The 1st International Online Conference on Urban Sciences
The 1st International Online Conference on Urban Sciences
Event's Timezone: Central European Summer Time
15 February 2026
15 March 2026
18 May 2026
Urban Science, Urban Planning, Urban Environment, Urban Economy, Urban Resource Management, Urban Resilience, Urbanization
Welcome from the Chairs
This conference offers a platform for scholars, researchers, and experts in the field of urban science to come together, exchange ideas, and showcase cutting-edge research. The conference will cover a wide range of topics in urban science, including, but not limited to, the following:
Prof. Dr. Peter Newman
Prof. Dr. Francesco Aletta
Prof. Dr. Jianming Cai
Dr. Jieling Xiao
Event Chairs
Department of Agricultural and Forestry Engineering, University of Valladolid, Campus Duques de Soria, Soria, Spain
Luis Hernández-Callejo received the degree in electrical engineering from the University of Valladolid in 1996, the degree in computer engineering and the master's degree in communication, network, and content management from European Higher Education from UNED University in 2004 and 2011, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in telecommunications engineering from the University of Valladolid in 2014. He is currently a Professor/Researcher with the University of Valladolid. His research interests include renewable energy, microgrids, smart grids, smart metering, and artificial intelligence.
Curtin University Sustainability Policy (CUSP) Institute, Curtin University, Perth, Australia
Peter Newman is an environmental scientist and the Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University in Perth, Australia. Peter has written 23 books and over 400 papers on sustainable cities and has worked to deliver his ideas in all levels of government, having been an elected councillor, seconded to advise three Premiers and on the Board of Infrastructure Australia 2008-14. He is the Co-ordinating Lead Author for the UN’s IPCC on Transport. In 2014, he was awarded an Order of Australia for his contributions to urban design and sustainable transport. In 2018/19, he was the WA Scientist of the Year.
UCL Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering, Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources, University College London, London, UK
Dr. Francesco Aletta is a Lecturer in Building Physics and Soundscape at University College London. He earned his Master’s degree in Architecture (2010) and PhD in Environmental Design (2014) from the University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli” (formerly known as the Second University of Naples). In 2013, he joined the Acoustics Group of the School of Architecture at the University of Sheffield as a Research Associate to work on developing soundscape methods within the EU-funded network “SONORUS”. He moved to Belgium in 2016 to work as a post-doctoral researcher at the WAVES Group, in the Department of Information Technology of Ghent University. There, he collaborated on several projects, including AcustiCare and C3Places, relating to both soundscapes and public spaces. He was a visiting lecturer at Birmingham City University and the Polytechnic Institute of Turin in Italy, teaching about environmental acoustics and soundscapes at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. In 2018, he joined UCL IEDE as a Research Associate to work with Prof. Jian Kang on the Soundscape Indices project, funded by the ERC Advanced Grant scheme.
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Dr. Jianming CAI is a full professor at the Beijing Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and got his Ph.D. from the University of Hong Kong. He is author and co-author of more than twenty books in Chinese and one book in English as co-editor, entitled as Towards Socially Integrative Cities--Perspectives on Urban Sustainability in Europe and China. He has published more than 170 papers so far in academic journals since 1990, both in Chinese and English, as well as many consultant reports, including the reports for World Bank, ADB, Lincoln Institute and Shui On Land. He frequently serves as a senior consultant or expert on urbanization, regional development, urban agriculture and food security issues to both international agencies such as the World Bank, IDRC, DGIS, GTZ, Lincoln Institute and Chinese Government Ministries such as the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Construction and the Ministry of Civil Affairs, local governments and private sector (e.g. the Shui On Corporation). His current research focuses on sustainable urban development and spatial restructuring of China’s large cities with an emphasis on peri-urban development dynamics and metropolitan governance, as well as urban agriculture，agro-tourism and rural revitalization.
Dr. Jieling Xiao is a Reader in Architecture and Sensory Environments at the College of Architecture, Birmingham City University, UK. She co-leads the Urban Cultures research cluster. Her expertise lies in the theories and creative practices of place-making and environmental design that interpret and play with people’s sensory experiences, particularly in relation to soundscapes and smellscapes. She has led a Research Topic in Frontiers on “Smells, wellbeing and the built environment” and co-edited a handbook of research called “Perception Driven Approaches to Urban Assessment and Design”. Most recently, she has organised a symposium on “Inclusive Design with Multi-senses”, which looks at sensory sustainability and addresses the climate crisis and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on communities. Jieling is interested in the new opportunities brought about by the challenges of climate change, the activist's approach to bringing ambience into design practice, and innovating using vernacular knowledge and artistic interventions.
Session Chairs
Prof. Dr. Sergio Nesmachnow
Instituto de Computación, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay
Prof. Vanessa de Almeida Guimarães
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Dr. Gang Xu
School of Resource and Environmental Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
Prof. Dr. Lori Pennington-Gray
SmartState Center for Economic Excellence in Tourism and Economic Development, College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
Registration
The registration for IOCUS 2026 will be free of charge! The registration includes attendance to all conference sessions.
If you are registering several people under the same registration, please do not use the same email address for each person, but their individual university email addresses. Thank you for your understanding.
