Extending the avenues for geosciences research

The special issue “Geoscience of the Built Environment” [1] has received diverse contributions that can be considered to be on something like the outer limits of geosciences, extending their methods and studies to what can be designated the extended anthroposphere, considering not only the human modified environment, but also the natural space that man enjoys and assumes the burden to manage. Perhaps because of the orientation of the work of the editor, most of the contributions concerned building materials in diverse perspectives: the characterization of building materials used either directly as built elements [2,3] or as elements of the preparation of manufactured building materials [4]; the implications of geologic materials to the performance of buildings—namely, regarding thermal stability [5], and the alteration [6] and preservation [7] of existing applications of natural stone. These papers reflect diverse epistemological concerns both at the level of basic conceptual research—namely, taxonomy; and applied research—durability of materials used in built works and the impacts of these natural materials on the comfort of built elements. [...]Centre of Geological Research, Management and Valorisation of Resources (CIG-R, PEst-OE/CTE/UI0697/2011 of the Portuguese Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia