Geo-Digitalization for Sustainable Development Goals and 3rd Youth Innovation Forum of Digital Earth
The joint ISPRS/ISDE Conference on Geo-Digitalization for Sustainable Development Goals will be held from December 2nd to 4th December 2025 in Nairobi, Kenya.
Geo-digitalization is a key transformative approach for advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). By harnessing the power of geospatial data and digital technologies, geo-digitization provides precise data-driven decision support and enables a holistic understanding of complex global challenges. Geo-digitization helps to improve data accuracy and accessibility, monitor changes to our environmental, increase risk management capabilities, support infrastructural development and urban planning, and promote inclusivity. Thus, as the world strives to achieve the SDGs by 2030, embracing geo-digitalization will be crucial in ensuring sustainable, inclusive and resilient development for all.
The ISPRS/ISDE Conference on geo-digitization will serve as a platform for experts, practitioners, researchers and people of like mind to share experiences and best practices for enhancing geo-digitization across the globe.
Hereby, we invite researchers, practitioners and professionals to share their insights on innovative approaches, applications and challenges that leverage geo-digitalization to advance sustainable development.
We welcome submissions on diverse topics which include but are not limited to:
Authors of high-quality papers presented at the conference will be invited to submit an extended version to a special issue of Geo-spatial Information Science, a Q1 double-blind peer reviewed journal with an Impact Factor of 4.4.
| Event | Deadline |
| Long abstract submission | May 30, 2025 |
| Notification of long abstract acceptance | July 15, 2025 |
| Full paper submission (based on accepted long abstracts) | September 30, 2025 |
| Short abstract submission | October 15, 2025 |
The joint ISPRS/ISDE Conference on Geo-Digitalization for Sustainable Development Goals will be held from December 2nd to 4th December 2025 in Nairobi, Kenya.
Geo-digitalization is a key transformative approach for advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). By harnessing the power of geospatial data and digital technologies, geo-digitization provides precise data-driven decision support and enables a holistic understanding of complex global challenges. Geo-digitization helps to improve data accuracy and accessibility, monitor changes to our environmental, increase risk management capabilities, support infrastructural development and urban planning, and promote inclusivity. Thus, as the world strives to achieve the SDGs by 2030, embracing geo-digitalization will be crucial in ensuring sustainable, inclusive and resilient development for all.
The ISPRS/ISDE Conference on geo-digitization will serve as a platform for experts, practitioners, researchers and people of like mind to share experiences and best practices for enhancing geo-digitization across the globe.
Hereby, we invite researchers, practitioners and professionals to share their insights on innovative approaches, applications and challenges that leverage geo-digitalization to advance sustainable development.
We welcome submissions on diverse topics which include but are not limited to:
Authors of high-quality papers presented at the conference will be invited to submit an extended version to a special issue of Geo-spatial Information Science, a Q1 double-blind peer reviewed journal with an Impact Factor of 4.4.
| Event | Deadline |
| Long abstract submission | May 30, 2025 |
| Notification of long abstract acceptance | July 15, 2025 |
| Full paper submission (based on accepted long abstracts) | September 30, 2025 |
| Short abstract submission | October 15, 2025 |
Authors of high-quality papers presented at the conference will be invited to submit an extended version to a special issue of Geo-spatial Information Science, a Q1 double-blind peer reviewed journal with an Impact Factor of 4.4.
| Event | Deadline |
| Long abstract submission | May 30, 2025 |
| Notification of long abstract acceptance | July 15, 2025 |
| Full paper submission (based on accepted long abstracts) | September 30, 2025 |
| Short abstract submission | October 15, 2025 |
Sponsors at each level are granted the exclusive naming rights for various conference activities, including:
We solicit proposals for workshops that will be held together with the conference and welcome proposals on emerging topics that are anticipated not to be fully explored in the main conference. The purpose of workshops is to provide a compre-hensive forum and encourage in-depth discussions of tech-niques and applications using GIScience for SDGs.
KCA University P. O. Box 56808 – 00200 Nairobi, Kenya
Free parking is available but with limited slots.
Name: School of Technology
KCA University
Phone: 0709 813 800
Email: info.isprs-conf@kcau.ac.ke
Name: School of Technology
KCA University
Phone: 0709 813 800
Email: info.isprs-conf@kcau.ac.ke
KCA University is located along the Thika Superhighway and is approximately 24 km from the Jomo Kenyatta International airport. The easiest way to travel from the airport is by taxi. When approaching the university from the central business district, the distance is about 7km and 15 minutes with average traffic.
