Special Issue on Urban Computing Services and Applications

This Special Call targets selected papers from the Workshop de Computação Urbana (CoUrb 2026), but also accepts other submissions related to the theme.

The increasing digitalization of cities has created new opportunities and challenges for designing, deploying, and operating urban computing services and applications. Smart mobility systems, urban sensing infrastructures, intelligent public services, and other city-scale applications increasingly depend on interconnected computing and communication systems that must operate efficiently, reliably, securely, and at scale.

Urban Computing brings together information and communication technologies, data management and analysis, networking, sensing, artificial intelligence, and distributed computing to address complex problems arising in urban environments. As cities become increasingly dependent on digital infrastructures, understanding and optimizing the performance of these systems becomes essential to improving urban services, sustainability, resilience, and quality of life.

This Special Call invites authors worldwide to submit original research addressing methods, techniques, and tools for the design, evaluation, and optimization of urban computing services and applications. Of particular interest are studies that develop or apply performance assessment techniques based on measurement, simulation, analytical modeling, or experimental evaluation in urban environments. Relevant contributions may address computing and communication systems supporting smart cities, intelligent transportation systems, urban sensing, Internet of Things applications, data-driven services, and other urban-scale applications.

This call provides an opportunity to present and discuss innovative solutions for the next generation of urban computing systems and services. In addition to receiving new submissions, selected CoUrb 2026 papers will be invited to submit extended versions with at least 35% new content.

Topics of Interest

Urban Computing involves the acquisition, integration, processing, and analysis of heterogeneous data generated by devices, sensors, vehicles, communication infrastructures, and people in urban spaces. The area combines computing, communications, data analysis, and intelligent systems to develop efficient and scalable solutions to problems faced by modern cities. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Data Analysis and Intelligent Systems

o Data Analysis and Mining for Urban Environments
o Federated Learning for Urban Computing
o Anomaly Detection and Event Discovery in Urban Areas
o Heterogeneous Data Management
o Recommender Systems
o Urban Planning Using Big Data
o Improving Quality of Life in Cities Using Mobile Services and Big Data
o Urban Data Visualization

Infrastructure, Networks, and Protocols

o Architectures and Protocols for Urban Environments
o D2D and 5G Communications in Urban Environments
o Reliability and Security in Urban Computing
o Data Offloading
o Internet of Things for Urban Computing
o Urban Sensing Infrastructures

Urban Applications and Governance

o Smart Cities
o Urban Computing for Economic Development
o Urban Computing for Public Protection and Safety
o e-Governance
o e-Health and m-Health
o Intelligent Transportation Systems
o Location-Based Services

Human Interaction and Behavior

o Social Computing
o Human Mobility
o Human-Computer Interaction in Urban Spaces
o Participatory/Opportunistic Sensing

Sustainability and Environment

o Green Computing in Urban Environments
o Environmental Protection with Urban Computing

Selection process

We welcome submissions from worldwide authors presenting original, unpublished, and novel in-depth studies related to the topics of interest. Selected papers from CoUrb 2026 will be invited to submit extended versions to this Special Call. The version submitted to JISA must contain at least 35% new material concerning the article initially accepted and published in the workshop proceedings.

Manuscripts should be submitted through the JISA online submission system

Articles must be written in English. For extended versions of previously published workshop papers, submit a cover letter in English that clearly describes the extensions and new contributions. Articles submitted to JISA will undergo a new review process that may include reviewers of the original workshop paper as well as additional reviewers.

Manuscripts will undergo a three-round review process. In the first and second rounds, each submission will normally be reviewed by at least three experts in the field, and the editorial decision may be request for revision, acceptance, or rejection. In the third and final round, the editorial decision will be either acceptance or rejection.

Important date

○ Submission deadline: 01 November 2026

Guest Editors

Leandro Aparecido Villas, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), was program chair of CoUrb and has organized special issues on related topics. He has also conducted research on techniques and approaches for supporting developers in the design of urban computing.

Thiago Henrique Silva, University of Toronto, was program chair of CoUrb and the IEEE International Workshop on Urban Computing. He is a member of the editorial board of the Springer Urban Computing Book Series and has taught short courses in urban computing.

Daniel Ludovico Guidoni, Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP), was program chair of CoUrb and a member of the editorial board of the IEEE Latin America Transactions and the Journal of Internet Services and Applications as a guest editor.

Rodolfo Ipolito Meneguette, Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Computing, University of São Paulo (ICMC/USP), is an associate professor whose research focuses on computer networks, particularly vehicular networks, data dissemination, artificial neural networks, embedded systems, and intelligent transportation systems. He has coordinated and participated in research projects funded by FAPESP and CNPq and serves as associate editor for journals in related areas.

Wellington Viana Lobato Junior, Inria Saclay, is program chair of CoUrb and the IEEE International Workshop on Urban Computing (UrbCom). He has also conducted research on techniques and approaches to support developers in the design of autonomous vehicles.