Social Sensing of Natural Hazards and Extreme Weather

Dear Colleagues,

It has been 10 years since, in their path breaking work, Sakaki et. al. used Twitter to sense earthquakes and create an advance warning system that outperformed traditional meteorological systems. Since then, the ubiquity of social media has only increased, and previously ‘dark’ countries and regions have become active participants on Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, and other platforms. As well as the growing user base and widening geographic spread, the type of information shared has also changed, with images and video much more common now than 10 years ago. 

This Special Issue is focused on how the incredibly powerful and pervasive network of social sensors can be used to study natural hazards and extreme weather. Case studies on the social sensing of novel hazards or using previously unexplored social media platforms are encouraged. We are also interested in papers on algorithms that enable or improve social sensing methodology, such as location inference (from text or images) or novel software systems, e.g., for disaster response. We strongly encourage the submission of papers focusing on the keywords below, but works on related topics will also be considered.

Dr. Rudy Arthur
Guest Editor

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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Sensors 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.