Sustainable Land Use through Balancing Human–Environment Relationships

Dear Colleagues,

The United Nations defines sustainable land management as “the use of land resources, including soils, water, animals and plants, for the production of goods to meet changing human needs, while simultaneously ensuring the long-term productive potential of these resources and the maintenance of their environmental functions”. Unsustainable land use has significant negative impacts on the environment and society. As global populations grow and economies develop, the land required to meet human needs is likely to increase and the negative impacts are likely to worsen. Human land use plays a critical role in achieving international commitments for sustainable development.

For this Special Issue, we are interested in contributions that help us understand (1) the interactions among land use/cover, human activities, and climate; (2) the causes and impacts of (un)sustainable land use; (3) planning and policy for sustainable land use; and (4) emerging technology for managing and implementing sustainable land use, through either empirical research or conceptual/theoretical works, including but not limited to:

• Spatial analysis of land use/cover change: forest, water, urban, and rural land use;
• Impact of land use/cover change on environment, economy (efficiency), and society (equality, inclusiveness);
• Estimated value of sustainable land use;
• Drivers of land use/cover change: climate, population, economy, society (e.g., poverty, food), and transportation;
• Land use/cover change in developing or developed countries;
• Planning and policy for sustainable land use including compact urban development, and natural land conservation and restoration;
• Emerging technology for managing and implementing sustainable land use management.

We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.

Prof. Dr. Myounggu Kang
Dr. Klaas Kresse
Dr. Jin Zhu
Guest Editors

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. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2600 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.

• land-use land-cover (LULC) change
• compact urban development
• land conservation and restoration
• sustainable land use management
• developing world
• climate change
• big data and artificial intelligence for sustainable land use management