The 3rd International Conference on Earth Observations and Societal Impacts, ICEO&SI 2013 (http://2013.iceo-si.org.tw/home) continues the tradition set by the previous ICEO&SI conferences (ICEO&SI 2011and 2012) by focusing on observations of the Earth environment, including atmospheric, oceanic, and geophysical research, satellite remote sensing, the air and the water qualities, and healthy environmental conditions for humans, plants, and animals, and their societal impacts.

The objective of the ICEO&SI 2013 conference (http://2013.iceo-si.org.tw/home) is to promote a broad exchange of information on observations and measurements for the global environment and climate change among scientists from around the world. The ICEO&SI 2011and 2012 conferences attract over 300 participants from more than 20 countries who benefite from the exchange of scientific ideas at these esteemed international forums. The convenient geographic location and the comfortable weather of Taiwan encourage the participation and attendance of scientists from Asia-Pacific Rim countries as well as European and American scientists with easy accessibility via major international airports.

This special issue for ICEO&SI 2013 aims to summarize the most recent developments and ideas in the field, with a special emphasis given to the technical and observational results obtained within the last ten years. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Disasters: limited the loss of lives and properties from either natural or human-induced disasters by enhanced preparation policies and early warning systems
• Health: assist the understanding of environmental elements affecting the human health and well-being
• Energy: improving the management of energy policies as well as the renewable energy and sustainable resources developments
• Climate: to monitor, understand, and assess the various factors for climate variability as well as to assist the making of efficient policies in the adaptation of the climate change
• Water: investigating the influence of water resources distribution and variability of hydrological cycle on the world’s sustainable development
• Weather: weather informatics for observations and forecasting is the key in upholding the economical benefits of the human society
• Ecosystems: establishing a land, coast, and marine integrated monitoring framework to benefit the societal economics and environment
• Agriculture: observations done for the effective and sustainable management for regional food-supply and land-use resources development
• Biodiversity: improvement of measuring and analysis techniques for protection, reproduction, and balance of global bioresources
• Business: the high technology improvement on industries for infrastructure of the instrumentations, management systems, and conservation policies

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/amet/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/amet/eosi/ according to the following timetable: