GEOBIA 2012 was the fourth international conference on Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis. Following the successful meetings held in Salzburg, Austria (2006); Calgary, Canada (2008); and Ghent, Belgium (2010), the biannual international conference on GEOBIA reached South America, demonstrating the world-wide interest in the development of a set of concepts, methods and applications related to this emerging field.

GEOBIA 2012 was a forum of excellence where a selected group of researchers, students and users presented their findings and latest results. Invited keynote speakers further highlighted GEOBIA's key theoretical and methodological issues, trends and challenges.

We would like to thank very much all participants, specially the keynote speakers, panelists, members of the organizing and scientific committees, secretariat and all presenters for putting together an exceptional meeting!

We look forward to seeing all of you in GEOBIA 2014!