Geographical Information Systems and Spatial Analysis in Agriculture and Environment

Dear Colleagues,

Geographic information systems are digital systems for assessing spatial variation, which have been combined with the evolution of new technologies for data collection—UAV drones, digital cameras, satellite data, sensors, etc.—and transmitted through IoT (Internet of Things) technologies, and their increasing use through the internet. Their capabilities provide significant impetus for solving and confronting contemporary issues faced by the agricultural sector, as well as in ensuring environmental sustainability. New innovative sensors carried on earth observation instruments, tractors and field measuring devices are constantly collecting high-resolution, multitemporal and multispectral data, which supplement and integrate the data collected with more traditional approaches. GIS and other technologies shape these data into information which is accessible and interpretable by farmers and land managers to make efficient and informed decisions. At the same time, geospatial analyses of the human impact on the environment are crucial for a better understanding of the underlying relationships and processes. GIS and advanced earth observation methodologies are paving the way towards a better understanding of ecological and environmental interactions, identifying early indicators of environmental degradation and improving our capacity for risk assessment, timely forecasts and responses. Every year brings considerable progress in GIS, spatial analysis and earth observation technologies and methodologies in agriculture and the environment.

This Special Issue will summarize the contemporary progress and achievements in geomatics, highlight the recent advancements, and present applications in a wide spectrum of topics related to GIS and geospatial analysis in agriculture and environment. It has been coordinated with the 4th Congress of Geographical Information Systems and Spatial Analysis in Agriculture and Environment, and it includes selected papers from this conference, but also welcomes other papers that align with its topics:

Specifically, the Special Issue focuses on topics including, but not limited to, GIS, earth observation and spatial analysis applications such as geoinformatics and geospatial technologies, web-GIS, satellite data, GNSS and GPS, IoT, land information systems, spatial exploratory data analysis, spatial statistical models, spatial interpolation, geostatistics, neural networks and AI, and the use of cloud services for the management of large volumes of spatial data, in the following topics:

• Land suitability classification;
• Soil resources protection, land assessment, and land use planning;
• Water resources analysis, planning, and management;
• Ecosystem protection, restoration and management;
• Forests evaluation and management;
• Natural hazards, geohazards—natural disasters (floods, droughts, fires, landslides, etc.);
• Spatial digital management of farms and agricultural holdings;
• Precision agriculture, smart farming, and data collection via spatial digital technologies;
• Agricultural production and of agricultural ecosystems monitoring;
• Crop protection, pest and diseases management;
• Weeds—invasive species;
• Soil nutrients and fertility management;
• Sustainable fisheries through the application of contemporary geospatial technologies;
• Livestock and pasture management.

Prof. Dr. Dionissios Kalivas
Dr. Konstantinos X. Soulis
Dr. Emmanouil Psomiadis
Guest Editors

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. Geomatics 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 1200 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.