sustainability-logo

Journal Browser

Journal Browser

Advances in Ecosystem Services and Urban Sustainability, 2nd Edition

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Urban and Rural Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 November 2024 | Viewed by 331

Special Issue Editor

School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Interests: urban ecosystem services; blue–green infrastructure; urban nature-based solution; human wellbeing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the rapid growth of cities, the urban ecosystem is becoming one of the most important habitats for human beings. It combines natural and anthropogenic components that interact with one another, providing both natural and artificial benefits that influence the quality of urban life. Under the carbon neutrality targets of various countries across the world, nature-based solutions (NBSs) will play an increasingly important role in addressing climate change. NBSs constitute a type of ecosystem-based blue and green infrastructure (BGI) involving interconnected networks of natural and artificial landscape components. The natural processes and aspects of BGI underpin their functions, which in turn results in most urban ESs. Under the pressure of urban expansion and climate change, better information on how ESs contribute to the urban ecosystem and human well-being is crucial for decision-making and urban planning and will likely improve sustainable urban development. This Special Issue will present an up-to-date overview of advances in ecosystem services and urban sustainability by bringing together conceptual, epistemological, methodological, and predominantly case-based studies or applied perspectives.

The editors of this Topic encourage submissions focused on topics including, but not limited to, the following:

  • New definition, characterization, or mapping of urban forms, urban ecosystem services, or urban management.
  • Novel approaches to identify the main drivers of land cover/land use change for sustainable urban development in urban planning throughout history.
  • Innovative concepts, methods, or technologies to analyze and model urban land cover/land use change, human–nature interaction, or social–ecological system dynamics.
  • Disentangling the synergy and trade-offs among social progress, regional development, environmental management, and urban planning.
  • New concepts, technologies, approaches, and developments of NBS.
  • New technologies, methodologies, and tools to support BGI planning in sustainable urban development.

Dr. Yafei Wang
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • drivers of land cover/land-use change
  • urban sustainability
  • urban ecosystem services
  • urban ecosystem
  • geographic information technologies
  • human–nature interactions
  • blue and green infrastructure planning
  • nature-based solutions

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

19 pages, 7862 KiB  
Article
The Synergistic Structure and Potential Development for Sustainable Ecosystem Services in Urban Areas along the Grand Canal: A Case Study of the Wuxi Segment
by Zhi Yue, Yuting Hua, Yue He, Di Yao, Liya Wang and Xin Tong
Sustainability 2024, 16(11), 4734; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16114734 - 2 Jun 2024
Viewed by 139
Abstract
The Grand Canal possesses a unique ecosystem as one of the world cultural heritage sites. However, its ecological roles and services have been underemphasized in heritage conservation efforts, leading to environmental pollution and the degradation of its heritage value, especially in the highly [...] Read more.
The Grand Canal possesses a unique ecosystem as one of the world cultural heritage sites. However, its ecological roles and services have been underemphasized in heritage conservation efforts, leading to environmental pollution and the degradation of its heritage value, especially in the highly urbanized southern Jiangsu section downstream. This study examines the synergy between regulating ecosystem services (RESs) and cultural ecosystem services (CESs) along the highly urbanized Wuxi section of the Grand Canal, as well as the environmental drivers influencing this relationship. The findings reveal that the synergy between CESs and RESs does not occur at the urban–rural interface but rather in areas 4-6 km away from the Central Business District (CBD). Certain drivers, such as floor area ratio (FAR) and plot ratio (PR), enhance both RES and CES within specific sections. Beyond riparian green belts, various low-density, dispersed, and well-vegetated lands could serve as significant contributors to future ecosystem service (ES) synergy. These conclusions further elucidate the spatial distribution of the heritage cultural services and other ES synergy along the Grand Canal, providing scientific support for broader improvements guiding the sustainable co-development in similar urbanized areas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Ecosystem Services and Urban Sustainability, 2nd Edition)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop