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Buildings
Special Issues
Advancing Urban Analytics and Sensing for Sustainable Cities
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Advancing Urban Analytics and Sensing for Sustainable Cities

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 January 2026 | Viewed by 362

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Zhewei Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Geography, Geomatics and Environment, University of Toronto Mississauga 3359 Mississauga Road, Mississauga, ON, Canada
Interests: GIScience; urban resilience; human mobility; spatial data analytics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Yue Yu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 999077, China
Interests: urban informatics; seamless positioning and navigation; mobile mapping; geospatial data analytics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Chao Xu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Geosciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA
Interests: GIS; remote sensing; coastal mapping; geospatial big data; geospatial cloud computing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Hanlin Zhou

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Geography, Sustainability, Community, and Urban Studies, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA
Interests: GIS; human behaviors; public health; environmental criminology; geospatial artificial intelligence

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Urban environments are evolving rapidly, driven by technological advancements and growing societal challenges. This Special Issue aims to explore cutting-edge developments in urban analytics and sensing technologies, fostering innovative research that enhances our understanding of cities. We invite contributions from a wide range of disciplines, including, but not limited to, geospatial science, urban informatics, and smart city technologies.

Key topics of interest include leveraging geospatial data and sensing technologies for urban planning, the real-time monitoring of urban dynamics, and addressing pressing issues such as sustainability, social equity, and urban resilience. Submissions may focus on novel methods, such as machine learning, big data analytics, and sensor networks, to analyze urban phenomena. We also welcome case studies demonstrating practical applications in urban mobility, environmental monitoring, and public health.

This Special Issue provides a platform to showcase interdisciplinary research that integrates advanced sensing, data-driven insights, and actionable solutions to create smarter, more sustainable urban environments. By bridging theory and practice, we aim to inspire innovative approaches and cross-disciplinary collaborations for the future of cities.

Dr. Zhewei Liu
Dr. Yue Yu
Dr. Chao Xu
Dr. Hanlin Zhou
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. Buildings 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 2600 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.

Keywords

  • urban analytics
  • geospatial science
  • smart cities
  • urban sensing
  • sustainability

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

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  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
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  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

22 pages, 6925 KB  
Article
Adaptive Urban Heat Mitigation Through Ensemble Learning: Socio-Spatial Modeling and Intervention Analysis
by Wanyun Ling and Liyang Chu
Buildings 2025, 15(21), 3820; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15213820 - 23 Oct 2025
Viewed by 63
Abstract
Urban Heat Islands (UHIs) are intensifying under climate change, exacerbating thermal exposure risks for socially vulnerable populations. While the role of urban environmental features in shaping UHI patterns is well recognized, their differential impacts on diverse social groups remain underexplored—limiting the development of [...] Read more.
Urban Heat Islands (UHIs) are intensifying under climate change, exacerbating thermal exposure risks for socially vulnerable populations. While the role of urban environmental features in shaping UHI patterns is well recognized, their differential impacts on diverse social groups remain underexplored—limiting the development of equitable, context-sensitive mitigation strategies. To address this challenge, we employ an interpretable ensemble machine learning framework to quantify how vegetation, water proximity, and built form influence UHI exposure across social strata and simulate the outcomes of alternative urban interventions. Drawing on data from 1660Dissemination Areas in Vancouver, we model UHI across seasonal and diurnal contexts, integrating environmental variables with socio-demographic indicators to evaluate both thermal and equity outcomes. Our ensemble AutoML framework demonstrates strong predictive accuracy across these contexts (R2 up to 0.79), providing reliable estimates of UHI dynamics. Results reveal that increasing vegetation cover consistently delivers the strongest cooling benefits (up to 2.95 °C) while advancing social equity, though fairness improvements become consistent only when vegetation intensity exceeds 1.3 times the baseline level. Water-related features yield additional cooling of approximately 1.15–1.5 °C, whereas built-form interventions yield trade-offs between cooling efficacy and fairness. Notably, modest reductions in building coverage or road density can meaningfully enhance distributional justice with limited thermal compromise. These findings underscore the importance of tailoring mitigation strategies not only for climatic impact but also for social equity. Our study offers a scalable analytical approach for designing just and effective urban climate adaptations, advancing both environmental sustainability and inclusive urban resilience in the face of intensifying heat risks. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancing Urban Analytics and Sensing for Sustainable Cities)
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