“The idea to organize a workshop on urban remote sensing, jointly sponsored by ISPRS (International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing) and IEEE GRSS (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society) has been around for while, until it suddenly seemed possible to organize such a meeting in 2001. The workshop was held in Rome, Italy, on November 8-9, 2001, hosted by the School of Engineering of the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’. After the editions in Berlin (may 2003) and Tempe (March 2005), the 4th GRSS/ISPRS Joint Workshop on ‘Remote sensing and data fusion over urban areas’ and the 6th International Symposium on ‘Remote sensing of urban areas’ were jointly held in Paris on April 11-13, 2007. The meeting was named ‘2007 Joint Urban remote Sensing Event’, and set a very high the standard for future conferences of the same series. In 2009 the joint event moves to China, a growing country with many applications for urban remote sensing and a really high appetite for research results in this field. The event will be organized by SAST, the Shanghai Association for Science and Technology, whose delegation was in Paris and discussed with the organizers how to make this event at least as good as the one in Paris. We really look forward to this event, and hope to meet you all in Shanghai. There will be lot of technical sessions, possibility to meet with fellow researchers coming from all over the world and to connect with new people and new research teams. Don't miss this opportunity!” | 
