Session Details

GeoSus 2026 Student Paper Competition

Overview

The 2026 International Workshop on Geography and Sustainability: Sustainable Cities, to be held from November 27-29, 2026, at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, is pleased to announce the call for submissions for the Best Student Paper Competition. The competition aims to promote the academic development of young students in geography and sustainable urban development.

Awards

• TBD

Eligibility

To be eligible for the competition, the first author of the paper must meet ALL of the following conditions:
• The author is currently an enrolled graduate or undergraduate student, or graduated within a year by the time of submission;
• The author undertakes the majority of the research and the drafting of the manuscript;
• The paper has not been published or is under consideration for publishing elsewhere;
• The paper has not been submitted for applications for other awards.

Evaluation and Presentation

Selected participants will be invited to present in an in-person oral session. Once accepted into the oral session, participants must register for the conference and attend in person to deliver their presentation and remain eligible for the competition. The Student Paper Competition Committee will invite scholars in relevant fields to review all submissions. The committee will make award decisions based on the quality of the paper and the oral presentation.

Submission Guidelines:

It is recommended that papers submitted to the competition follow the formatting requirements of Geography and Sustainability. Please submit your full paper (in Word or PDF format) via one of the methods below.
• Official website: Submit the full paper via Abstract Submission, and select "GeoSus 2026 Student Paper Competition".
• Email: Send your manuscript to geosusworkshop2026@gmail.com with subject: "Student Paper Competition - [Author's Name] - [Paper Title]".

Important Dates

• Full Paper Submission Deadline: August 15, 2026
• Notification of Finalists: September 15, 2026

We look forward to receiving your excellent submissions and welcoming you to Hong Kong.

GeoSus 2026 Early Career Research Award

Overview

The 2026 International Workshop on Geography and Sustainability: Sustainable Cities, to be held from November 27-29, 2026, at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, is pleased to announce the call for submissions for the Early Career Research Award. The competition aims to promote the academic development of young scholars in geography and sustainable urban development.

Awards

• TBD

Eligibility

To be eligible for the competition, the first author of the paper must meet ALL of the following conditions:
• The author must be early-career researchers (within 5 years post-PhD);
• The paper has not been published or is under consideration for publishing elsewhere;
• The paper has not been submitted for applications for other awards.

Evaluation and Presentation

Selected participants will be invited to present in an in-person oral session. Once accepted into the oral session, participants must register for the conference and attend in person to deliver their presentation and remain eligible for the competition. The Early Career Research Award Committee will invite scholars in relevant fields to review all submissions. The committee will make award decisions based on the quality of the paper and the oral presentation.

Submission Guidelines

It is recommended that papers submitted to the competition follow the formatting requirements of Geography and Sustainability. Please submit your full paper (in Word or PDF format) via one of the methods below.
• Official website: Submit the full paper via Abstract Submission, and select "GeoSus 2026 Early Career Research Award".
• Email: Send your manuscript to geosusworkshop2026@gmail.com with subject: "Early Career Research Award - [Author's Name] - [Paper Title]".

Important Dates

• Full Paper Submission Deadline: August 15, 2026
• Notification of Finalists: September 15, 2026

We look forward to receiving your excellent submissions and welcoming you to Hong Kong.

GeoSus 2026 Editors Panel Discussion

Conveners: TBD

Overview

TBD

Urban Green Infrastructure for Urban Sustainability: Formation Mechanisms and Synergistic Optimization of Social-Ecological Effect

Conveners

• Fanhua Kong (孔繁花) School of Geography and Ocean Science, Nanjing University
  Fanhuakong@nju.edu.cn
• Weiqi Zhou (周伟奇) Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences
  wzhou@rcees.ac.cn

Brief Introduction

Theme:
This session focuses on the dual-directional feedback between urban natural systems and human society within the framework of Green Infrastructure (UGI). Under the theme of "Reciprocity," we explore how UGI can be designed and managed to maximize both ecological resilience and social well-being.

