Equitable Geospatial Intelligence: Spatio-Temporal Perspectives on Social Equity and Well-Being

Dear Colleagues,

Rapid urbanisation, widening socioeconomic inequalities, demographic change, and escalating environmental pressures have intensified the need for data-driven, spatially informed approaches to understanding and improving social equity, human well-being, and justice. Persistent challenges, including health disparities, transport inequities, area deprivation, housing insecurity, environmental injustice, and climate vulnerability, continue to disproportionately affect disadvantaged populations. Addressing these challenges requires analytical frameworks capable of capturing the complex and dynamic interactions between people, place, and time.

Recent advances in geospatial data collection and artificial intelligence are transforming our ability to observe and understand these interactions. Emerging data sources, including mobile phone and GPS trajectories, street-view imagery, electronic health records (EHRs), IoT sensor networks, social media, Earth observation data, and individual-level administrative records, provide unprecedented opportunities to characterise human activities, environmental exposures, and lived experiences at fine spatial and temporal scales. Combined with developments in GeoAI and SpaceTimeAI, these data enable researchers and policymakers to move beyond static representations of inequality towards dynamic, context-aware assessments of where inequities emerge, how they evolve, who is affected, and what interventions may promote more equitable and resilient communities.

This Special Issue seeks original research that uses GeoAI to understand, measure, and address different forms of spatial and social inequality, thereby advancing social equity, human well-being, and justice across space and time.  Contributions are invited on the following topics, including but not limited to:

-  SpaceTimeAI for equity intelligence: Novel methods leveraging emerging geospatial data sources to monitor, measure, and predict inequalities in well-being across space and time.

- Health equity and population well-being:  Geospatial modelling of health disparities, disease surveillance, mental health, healthcare accessibility, and pandemic preparedness, with particular attention to vulnerable and underserved populations.

- Transport justice and accessibility: AI-driven analyses of mobility, accessibility, active travel, public transport provision, and mobility disadvantage across different social groups and places.

- Socioeconomic inequality and urban change: Spatio-temporal analyses of area deprivation, housing affordability, gentrification, segregation, social exclusion, and the geography of opportunity.

- Environmental justice and climate resilience: Applications of GeoAI to green space accessibility, air pollution exposure, urban heat, climate vulnerability, disaster risk, and the resilience of marginalised communities.

- Responsible and equitable geospatial intelligence: Fairness-aware GeoAI, explainable and trustworthy geospatial AI, privacy-preserving analytics, bias detection and mitigation, and participatory approaches that support inclusive governance and evidence-based policymaking.

Both methodological contributions and applied case studies from diverse geographic, cultural, and socioeconomic contexts are encouraged. Interdisciplinary research that bridges geospatial science, artificial intelligence, public health, transport studies, urban analytics, environmental science, and social policy is particularly welcome.

Prof. Dr. Tao Cheng
Prof. Dr. John P. Wilson
Dr. Xianghui Zhang
Dr. Mengya Xu
Dr. Xiao Li
Dr. Stephen Law
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 1900 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.