European Journal of Remote Sensing

Smart Earth Observation for a Sustainable Future

This Article Collection builds on the outcome of studies originally presented at the XII AIT International Conference “Smart Earth Observation for a Sustainable Future”, held in Milan, Italy, from 12 to 14 November 2025. The conference brought together experts, researchers, professionals, institutional stakeholders and students to explore the latest advances in remote sensing and Earth observation. Over three days of plenary and parallel sessions, poster presentations and networking events the participants engaged with research and technological developments in areas such as near real-time monitoring of natural resources, retrospective environmental analyses of climate and human impacts, risk monitoring and prevention, and multi-sensor data acquisition and integration from satellite constellations, UAV fleets, and proximal sensors.

The increasing availability of high-resolution (spatial, temporal and spectral), operational multi-sensor satellite data, capable of complementing information content and creating virtual constellations, combined with UAV observations, in situ sensor networks and ground measurements, and artificial intelligence techniques, is enabling more accurate, timely, and scalable analyses of environmental processes. These developments are particularly crucial in the context of climate change, growing anthropogenic pressures, and the need for sustainable resource management.

This Article Collection invites scientific papers on recent advances in remote and proximal sensing, spatial analysis and environmental modeling, reflecting the evolving role EO in addressing environmental and societal challenges. Taken together, the contributions aim to cover a broad spectrum of EO applications, including agriculture, forest and land ecosystem monitoring, aquatic and atmospheric studies, urban planning, natural and healthy risk and new frontiers as environmental crimes.

The Collection also invites studies on methodological and technological developments such as calibration and validation, multi-source data fusion, approaches for biogeophysical information retrieval, advanced classification task including GeoAI and advanced data analytics. Emerging EO missions, nano- and micro-satellite constellations, and innovative sensing infrastructures are also topics we aim to cover.

In addition, selected papers might cover thematic aspect dedicated to climate change, cryospheric monitoring, wildfire management, high-resolution soil moisture retrieval, and advanced microwave remote sensing, offering a comprehensive overview of current research directions in Earth Observation.

Article Collection Guest Advisors

Enrico Corrado Borgogno-Mondino is Full Professor in Geomatics at the Dept. of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences (DISAFA) - University of Torino. He obtained his Masters Degree in Environmental Engineering at Politecnico di Torino (Italy) in 1996, and a Ph.D. in Geodesy and Geomatics at Politecnico di Milano (Italy) in 2004. Since 2002 he has been lecturer in BSc, MS, post-graduate masters and PhD courses. His main research topics concern agro-forestry applications of geomatics, included optical and SAR remote sensing, digital photogrammetry, LiDAR, GIS and survey. He is the author of more than 150 papers in national and international scientific proceedings, journals and books, and an editorial board member in many international journals. Additionally he holds the following positions: President of the Italian Society of Remote Sensing (AIT) since 2023; Vice-President of the Italian Confederation of Scientific Associations for Territorial and Environmental Information (ASITA); President of the ASITA Scientific Committee; Chair of the Agriculture Special Interest Group (SIG) of the European Association of Remote Sensing Laboratories EARSeL. He has scientific responsibility for various national and international research projects and has been tutor of more than 40 BS, MS and PhD theses.

Claudia Giardino is a Research Director at CNR in Milan with nearly 30 years of experience in optical remote sensing. Her work focuses on algorithm development and validation for biophysical parameter retrieval, imaging spectroscopy data, multi-mission synergies and cal/val. She has dedicated much of her career to remote sensing applications to lakes from local to global scales.

Mirco Boschetti is a Research Director at CNR in Milan with nearly 25 years of experience in optical remote sensing. His work focuses on algorithm development and validation for biophysical parameter retrieval, vegetation phenology and land use cover classification. He has dedicated much of his career to remote sensing applications to agriculture and vegetation monitoring including anomalies identification and burn area mapping.

Further information

­­All manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo a full peer-review. Please review the journal scope and author submission instructions prior to submitting a manuscript.

The deadline for submitting manuscripts is 31 December 2026

Please be sure to select the appropriate Article Collection from the drop-down menu in the submission system.

Please contact Alex Johnson at [email protected] with any queries or requests for discount codes relating to this Article Collection.

The Guest Advisors have declared no conflict of interests relating to their involvement with this Article Collection.