Urban Environment Mapping Using GIS

Dear Colleagues,

Space-borne and air-borne remote sensing represent a major source of urban data, still underexploited to some extent. One of the main causes for such underuse is likely to reside in the difficulties involved in correcting, analyzing and interpreting data produced on urban areas. Indeed, despite having a clear, distinct informative sense to the human being, they probably represent the most inhomogeneous type of land cover on the Earth surface, both in spectral and in spatial terms. Yet, it is crucial to keep them monitored, as urban areas host an increasing fraction of Earth’s inhabitants, consume an increasing fraction of the total resources, and the weight of urban processes in determining the future evolution of the planet is also steadily increasing. Recent years have seen a progressive integration of remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) technology in urban and regional mapping and monitoring, as a means to combine their respective strengths and build a clearer picture of the situation and trends of urban environments. This convergence is complemented by an increasing involvement of citizens in the process of collecting and sharing geospatial data and information on urban areas, as well as in decisional processes regarding their management; given the potential personal nature of the data contributed, this involvement also raises privacy and security issues.

In the context outlined above, this Special Issue is devoted to providing an overview of remote sensing and GIS research in their applications to urban areas, as well as to exploring future trends of concepts, methods, implementations, validations, and applications. We call for original papers from researchers around the world that focus on one or more of the topics introduced above, including citizen participation processes and related data management and processing issues. Manuscripts describing research results, as well as methods and applications related to all types of remote sensing, GIS, WebGIS, citizen involvement in the context of urban areas, are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Fabio Dell'Acqua
Guest Editor

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