Content:
Urban green infrastructure (UGI) provides critical ecosystem services such as climate regulation, biodiversity conservation, and physical and mental health benefits. However, the realization of these benefits often depends on social factors like accessibility, equity, and management policies. This session invites research on:

• Formation mechanisms and spatiotemporal dynamics of the social-ecological effects of green infrastructure;
• Coupling mechanisms between the ecological functions and social demands of green infrastructure;
• Pathways for synergistic optimization to resolve trade-offs between different ecosystem services.

Objectives:
The goal is to foster interdisciplinary dialogue between ecologists, geographers, and urban planners. By integrating spatial thinking and geospatial technologies, this session aims to provide scientific support for sustainable urban transformation and the enhancement of urban livability through optimized green spaces.

Requirements:
We welcome abstract and poster submissions addressing theoretical, methodological, or empirical issues related to the social-ecological dynamics of UGI. Submissions should demonstrate innovative approaches (e.g., remote sensing, big data, observation and social surveys) to understanding urban sustainability.

Session Agenda

To be announced — Details will be updated soon.

Spatial Governance and Optimization for Urban Ecosystem Services

Conveners

• Zihan Xu (徐子涵) Beijing Forestry University
  zihan_xu@bjfu.edu.cn
• Yanxu Liu (刘焱序) Beijing Normal University
  yanxuliu@bnu.edu.cn
• Jian Peng (彭建) Peking University
  jianpeng@urban.pku.edu.cn

Brief Introduction

Background:
As China's territorial spatial planning system enters a phase of full-scale implementation, the governance logic of urban ecological spaces is undergoing a paradigm shift-from traditional "urban scale expansion control" to "urban systemic function enhancement." However, urban face a critical challenge: the spatial mismatch between the supply of ecosystem services and the growing demand from residents for high-quality ecological benefits. Moreover, governance measures for ecological spaces often suffer from being too coarse in scale to be effectively implemented.

Against this backdrop, several key questions have emerged as core scientific issues at the intersection of landscape architecture, urban and rural planning, and ecology: How can we quantify the flows and attenuation of ecosystem services? How can we achieve nested integration of ecological patterns across different scales-from the municipal level, to the central urban area, down to the community level? And how can we enhance the efficiency of ecosystem services through precise spatial governance measures?

Topics:
This session focuses on the bidirectional interaction between ecosystem services and spatial governance, aiming to explore the full pathway from scientific identification to planning implementation. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following four themes:

• Spatial Matching for Ecosystem Services Supply-Demand: Examining methods for measuring the supply-demand ratio of ecosystem services (e.g., cooling, stormwater regulation, recreation) in high-density urban areas, identifying hotspots of supply-demand imbalance, and analyzing the underlying spatial driving mechanisms.
• Multi-Scale Urban Ecological Security Pattern Construction: Exploring how to construct a "region-urban-neighborhood" multi-scale nested composite ecological network, with a focus on how macro-level ecological corridors are received and transformed at the micro level through green spaces.
• Urban Functional Zoning and Governance Based on Ecosystem Services: Integrating scenario simulation, big data analytics, and deep learning techniques to propose urban spatial governance zoning schemes based on ecosystem service trade-off mitigation and risk classification, developing differentiated access lists, development intensity regulations, and control measures.
• Spatial Governance Pathways for Urban Resilience: Integrating source-sink theory and ecosystem service flows to examine the impact of spatial patterns on ecosystem service delivery processes, proposing resilient spatial governance strategies to address risks such as urban heatwaves and waterlogging.

Objectives:

• Theoretical Innovation: To synthesize and summarize the latest theoretical frameworks integrating urban ecosystem services and spatial governance, with particular attention to the characteristics of high-density urban and urbanization gradients in China, exploring ecological space governance models with Chinese characteristics.
• Technical Exchange: To promote the application of cutting-edge technologies such as machine learning, deep learning, and large language models in the quantification and analysis of ecological spaces, thereby enhancing the scientific basis of spatial governance decision-making.
• Practice-Policy Integration: To bridge the technical gap between "ecological security pattern construction" and "territorial spatial planning control" through case study sharing, providing actionable governance guidelines for ecological space chapters in master plans and regulatory plans at various levels.

