Observation for Resilient Cities and Human Settlements: Theory, Algorithms and Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Humanity is moving into a new era of sustainable, inclusive, and resilient cities. However, cities and settlements worldwide are suffering from serious consequences due to both rapid urbanization and climate change, including accelerating urban sprawl, increasing flood threat, intensifying heat island effect, and rising disaster risk. Therefore, it is essential to address the state-of-the-art research issues on interactions among urbanization, land system change, ecosystem services, and climate systems within and beyond cities as a cross-discipline. Resilient cities and human settlements were recognized as a fourth engagement priority in the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) WEEK 2021, and have become a key research topic for both achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the UN New Urban Agenda (NUA). The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report AR6 from the Working Group I states that the combination of future urbanization and increasingly frequent extreme climate events such as heatwaves, with more hot days and warm nights, will have significant implications for heat stress in cities. In this situation, how to achieve the grand goals for sustainable, comfortable, and resilient cities, and how to provide solutions for climate adaptation are pivotal in future urban construction and development.

The synthesized observation, modelling, and assessment of multi-elements or dimensions with the interaction among urbanization, land, ecosystems, and climate systems, and their sustainable and resilient solutions or regulating pathways should be engaged as soon as possible from local to regional and global scales toward 2035/2050 or 2100. This Special Issue encourages submissions associated with the theories, algorithms, and applications in the observation of resilient cities and human settlements. We welcome manuscripts from the global research community actively involved in this session, wishing to improve urban resilience and promote urban sustainability. The potential topics include but are not limited to:

1. Scientific theory and knowledge mining for resilient cities and human settlements and their assessment indicator systems.
2. Novel models and synthesized algorithms for satellite observation, both ecosystem and climate simulation for resilient cities building from local to regional and global scales.
3. Solutions for resilient cities or strategies for climate adaptation associated with Nature-based solutions (NBSs), urban green infrastructure (UGI), and others.
4. Practical and application cases as pioneers from megacities, cities, or towns guided by resilient cities or climate adaptation globally.

The fifth Asia-Oceania Group on Earth Observations (AOGEO) Workshop (https://aogeo-workshop-2022.casconf.cn/page/1531810927035420672) will be held on 15-17 June 2022 in online format. The Workshop will focus on the development of IPS activities, cases and technical advances for addressing "Urban Resilience and Human Settlements", emerging technical exchange and practice from youth, efforts of capacity building.

Prof. Dr. Wenhui Kuang
Dr. Rafiq Hamdi
Prof. Dr. Yuhai Bao
Dr. Yinyin Dou
Dr. Tao Pan
Prof. Dr. Dengsheng Lu
Guest Editors

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