The research on urban human settlements is increasingly becoming an important means and hot area for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG11 (Sustainable Cities & Communities). However, it faces the challenges of data acquisition and integrated analysis in the fields of buildings, vegetation, water, atmosphere, disasters and human activities.
Big Earth Data is one of the key technologies for monitoring urban human settlements and promoting urban sustainable development, which is able to analyse massive earth observation data and provide a cross-field and interdisciplinary collaborative solution for the urban human settlements researches. The use of Big Earth Data to support the key technologies of urban human settlements monitoring can meet the realistic needs of urban sustainable development.
This collection will focus on exploring theories, methods and technologies of urban human settlements supported by Big Earth Data. Most importantly, this collection aims to enhance the scientific communities and the general public understanding of Big Earth Data science and technology and stimulate their enthusiasm for the spatiotemporal analysis and integrated management of urban human settlements. Original unpublished research articles and reviews on this topic are warmly welcomed.
Potential topics include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Methods and technologies for data acquisition and integration of urban human settlements using different observation platforms;
- New methods for monitoring the spatiotemporal pattern of urban human settlements;
- Analysis and evaluation models of urban human settlements;
- New methods and technologies for intelligent processing of massive urban human settlements data;
- Monitoring methods and evaluation models of SDG 11 indicators related to urban human settlements.
