Dear Colleagues,

Global urban areas have been rapidly expanding in recent decades, especially in developing countries. The urbanization rate has been projected to reach 60% by 2030. Urban expansion inevitably leads to conversion of natural and semi-natural ecosystems into impervious surfaces, and thus becomes the most widespread anthropogenic cause of increased urban environmental degradation. Rapid urbanization, along with manufacturing industries and the large number of vehicles, has resulted in serious environmental problems termed “urban diseases”, and include increased vulnerability to natural hazards, natural vegetation cover decline and arable land loss, urban heat islands, air pollution, hydrological circle alteration, and biotic homogenization. Although urban land covers only less than 3% of the global terrestrial surface, their marked effects on environmental conditions is becoming increasingly serious. Since urban ecosystems are strongly influenced by anthropogenic activities, a considerable amount of research has been conducted all around the world to understand the spatial patterns, driving forces, and ecological and social consequences of urbanization. This is crucial not only for characterizing the ecological consequences of urbanization but also for developing effective economic, social, and environmental policies in order to mitigate its adverse impacts.

Remote sensing has been widely used for investigating the urban environment and its associated drivers during the urbanization process, as it can quickly and frequently monitor large area surface change with lower cost compared to field survey or in situ measurements. Digital archives of remotely sensed data provide an excellent opportunity to study historical urban changes and to relate their spatiotemporal patterns to environmental and human factors. With the rapid development of Earth observation techniques, it has become convenient to obtain a large number of remotely sensed images over a certain area, taken at different times and from hundreds of Earth observation platforms. However, this brings challenges to researchers with regard to the timely processing of remote sensing big data as well as the rapid transformation of this data into information and knowledge.

In consideration of these points, this Special Issue of Sensors aims to present novel studies exploiting remote sensing big data to monitor and improve the urban environment, in addition to showing the potential of remote sensing in developing sustainable cities. This includes coverage of the following topics:

(1) Urban remote sensing big data

(2) Remote sensing information interpretation

(3) Urban expansion, land use/land cover dynamics, and associated environmental consequences

(4) Remote sensing of urban water quality

(5) Remote sensing of urban thermal environment

(6) Remote sensing of urban geological environment

Prof. Dr. Zhenfeng Shao
Prof. emer John L. van Genderen
Dr. Cheng Zhong
Dr. Neema S. Sumari
Guest Editors

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• urban remote sensing
• urban big data
• urban environment
• urban expansion
• urban water quality
• urban thermal environment
• urban geological environment