While many complex phenomena in Earth sciences and geography have played significant roles in the growth of complexity science, it is time to employ select treasured concepts and advanced methodologies from complexity science to systematically study a wide spectrum of problems in Earth sciences and geography. This collection of works is the second of an earlier Special Issue in Applied Science, titled "Advancing Complexity Research in Earth Sciences and Geography", focusing on recent progress in the field. 

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The identification of nonlinear relations in Earth and geographical sciences;
• The spatial–temporal evolution of nonlinear phenomena in Earth and geographical sciences; 
• Emergent behavior in Earth and geographical sciences;
• Complexity science for megacities and urban agglomerations;
• Anomaly detection and precursor recognition in spatial data;
• Complexity in natural hazards;
• Nonlinear dynamics and chaos in Earth systems;
• Complex feedback mechanisms of Earth system science;
• Climate change and human impacts on Earth systems;
• Complex parameterization processes in Earth system models;
• The risk assessment and management of natural hazards;
• Coupled studies of environmental change and socioeconomic systems;
• Complex adaptive systems in geography;
• Climate change feedback loops and tipping points;
• Human–environment interactions and sustainability;
• AI-based new techniques in complexity science.

Prof. Dr. Jianbo Gao
Dr. Yuna Mao
Dr. Wangshu Mu
Guest Editors

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