The biannual international 'Joint Urban Remote Sensing Event' (JURSE) reaches for the first time South America, demonstrating the world-wide reach of this scientific field, dedicated to explore cutting-edge themes in urban remote sensing with respect to the Information Technology and Geoscience. JURSE 2013 is designed to be a forum of excellence where a selected group of researchers, practitioners, and students will present and discuss their latest findings and results. This event is committed to introduce innovative methodologies and technological resources recently employed to investigate the manifold aspects of the urban environment through orbital and airborne remote sensing data. Emerging topics like new methods for urban land cover and land use classification with detailed discrimination of urban targets, 3D modeling of urban buildings, forecast and impact assessment of natural and man-made hazards in urban areas, urban social studies, urban ecology as well as data fusion, algorithms and techniques for remotely sensed data interpretation, and multisource remote sensing data will be approached, aiming to address pressing questions and offer effective solutions in urban remote sensing but also to unravel new possibilities for the interpretation, processing, fusion, and application of remotely sensed data in urban investigations.