Dr. Jianya Gong is a professor of Wuhan University and an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is the winner of the National Outstanding Youth Fund, the distinguished Professor of “Changjiang Scholars” of the Ministry of Education, the chief scientist of the 973 Project, the academic leader of the Innovation Group of the National Natural Science Foundation, the leading scientific and technological talents of the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, and the convenor of the Surveying and Mapping Discipline Group of the sixth and Seventh Subject Review Groups of The State Council. He was the director of the State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing and the Dean of the school of Remote Sensing Information Engineering of Wuhan University. He has served as ISPRS workgroup chair for three times and was the president of the Commission VI of the International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, president of International Association of Chinese Professional in Geographic Information Science. He is currently the Secretary-General of the Asian Association for Geographic Information Systems, associate editor of Acta Geodaetica et Cartographica Sinica and Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Geodesy and GeoInformation Science.
Dr. Jianya Gong is mainly engaged in the research of remote sensing and geographic information system. He has undertaken more than 40 national and provincial scientific research projects. He has published 13 monographs and textbooks, and more than 500 papers. He has won the National Science and Technology Innovation Team Award once, the first prize once and the second prize for 4 times of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, the provincial and ministerial level special prize for 3 times and the first prize for 7 times, and the Dolezal Achievement Award of the International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.
In the past few years, satellite-based remote sensing technology has been rapidly developed, the spatial resolution of civilian satellites has reached 0.3m, and the positioning accuracy of post-processing satellites has also reached 3-5m. However, since the data processing system and application mode of existing remote sensing satellites are built according to the delayed processing and application technology system, from uploading instructions to data acquisition, transmission, receiving, processing, and distribution to the application, it needs to go through many processes, often taking several hours or even days to reach the user terminal, which is difficult to meet the immediate user needs. Many remote sensing applications, including disaster emergency and military applications, require immediate response. This keynote speech analyzes the necessity of developing real-time remote sensing satellites and summarizes three key core technologies: real-time and high-precision positioning of satellite remote sensing images, real-time acquisition and transmission of satellite data, and intelligent processing of remote sensing data in orbit. The keynote speech also introduces some experimental studies of Luojia series satellites developed by Wuhan University in the integration of communication, navigation and remote sensing satellite technologies for real-time remote sensing. In the end, the report introduces the plan and progress of the real-time intelligent remote sensing monitoring system – Oriental Smart Eye constellation, which is being established by Wuhan University and Shandong Province.
Prof. Dr. Alexander Zipf, is a distinguished GIScientist from Heidelberg University, Chair of the GIScience Group and head of HeiGIT. He is a member of the Centre for Scientific Computing (IWR) and founding member of the Heidelberg Center for the Environment (HCE). His main research areas include Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI), Crowdsourcing, Citizen Science, Analysis and Processing of Geographic Data, and Integrating new methods from Geoinformatics and GIScience in Geography.
Before moving to Heidelberg he led the Chair of Cartography at Bonn University and earlier was Professor for Applied Computer Science and Geoinformatics at the University of Applied Sciences in Mainz, Germany. He has a background in Mathematics and Geography from Heidelberg University.
Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI), esp. OpenStreetMap (OSM), but also crowdsourced street-view imagery, are transforming the landscape of geo-digitalization, offering innovative opportunites for supporting sustainable development. This talk explores the potential of VGI for geo-digitalization, emphasizing its role in sustainable development, esp. with a focus on humanitarian aid and climate action. OpenStreetMap (OSM), as a leading VGI platform, enables participatory mapping, empowering communities to contribute critical geospatial data for disaster response, environmental monitoring, public health and urban planning. The integration of GeoAI – artificial intelligence applied to geospatial data – has the potential to further enhance the efficiency of community-driven mapping efforts. While VGI provides rich, heterogeneous, and local geospatial data, GeoAI offers the potential to generate it more efficiently. The combination of GeoAI and VGI raises questions about data reliability, ethics, and the future of human-AI collaboration in GIScience. Where is the sweet spot between workflows combining crowd intelligence with artificial intelligence? This talk highlights opportunities and challenges and presents selected examples based on the work of HeiGIT and GIScienc Heidelberg with a focus esp. on humanitarian aid and monitoring urban sustainability, contributing to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by enhancing resilience, environmental stewardship, and humanitarian aid.
