Geotechnology in Urban Landscape Studies

A special issue of Urban Science (ISSN 2413-8851).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2026 | Viewed by 540

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Geoinformation and Environmental Remote Sensing, Faculty of Earth Sciences and Spatial Management, Nicolaus Copernicus University, 87-100 Torun, Poland
Interests: geotechnology; geoinformation; GIS; remote sensing; UAV; landscape ecology; LULC; urban environment; city pollution; light pollution

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Due to ongoing changes in land cover/land use, global urbanization, and suburbanization, the urban landscape covers increasingly large areas adjacent to built-up and natural areas, often becoming the dominant landscape. It is a place of simultaneous interaction of many factors, the occurrence of frequently contradictory processes or phenomena of different geneses, scales, and effects, and it is often the object of decisions by different decision-making groups. Nowadays, the urban landscape has a communal meaning, and its space is a place of disputes, conflicts, and compromises on the condition that reliable and spatially based results of interdisciplinary and multidirectional research are provided.

Geotechnology, in conjunction with up-to-date tools and methods for the acquisition, processing, analysis, and visualization of data and results, offers new opportunities for the understanding of changes in the urban landscape, the determination of the directions of these changes, as well as the assessment of their sustainability, mitigation, and adaptation, or the study of the interdependence of selected components of the urban environment. Geotechnology helps us to understand processes and phenomena in the urban matrix, interpret and explain spatial phenomena, and provide detailed findings on individual components of the urban environment to make the most optimal decisions at different levels of its organization and to build different development scenarios.

This Special Issue focuses on integrating geographic information systems (GISs) and remote sensing (RS) to study sustainable practices occurring in urbanized areas. It highlights how geotechnology can improve the understanding, management, development and conservation of the urban environment.

I encourage representatives from different disciplines, specialties, or approaches to conduct targeted research on cities, suburbs, or broadly defined urbanized areas using geo-information and geo-informatics tools, remote sensing methods, analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.

The aim of this Special Issue is to show how GIS technology or innovative geotechnological solutions can be used to support and sustainably develop urban landscapes. It will complement the existing literature by introducing new applications, providing detailed case studies, and highlighting interdisciplinary approaches and different viewpoints.

Prof. Dr. Mieczyslaw Kunz
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • geographical information systems (GISs)
  • GIS modelling
  • GeoAI
  • remote sensing imagery
  • unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
  • geotechnology
  • land use/cover changes
  • 2D/3D visualization
  • ecosystem processes
  • ecosystem services
  • urban ecology
  • urban processes
  • urban studies
  • sustainable management
  • temporal and multitemporal analysis
  • spatial analysis
  • sustainability
  • environmental monitoring
  • environmental quality
  • environment modelling
  • smart city
  • smart environment
  • urban pollution
  • light pollution
  • heat island
  • city vegetation
  • protected areas

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

20 pages, 3263 KiB  
Article
Land Cover Transformations and Thermal Responses in Representative North African Oases from 2000 to 2023
by Tallal Abdel Karim Bouzir, Djihed Berkouk, Safieddine Ounis, Sami Melik, Noradila Rusli and Mohammed M. Gomaa
Urban Sci. 2025, 9(7), 282; https://doi.org/10.3390/urbansci9070282 - 18 Jul 2025
Viewed by 313
Abstract
Oases in arid regions are critical ecosystems, providing essential ecological, agricultural, and socio-economic functions. However, urbanization and climate change increasingly threaten their sustainability. This study examines land cover (LULC) and land surface temperature (LST) dynamics in four representative North African oases: Tolga (Algeria), [...] Read more.
Oases in arid regions are critical ecosystems, providing essential ecological, agricultural, and socio-economic functions. However, urbanization and climate change increasingly threaten their sustainability. This study examines land cover (LULC) and land surface temperature (LST) dynamics in four representative North African oases: Tolga (Algeria), Nefta (Tunisia), Ghadames (Libya), and Siwa (Egypt) over the period 2000–2023, using Landsat satellite imagery. A three-step analysis was employed: calculation of NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), NDBI (Normalized Difference Built-up Index), and LST, followed by supervised land cover classification and statistical tests to examine the relationships between the studied variables. The results reveal substantial reductions in bare soil (e.g., 48.10% in Siwa) and notable urban expansion (e.g., 136.01% in Siwa and 48.46% in Ghadames). Vegetation exhibited varied trends, with a slight decline in Tolga (0.26%) and a significant increase in Siwa (+27.17%). LST trends strongly correlated with land cover changes, demonstrating increased temperatures in urbanized areas and moderated temperatures in vegetated zones. Notably, this study highlights that traditional urban designs integrated with dense palm groves significantly mitigate thermal stress, achieving lower LST compared to modern urban expansions characterized by sparse, heat-absorbing surfaces. In contrast, areas dominated by fragmented vegetation or seasonal crops exhibited reduced cooling capacity, underscoring the critical role of vegetation type, spatial arrangement, and urban morphology in regulating oasis microclimates. Preserving palm groves, which are increasingly vulnerable to heat-driven pests, diseases and the introduction of exotic species grown for profit, together with a revival of the traditional compact urban fabric that provides shade and has been empirically confirmed by other oasis studies to moderate the microclimate more effectively than recent low-density extensions, will maintain the crucial synergy between buildings and vegetation, enhance the cooling capacity of these settlements, and safeguard their tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Geotechnology in Urban Landscape Studies)
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