Please note that the submission and registration are two separate parts. Only scholars who registered can receive a link to access the conference live streaming. The deadline for registration is 18 May 2026.
Instructions for Authors
Important Deadline
1. Deadline for abstract submission: 15 February 2026.
2. Announcement of oral and poster abstract results: 15 March 2026. You will be notified of the acceptance of an oral/poster presentation in a separate email.
1. The abstract structure should include the introduction, methods, results, and conclusions sections of about 200–300 words in length.
2. All abstracts should be submitted and presented in clear, publication-ready English with accurate grammar and spelling.
3. You may submit multiple abstracts. However, only one abstract will be selected for oral presentation.
4. The abstracts submitted to this conference must be original and novel, without prior publication in any journals or it will not be accepted to this conference.
Detailed Requirements:
1. The submitting author must ensure that all co-authors are aware of the contents of the abstract.
2. Please select only one presenter for each submission. If you would like to change the presenter after submission, please email us accordingly.
The slot for the oral presentation is 15 mins. We advise that your presentation lasts for a maximum of 12 mins, leaving at least 3 mins for the Q&A session.
Authors are encouraged to prepare a presentation in PowerPoint or similar software, to be displayed online along with the abstract. Slides, if available, will be displayed directly on the website using the proprietary slide viewer at Sciforum.net. Slides can be prepared in exactly the same way as for any traditional conference where research results are presented. Slides should be converted to PDF format prior to submission so that they can be converted for online display.
- Should include the title, authors, contact details and main research findings, as well as tables, figures and graphs where necessary.
- Size in pixel: 1080 width x 1536 height–portrait orientation.
- Size in cm: 38,1 width x 54,2 height–portrait orientation.
- Font size: ≥16.
- Examples of successful submissions can be viewed here at the following links: (1), (2), (3)
- You can use our free template to create your poster. The poster template can be downloaded HERE.
All posters will be permanently exhibited online in the Poster Gallery.
It is the author's responsibility to identify and declare any personal circumstances or interests that may be perceived as inappropriately influencing the representation or interpretation of clinical research. If there is no conflict, please state "The authors declare no conflicts of interest." This should be conveyed in a separate "Conflict of Interest" statement preceding the "Acknowledgments" and "References" sections at the end of the manuscript. Any financial support for the study must be fully disclosed in the "Acknowledgments" section.
MDPI, the publisher of the Sciforum.net platform, is an open access publisher. We believe authors should retain the copyright to their scholarly works. Hence, by submitting an abstract to this conference, you retain the copyright to the work, but you grant MDPI the non-exclusive right to publish this abstract online on the Sciforum.net platform. This means you can easily submit your full paper (with the abstract) to any scientific journal at a later stage and transfer the copyright to its publisher if required.
Publication Opportunities
1. Urban Science Journal Publication
Participants in this conference are cordially invited to contribute a full manuscript to the conference's Special Issue, published in Urban Science (ISSN 2413-8851, Impact Factor 2.1), with a 20% discount on the publication fee. All submitted papers will undergo MDPI’s standard peer-review procedure. The abstracts should be cited and noted on the first page of the paper.
Please note if you have IOAP/association discounts, conference discounts will be combined with IOAP/association discounts. Conference discounts cannot be combined with reviewer vouchers.
2. Proceeding Paper Publication
All accepted abstracts will be published in the conference report of The 1st International Online Conference on Urban Sciences in Environmental and Earth Sciences Proceedings (SSN 2673-4931); if you wish to publish an extended proceeding paper (4-8 pages), please submit it to the same journal after the conference.
Authors are asked to disclose that it is a proceeding paper of the IOCUS 2026 conference paper in their cover letter. Carefully read the rules outlined in the 'Instructions for Authors' on the journal’s website and ensure that your submission adheres to these guidelines.
Proceedings submission deadline: 10 July 2026.
Manuscripts for the proceedings issue must be formatted as follows:
Title;
Full author names;
Affiliations (including full postal address) and authors' e-mail addresses;
Abstract;
Keywords;
Introduction;
Methods;
Results and Discussion;
Conclusions;
Acknowledgements;
References.
Please click HERE to submit your proceeding paper to Environmental and Earth Sciences Proceedings
Environmental and Earth Sciences Proceedings Microsoft Word template
Event Awards
To acknowledge the support of the conference's esteemed authors and recognize their outstanding scientific accomplishments, we are pleased to announce that the conference will provide 4 awards including Best Oral Presentation Awards and Best Poster Awards.
The Awards
Number of Awards Available: 4
The Best Oral Presentation Award is given to the paper judged to make the most significant oral contribution to the conference.
The Best Poster Award is given to the submission judged to make the most significant and interesting poster for the conference.
The winners will receive a certificate and 200 CHF each. Additionally, they will be granted an extra opportunity to publish one research article or review free of charge in Urban Science.
Sponsors and Partners
For information regarding sponsorship and exhibition opportunities, please click here.
Organizers
Media Partners
Conference Secretariat
Ms. Jeanie Wang
Ms. Adelina Platon
Email: iocus2026@mdpi.com
For inquiries regarding submissions and sponsorship opportunities, please feel free to contact us.
