This book aims to foster a dialogue within and across rural communities, practitioners, academics, and decision-makers for interdisciplinary collaborations and informed actions. It offers knowledge about challenges faced by rural communities around the world to assess their vulnerabilities, vitality assets, and versatility to react in a time of global threats and discusses the opportunities and the limits of new technologies, such as remote sensing, to assess these rural conditions. The case studies and examples included discuss how rural communities cope with emergencies and unexpected changes from outside and how to collaborate for achieving better preparedness. Features Provides a practical guide with resources and applications for researchers, practitioners, and decision-makers exploring rural development challenges worldwide. Introduces the emergent concept of "vitality, vulnerability and versatility" to better grasp the challenges of rural communities. Offers a valuable set of tools to assess rural vulnerability and vitality and focuses on long-term rural transformations that are meaningful for various communities. Integrates remote sensing technology and explores its opportunities and limits when used in different environments. Includes real life case studies from different countries to illustrate how rural conditions assessment can be performed Introduces a visual roadmap to facilitate and compare rural assessment between and within rural communities.

This book is an insightful resource for practitioners, researchers, graduate, and senior undergraduate students in the fields of urban/regional planning, land management, geography, environment studies, and remote sensing, as well as agencies and NGO institutions working with rural communities.