Submission Guidelines:
We cordially invite scholars, researchers, planners, engineers, and graduate students from universities, research institutes, planning and design institutes, and government agencies to submit abstracts and participate in this session. Guidelines are as follows:

• Abstract Submission: Abstracts should include the research question, methodology, preliminary findings, and keywords (300 words). Submissions based on empirical research or planning practice cases are particularly welcome.
• Relevance to Session Themes: Submissions must closely align with the core themes outlined above. Papers that only discuss ecosystem service estimation without addressing spatial governance implications may be considered for poster presentation.

Session Agenda

To be announced — Details will be updated soon.

Recent Computational Tools for Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Cities

Conveners

• Ying Yu (于颖) (Primary) The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen
  Contact: TBD
• Yimeng Song (宋祎萌) The University of Hong Kong
  Contact: TBD
• Xijing Li California State Polytechnic University Pomona, Pomona
  Contact: TBD
• Qi Lin (Student/Early-career researcher) New York University
  Contact: TBD

Brief Introduction

Climate resilience and sustainability research increasingly depends on spatially explicit, high-resolution, and multi-source evidence. Recent advances in geospatial AI, machine learning, remote sensing, and street-view imagery are rapidly expanding how urban environments can be observed, measured, and understood. These developments create new opportunities to connect digital innovations with real-world challenges in climate resilience and urban sustainability. This session invites contributions across geography, urban planning, public policy, and environmental studies that apply emerging geospatial and data-driven approaches to the study of climate-resilient and sustainable cities. We welcome research on topics such as urban heat and heat mitigation, green space and nature-based solutions, extreme weather impacts, climate and energy resilience, and spatial inequalities in urban environments. We especially encourage submissions from early-career researchers that showcase new applications, datasets, and computational approaches for advancing more resilient, equitable, and sustainable urban futures.

Chairs:
Chenxi Lu, Tsinghua University
Ying Yu, The Chinese University of Hong Kong,Shenzhen
Xijing Li, California State Polytechnic University Pomona, Pomona
Qi Lin, New York University

Session Agenda

To be announced — Details will be updated soon.

Sustainability of the interwinded urban system and agrifood system

Conveners

• Prajal Pradhan University of Groningen
  Contact: TBD
• Yuanchao Hu (胡元超) Guangdong University of Technology
  Contact: TBD

Brief Introduction

The agrifood system is intricately connected to our urban socioeconomic well-being and the physical environment. Cities with highly concentrated impervious land and food demand are particularly vulnerable. For example, cities provide various unhealthy foods, are prone to the disadvantaged populations, face pressure to dispose of food waste, and are disconnected from fresh food producers. All these intertwined urban systems and food systems pose unique challenges to environmental and socioeconomic sustainability.

In this session, we aim to discuss the spatial patterns of the urban food system, the trends and shortfall to sustainability, the actionable evidence of transformation, and other topics. We welcome contributions that examine these interconnections through diverse methodological and geographical lenses, including but not limited to: urban food planning and governance, food supply chain mapping and resilience, the role of urban agriculture and green infrastructure, food waste management and circular economy approaches, equity and access in urban food environments, and the environmental footprints of urban consumption. Comparative studies across cities of different sizes and development contexts are particularly encouraged. We invite both empirical analyses and theoretical frameworks that advance our understanding of how urban and agrifood systems can co-evolve toward sustainability.

Submission Guidelines:
Proposed abstracts should be between 300 and 500 words and organized using standard research structures (e.g., Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion). References are optional. Accepted abstracts will be presented in person, with opportunities for publication through the conference's official pathways.

We welcome participants from various technical and disciplinary backgrounds to share their insights and join this critical dialogue at the intersection of technology, environment, and society.

Session Agenda

To be announced — Details will be updated soon.

Living in urban drylands: exploring problems and developing solutions

Conveners

• David Eldridge Centre for Ecosystem Science, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales
  Contact: TBD
• Jingyi Ding (丁婧祎) Institute of Land Surface System and Sustainable Development, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University
  Contact: TBD

Brief Introduction

More than half of the world's population lives in cities, placing increasing pressure on urban environments, their residents and infrastructure. Drylands support over one-third of the global population, yet they are acutely vulnerable to changing climates and intense human disturbance. Dryland cities have continued to experience a rapidly increasing population as people move to large cities to seek employment and better social services.

