Editorial for Special issue on ``Massive 3D Urban Models''

International audienceThis special issue of Graphical Models incorporates a selection of papers presented at the recent International Conference on Urban Physics held in Quito - Galápagos, 25 September–2 October 2016, Ecuador. The conference was intended to provide a major international forum for exchanging research ideas and significant practical results related to urban physics. More than thirty papers have been accepted for oral presentations and, in the frame of the session on “Massive 3D models and physical data”, three papers have been recommended to be published in this special issue.The First International Conference on Urban Physics aimed to be a founding event for the numerical simulation of cities and megacities, which are facing worldwide critical problems, such as their dual participation—as victims and actors—to the present and upcoming climate changes. The conference provided an opportunity for scientists from different disciplines (computer graphics, environmental physics, numerical models, renewable energies, urban planning …) to confront their ideas and methods for the detection and analysis of physical quantities, in order to better manage the development of cities and to meet economic and environmental constraints