Sustainable Development of Land Cover Change and Landscape Ecology
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Soil Conservation and Sustainability".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2024 | Viewed by 1151
Special Issue Editors
Interests: land use change; landscape pattern; landscape ecology; urban ecology; geospatial analyses
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: GIS methods; landscape metrics; land use change; soil degradation; lanscape ecology; soil sciences
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Land cover is the most visible indicator of anthropogenic processes in the landscape. The spatial characteristics of land use and land cover have increasingly influenced landscape ecological and environmental processes in recent centuries. Changes in land cover alter the state of the landscape components (topography, vegetation, soil, surface and groundwater, etc.), sparking complex relationships and interactions between the landscape components. According to the pattern and process paradigm, the change in any landscape element (landscape component) has an impact on changes in landscape structure (composition and configuration of landscapes), and can result in a change in the landscape processes. Land cover (and its spatial characteristics) can be not only a driving force but also an important indicator of the interactions between landscape features. The pattern of land cover (and its change) is an indirect indicator of the naturalness of landscapes and of changes in naturalness. The natural and social processes that cause land cover changes are very complex and therefore require a holistic approach.
Changes in the composition and/or configuration of land cover significantly affect the size and spatial characteristics of habitats in the landscape, and thus biodiversity. Land cover change determines a wide range of ecosystem services, such as vegetation runoff conditions, soil erosion, microclimate regulating or dust reduction functions. The development of geoinformatics and remote sensing techniques has opened up new horizons for land cover change analysis that can support the sustainable landscape planning in urban, peri-urban and rural landscapes. Land use and land cover modelling can provide particularly important input information for sustainable urban planning as well as for landscape structure planning in agricultural landscapes.
In this Special Issue, we welcome publications and review articles aiming at exploring the natural and social causes of recent land cover changes, as well as the landscape ecological and environmental consequences of the land cover changes. In addition to articles on GIS-based analysis of land cover change, we welcome articles on sustainable agricultural land use, modelling of future land use, as well as environmental and social conflicts related to land cover change in different urban, suburban or rural study areas. We welcome articles on land cover change modelling in dynamically changing landscapes (e.g., suburban areas, rain forest), and the effect of climate change on vegetation and land cover changes.
Dr. Peter Szilassi
Dr. Nándor Csikós
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. 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
- landscape planning
- pattern and process paradigm
- sustainable land use
- landscape metrics
- land use modelling
- ecosystem services
- urbanisation