Social and environmental issues in dryland cities are closely interconnected. Sustainable management of dryland cities therefore requires approaches that integrate water conservation, climate adaptation, ecological restoration, renewable energy, and equitable urban planning. This is critical to maintain social cohesion and avoid environmental problems such as the urban heat island effect. Exploring ecological and social sustainability in arid and semiarid cities requires specialized, spatially explicit approaches that balance development with environmental sustainability.

Geographic perspectives and advanced geospatial technologies provide tools to better understand the unique coupling of human-environmental systems in dryland cities. The geography discipline can also provide a pathway to improve urban planning, social and physical wellbeing, and to provide solutions that alleviate the negative stresses associated with living in large urban centres.

This session focusses on the social-ecological impacts of urbanisation in the world's dryland cities. The session is supported by The Global Dryland Ecosystem Programme (Global-DEP) II, an international research initiative targeting social-ecological systems and providing a platform for dryland science. As part of the Global-DEP II initiative, the session addresses issues facing urban drylands, such as:

• Sustainable water supply under increasing climate variability in dryland cities
• Restoration and rehabilitation of degraded peri-urban environments
• Renewable energy integration for sustainable urban living
• Novel food production systems to sustain food security in dryland cities
• Urban design adaptation under extreme climates
• Urban planning to ensure social equality and environmental justice
• Nature-based solutions for urban drylands
• Circular economy approaches in urban drylands
• Governance and policy frameworks for sustainable urban drylands

Session Agenda

To be announced — Details will be updated soon.

Advanced Geospatial Technologies for Sustainable Urban Transitions: Equity, Health, and Resilience

Conveners

• Dong Liu (Chair) The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen
  Contact: TBD
• Zihan Kan (Co-Chair) The Chinese University of Hong Kong
  Contact: TBD
• Yang Liu (Co-Chair) The Chinese University of Hong Kong
  Contact: TBD

Brief Introduction

As cities confront intersecting challenges of climate change, public health crises, and deepening social inequalities, advanced geospatial technologies like GeoAI offer powerful tools to understand and shape sustainable urban futures. This session highlights cuttingedge research that integrates machine learning, spatial modeling, mobile sensing, and big data analytics to address critical urban issues—from 15-minute city accessibility and environmental exposure to pandemic vulnerability and transport equity. Drawing on diverse geographic contexts and interdisciplinary approaches, we welcome contributions that leverage these spatial technologies to advance equitable access to green space, healthcare, and mobility; reduce environmental health disparities; and enhance urban resilience. By bridging geography, data science, urban planning, and public health, the session aims to foster innovative, actionable insights for building healthier, fairer, and more sustainable cities worldwide.

Session Agenda

To be announced — Details will be updated soon.

Sustainable Development Beyond 2030: Urban Pathways, SDG Transformations, and Future Sustainability Agendas

Conveners

• Prajal Pradhan University of Groningen
  Contact: TBD
• Haiyan Lu Harbin Institute of Technology
  Contact: TBD

Brief Introduction

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls for transformative action to place societies on a more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient trajectory. At its core are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 interconnected targets, which collectively seek to balance the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development by 2030.

As the 2030 deadline approaches, growing attention is being directed toward the future of sustainability governance beyond the SDGs. Achieving long-term sustainability requires not only accelerating progress toward existing goals, but also critically reflecting on the limitations, trade-offs, and unintended consequences associated with (under)achieving SDGs. Emerging discussions on a post-2030 Sustainable Development Agenda therefore raise important questions regarding the continuation, revision, and co-creation of next-generation sustainability targets.

Cities are central to this transition. Urban areas are both key sites of sustainability challenges and critical arenas for transformative change. Understanding current trajectories in SDG implementation, urban sustainability transitions, and future planning beyond 2030 is therefore essential for shaping resilient and equitable urban futures.

This session aims to explore current trends in SDG achievement within urban contexts, the persistent gaps and shortfalls toward sustainability, actionable evidence of transformative change, and potential pathways for a post-2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. We welcome contributions that investigate these themes through diverse disciplinary and methodological perspectives, including but not limited to:

• Urban planning, governance, and policy for sustainability transitions
• Sustainable cities and communities nexus issues
• SDG interactions, synergies, and trade-offs
• Implications of underachieving SDGs
• Interlinkages between SDGs and long-term sustainability outcomes
• Continuation, revision, or expansion of SDG targets beyond 2030
• Co-creation and participatory approaches to future sustainability targets
• Comparative urban studies across different geographical and developmental contexts
• Innovative methodological approaches for assessing urban sustainability transitions

Submission Guidelines:
Abstracts should be between 300 and 500 words and structured according to standard academic formats (e.g., Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion). References are optional.

Accepted abstracts will be presented in person during the conference session. Selected contributions may also have opportunities for publication through the conference’s official publication pathways.

Session Agenda

To be announced — Details will be updated soon.

Urban Ecological Space Expansion and Management

Conveners

• Wenwu Zhao Beijing Normal University
  Contact: TBD
• Nan Lyv Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences
  Contact: TBD
• Mingyue Zhao Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
  Contact: TBD

Brief Introduction

Ecological space in urban regions serves as a critical baseline for safeguarding human welfare and supporting high-quality, coordinated regional development. It plays crucial role in maintaining ecological barriers, regulating human-land relationships, and alleviating ecological pressures on urban agglomerations. However, under the joint influence of rapid urbanization, industrialization, and agricultural intensification, contemporary cities and urban agglomerations face severe ecological challenges. The systemic issues are primarily manifested in severe fragmentation of ecological spaces, a pronounced lack of ecosystem integrity and connectivity, and lagging traditional ecological regulatory frameworks. These contradictions concretely translate into a series of ecological hazards, including insufficient water conservation capacity, limited windbreak and sand-fixation functions, scattered and fragmented green spaces, and the shrinkage of natural wetlands. How to resolve the conflicts between urban development and ecological protection, as well as reshape a healthy and efficient urban ecological network, has become an urgent contemporary issue for sustainable urban development.

This session focuses on the expansion and smart management of ecological spaces in urban regions to achieve structural optimization and functional synergy. The session is targeting urban sustainability and providing a platform for ecological network reconstruction. As part of this initiative, the session addresses key challenges in urban ecological space expansion, such as:

• Dynamic Evolutionary Mechanisms and Pattern Evaluation of Urban Ecological Space
• Expansion Potential Assessment and Region Identification of Urban Ecological Space Expansion
• Network Construction and Spatial Expansion Technologies of Urban Ecological Space Expansion
• Protection and Restoration Effectiveness Evaluation of Critical Ecological Space Protection and Restoration
• Ecological Security Risk Assessment and Differentiated Smart Governance Technologies for Ecological Space

Session Agenda

To be announced — Details will be updated soon.

Multi-Source Remote Sensing and AI-Enabled Assessment of Urban Infrastructure Health, Resilience, and Carbon Sustainability

Conveners

• Zhen Liu (刘震) Institute of Space and Earth Information Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
  Contact: zhenliu@cuhk.edu.hk
• Songhua Hu (胡松华) 香港城市大学建筑与土木工程学院
  Contact: songhuhu@cityu.edu.hk
• Yang Liu (刘阳) 昆明理工大学交通工程学院
  Contact: kmliuyang@kust.edu.cn

Brief Introduction

Theme: This session focuses on the use of multi-source remote sensing, low-altitude sensing, mobile mapping, LiDAR, and artificial intelligence for monitoring and assessing urban infrastructure systems. Under the theme of sustainable cities, the session explores how emerging geospatial technologies can support the health diagnosis, resilience evaluation, and green low-carbon transformation of buildings, transportation infrastructure, and urban built environments.

Content: Urban infrastructure is the physical foundation of sustainable cities, but it is increasingly challenged by climate change, extreme weather, aging facilities, rapid urbanization, and carbon-neutral transition. Recent advances in satellite remote sensing, UAV-based sensing, vehicle-mounted LiDAR, ground-based monitoring, and AI-based spatial analytics provide new opportunities to observe, model, and manage infrastructure systems at multiple spatial and temporal scales.

This session welcomes studies on, but not limited to:
• Multi-source remote sensing and geospatial data fusion for urban infrastructure monitoring;
• UAV, low-altitude sensing, and vehicle-mounted LiDAR for refined mapping of buildings, roads, bridges, slopes, and other urban assets;
• AI-based extraction, segmentation, condition assessment, deformation detection, and risk identification of urban infrastructure;
• Urban infrastructure resilience assessment under climate-related hazards, including flooding, heat stress, landslides, and extreme weather;
• Remote sensing-based assessment of urban carbon emissions, vegetation carbon sinks, and infrastructure-related carbon impacts;
• Digital twins, spatial decision-support systems, and intelligent asset management for sustainable urban infrastructure;
• Life-cycle assessment, green materials, and low-carbon construction and maintenance strategies for transportation and urban infrastructure.

Session Agenda

To be announced — Details will be updated soon.

Carbon Dynamics for Sustainable Development: Monitoring, Mechanisms and Pathways

Conveners

• Zherong Wu (武哲戎) Institute of Space and Earth Information Science & Department of Geography and Resource Management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
  Contact: zherongwu@cuhk.edu.hk
• Jianwei Huang (黄剑威) Institute of Space and Earth Information Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
  Contact: jianweihuang@cuhk.edu.hk
• Fangxu Deng (邓方旭) Institute of Space and Earth Information Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
  Contact: dengfangxu@link.cuhk.edu.hk

Brief Introduction

Theme: This session focuses on understanding and monitoring carbon dynamics across coupled human–natural systems using Earth observation and geospatial approaches, and their implications for sustainable development. Under the framework of climate change mitigation and carbon neutrality, this session seeks to explore the interactions among carbon emissions, carbon sequestration, ecosystem processes, land-use change, and socioeconomic activities. Particular attention is given to how advances in satellite remote sensing, geospatial technologies, and spatial analysis can improve our understanding of carbon dynamics and support evidence-based sustainability policies.

Content: Carbon dynamics play a critical role in achieving sustainable development goals and addressing global climate challenges. Rapid urbanization, land-use transitions, ecosystem degradation, and socioeconomic development are continuously reshaping carbon sources and sinks across multiple spatial and temporal scales. This session invites research on:

• Monitoring and assessment of carbon emissions, carbon sequestration, and carbon storage dynamics;
• Use of ground-based measurements, field observations, and monitoring networks to quantify carbon emissions, sequestration, and fluxes across different ecosystems and human-dominated landscapes;
• Mechanisms driving carbon dynamics in coupled human–environment systems;
• Integration of multi-source Earth observation data for carbon accounting and carbon-cycle studies;
• Applications of remote sensing, GIS, spatial modeling, artificial intelligence, and big-data analytics in carbon research;
• Pathways and strategies for carbon neutrality, climate mitigation, ecosystem restoration, and sustainable development;

Session Agenda

To be announced — Details will be updated soon.

Urban Resilience in Climate-Constrained Cities: Sustainable Transitions toward Low-Carbon and Adaptive Futures

Conveners

• Huan Li The Chinese University of Hong Kong
  Contact: lihuan@link.cuhk.edu.hk
• Yang Fu Shenzhen University
  Contact: fuyang@szu.edu.cn
• Chen Yang Northwestern Polytechnical University
  Contact: chen.yang@nwpu.edu.cn
• Wen Sun The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou)
  Contact: wens@hkust-gz.edu.cn

Brief Introduction

Cities are increasingly shaped by climate change, resource constraints, infrastructure vulnerability, rising energy demand, and uneven socio-economic development. This session focuses on how urban resilience can be strengthened through sustainable transitions toward low-carbon and adaptive futures. Rather than viewing resilience only as the ability to recover from shocks, the session highlights its role in transforming urban systems to become more adaptive, efficient, inclusive, and environmentally sustainable.

We welcome contributions that examine the interactions among urban form, land use change, transportation systems, energy consumption, carbon emissions, infrastructure networks, human mobility, environmental governance, and climate adaptation. Particular attention will be given to how cities can reduce environmental pressure, maintain essential functions, improve residents’ well-being, and advance low-carbon development under climate stress.

The session encourages studies using spatial analysis, urban modeling, remote sensing, big data, carbon and energy assessment, policy evaluation, field-based research, or comparative case studies. By bringing together research on urban resilience, low-carbon development, climate adaptation, and sustainable urban transformation, this session aims to promote interdisciplinary dialogue on resilient and sustainable urban futures.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
• Urban resilience under climate change and extreme weather events
• Low-carbon urban transitions and carbon emission reduction
• Urban energy consumption, energy efficiency, and energy transition
• Land use change, urban form, and climate-resilient development
• Transportation systems, mobility patterns, and low-carbon travel behavior
• Climate-adaptive infrastructure and urban service systems
• Remote sensing, spatial analysis, and urban resilience assessment
• HUMAN MOBILITY, DAILY ACTIVITY PATTERNS, AND EXPOSURE TO CLIMATE RISKS
• Environmental governance, policy evaluation, and urban transition pathways
• Comparative studies of low-carbon and climate-adaptive cities

Session Agenda

To be announced — Details will be updated soon.

Urban AI and Sustainable Mobility

Conveners

• Sylvia Y. He The Chinese University of Hong Kong
  Contact: sylviahe@cuhk.edu.hk
• Shuli Luo The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen
  Contact: shuliluo@cuhk.edu.cn
• Zihan Kan The Chinese University of Hong Kong
  Contact: zihankan@cuhk.edu.hk
• Haiyan Hao The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen
  Contact: haohaiyan@cuhk.edu.cn

Brief Introduction

As cities face unprecedented challenges related to climate change and rapid urbanization, the intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and geospatial technologies offers transformative potential for urban transit systems. This session explores the theme of “Urban AI and Sustainable Mobility”, focusing on how AI can be applied in urban management, transport geography, and mobility research. We welcome submissions that are broadly related to mobility and urban AI, such as how can AI optimize transportation networks, enhance urban resilience against environmental shocks, and promote healthier, more equitable cities.

Content: This session will cover theoretical, methodological, and empirical advancements in AI applied to urban mobility.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
• Emerging geospatial AI (GeoAI) techniques for transport modeling.
• Applications of large language models (LLMs) in urban and transport research
• Data-driven approaches to monitoring and achieving sustainability and carbon neutrality in the transport sector.
• AI applications for enhancing urban resilience, including climate-adaptive transport infrastructure and disaster-responsive mobility networks.
• Leveraging AI to understand the nexus between sustainable mobility, public health, urban vitality, and social equity.
• AI-driven assessments of mobility patterns and healthy cities.

Session Agenda

To be announced — Details will be updated soon.

Coastal social-ecological system resilience under Global Change

Conveners

• Xiaoling Zhang The University of Hong Kong
  Contact: TBD
• Mike Meadows Nanjing University
  Contact: TBD
• Zhaoyuan Yu Nanjing Normal University
  Contact: TBD
• Ke Zhang Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
  Contact: TBD

Brief Introduction

Theme: This session focuses on the interactive coupling and adaptive evolution of coastal social-ecological systems under the context of global change including climate change and extreme events. Centering on the core connotation of Coastal Resilience, we explore how coastal social and ecological components respond, adapt, and recover from intensified human activities and global environmental changes, and seek effective pathways to maintain the stability, adaptability and transformability of coastal coupled human-nature systems.

Content: Coastal social-ecological systems sustain critical ecological functions including historical reconstructions, coastal protection, marine biodiversity maintenance, carbon sequestration and blue ecosystem service provision, while supporting regional socioeconomic development and human well-being. Nevertheless, global changes such as climate warming, sea-level rise, extreme marine disasters and intensified human exploitation have triggered systematic degradation, structural imbalance and functional loss in coastal zones, creating threats to coastal sustainable development and long-term system resilience.

This session invites high-quality research focusing on multiple dimensions of coastal social-ecological system resilience under global change:

• Formation mechanisms and spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of coastal social-ecological system resilience under global change;
• Coupling coordination and interactive response mechanisms between coastal ecological subsystems and social subsystems under changing global environments;
• Social-ecological vulnerability and transformation mechanisms, the role of indigenous knowledge, social capital, collective action, equity in shaping coastal resilience outcomes;
• Synergistic optimization and adaptive governance pathways to enhance coastal system resilience and resolve trade-offs between ecological protection and socioeconomic development.

Objectives: This session aims to build an interdisciplinary communication platform for coastal ecologists, geographers, marine environmental researchers and urban and coastal planners. Combining geospatial monitoring, multi-source big data simulation and social-ecological systematic analysis, it strives to provide solid scientific theoretical support and practical optimization strategies for improving coastal adaptability, detecting early-warning signals of critical transitions, mitigating global change risks, and promoting the sustainable and high-quality development of coastal zones.

Requirements: We welcome abstract and poster submissions covering theoretical exploration, methodological innovation and empirical research related to coastal social-ecological system resilience under global change. Submissions are expected to adopt innovative technical and research approaches, such as remote sensing monitoring, geographic big data analysis, high-resolution numerical simulation, field observation, social-ecological surveys, participatory mapping, and agent-based modeling of human-nature interactions, to deepen the understanding of coastal system adaptation and sustainable development under global change.

Session Agenda

To be announced — Details will be updated soon.

Transition to Renewable Energy under Climate Change and Urbanization

Conveners

• Laibao Liu The University of Hongkong
  Contact: laibao@hku.hk
• Yan Li Beijing Normal University
  Contact: yanli@bnu.edu.cn
• Fei Liu Sun Yat-sen University
  Contact: liufei26@mail.sysu.edu.cn

Brief Introduction

Key words: Renewable Energy, Climate Change, Cities

Transition to renewable energy, such as wind, solar and hydropower, are widely recognized as one of the most effective climate mitigation strategies. Urban areas account for up to two-thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions and consume roughly two-thirds of the world's energy. However, with increasing penetrations of variable and weather-dependent renewables in energy systems, the operation and planning of future energy systems must take climate change impact into account, especially in cities. This session welcomes abstracts on the role of renewable energy in low-carbon transition, climate change impacts and resilience of renewable energy systems and data centers, big data of wind/solar energy systems, wind/solar power supply or urban electricity consumption forecasting and prediction, and the environmental impacts of large-scale renewable projects.

Session Agenda

To be announced — Details will be updated soon.

Urban and Transport Resilience under Climate Change: Emerging Perspectives and Approaches

Conveners

• Junqing Tang（汤俊卿） School of Urban Planning and Design, Peking University
  Contact: junqingtang@pku.edu.cn
• Pengjun Zhao（赵鹏军） School of Urban Planning and Design, Peking University
  Contact: pengjun.zhao@pku.edu.cn

Brief Introduction

Theme: Urban and transport systems face increasing challenges under climate change, including extreme events, cascading disruptions, and growing uncertainties due to rapid urbanization and global climate change. Enhancing resilience in both urban and transport networks has become critical for sustainable and adaptive cities.

Content: This session explores emerging perspectives and approaches to understand and enhance urban and transport resilience under climate change. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: resilience assessment frameworks; infrastructure network vulnerability, adaptation, and recovery; interactions between urban systems and transport networks; scenario analysis and decision support; and the application of digital and computational technologies, including AI, geospatial analytics, and digital twins, to inform resilience research and practice.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Climate change impacts and resilience mechanisms in urban and transport systems;
• Interdependencies, cascading effects, and adaptation processes across urban and transport networks;
• Assessment, modelling, and optimization of urban and transport resilience across scales;
• Responses, recovery and adaptation of urban systems and transport infrastructure to extreme events;
• Scenario analysis and decision support for resilient and sustainable urban futures;
• Emerging approaches, including geospatial analytics, artificial intelligence, digital twins, and urban simulation, for advancing resilience research and practice.

Objectives: The session aims to foster interdisciplinary dialogue among scholars and practitioners from geography, transport studies, urban planning, disaster science, and related fields. It seeks to advance theoretical understanding, methodological innovation, and practical insights for building resilient cities and transport systems in a changing climate.

Requirements: We welcome submissions addressing conceptual frameworks, analytical or computational methods, modeling approaches, empirical case studies, and applied solutions related to urban and transport resilience. Contributions from researchers at all career stages are encouraged.

Session Agenda

To be announced — Details will be updated soon.