Dear Colleagues,

Global climate change and rapid economic growth have increased the frequency and intensity of disasters, such as floods, hurricanes, landslides, fires, etc. Over the last decades, the 3I's (immersion, interaction, and imagination) of virtual reality (VR) have driven its shift from gaming to more diverse applications, one of the most promising of which is disaster management. VR offers the users a visuospatial perspective, which allows them to understand the disaster activities in a high-fidelity environment and transmit disaster information to the public in a way that is more similar to the real environment, thus improving their understanding of disasters and risk awareness.

In this Special Issue, we aim to ask authors how to effectively leverage VR with disaster management to develop new applications and implement novel technologies, algorithms, and VR Apps, continuously improving disaster perception and knowledge communication. Topics for this special issue include, but are not limited to:

Disaster modeling in VR environments

2D/3D representation of disasters

VR for disaster education

VR for disaster preparedness

VR for response training

Interaction Design of disaster VR

Risk mapping and communication

Augmented Reality; Virtual Reality; Mixed Reality; Extended Reality; 3D GIS; Geospatial Modeling; Disaster representattion; Risk communication; Disaster management; VR interaction; Disaster education; Disaster perception