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Sustainable Land Use and Management, 2nd Edition

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2025 | Viewed by 2518

Special Issue Editors

College of Public Administration, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
Interests: land use and management; land carbon metabolism
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
College of Public Administration, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
Interests: land use; cultivated land protection
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
College of Public Administration, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
Interests: land system change; land resource allocation; land use modeling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the rapid progress of urbanization and social economy, the utilization and protection of land have become one of the great social problems in many countries. Rapid and excessive urbanization has not only brought significant challenges to the sustainable use and management of urban land, but also imposed far-reaching, negative implications on farmland use as well as ecological environment protection, as both urban and rural land are faced with overexploitation, and the harmony of the human–land system has yielded to discord. Unreasonable land-use planning and allocation are gradually reducing the efficiency and sustainability of urban land use, and also branching out the conversion scale of farmland to construction land. However, farmland reduction and urbanization not only give rise to ecological environmental issues, such as farmland degradation, environmental pollution, carbon emission increases, and so on, but also induce many social problems around land interests. We hope that if sustainable development and a harmonious human–land relationship can be integrated into the land-use planning and management processes, it will be possible to fulfill the diversified requirements of urbanization and minimize adverse ecological and social impacts at the same time.

This Special Issue intends to collect recent diverse studies regarding sustainable land use and management from different research perspectives, with the ultimate aim of contributing to the global challenges of the sustainable urban and rural development in the rapidly urbanizing world. We seek original and innovative academic papers concerning land-use planning as well as its social and ecological effects, preferably for making use of big data, GIS, system simulation, social networks, etc. Planning approaches and policy analysis are also welcomed, as land-use planning and management depend, to a high degree, on authorities and governance models in many countries and regions.

Relevant topics include but are not limited to the following areas:

  • Urban/rural land use planning and allocation;
  • Urban/rural land use and sustainable development;
  • Sustainable urban land management approaches;
  • Planning and public policy analysis in urban areas;
  • Rural land use and land conflicts;
  • Sustainable rural land management approaches;
  • Low-carbon-oriented land use allocation;
  • Resilience and sustainable intensification of cultivated land systems.

Dr. Lu Zhang
Dr. Bing Kuang
Dr. Bohan Yang
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

  • land use planning and management
  • land overexploitation
  • the harmony of the human–land system
  • sustainable development
  • big data
  • system simulation

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 3391 KiB  
Article
Analysis of the Utilization of Vacant Houses and Extraction of Regional Characteristics Using Travel Information Data
by Aoto Sasaki, Yuma Morisaki and Makoto Fujiu
Sustainability 2024, 16(16), 6824; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16166824 - 9 Aug 2024
Viewed by 317
Abstract
The number of vacant houses in Japan has increased rapidly in recent years due to a declining population. The government has been actively developing measures to solve the vacant house problem and has implemented subsidy programs to support the expansion of vacant house [...] Read more.
The number of vacant houses in Japan has increased rapidly in recent years due to a declining population. The government has been actively developing measures to solve the vacant house problem and has implemented subsidy programs to support the expansion of vacant house utilization projects. Japan has a particularly high number of vacant houses that are utilized for the purpose of “tourism”. However, vacant house utilization projects are scattered across Japan, and information on such projects is lacking. Moreover, the correlation between different vacant house utilization projects and their location characteristics has not been investigated. In this study, we used a travel information website to extract vacant house utilization facilities from the locations listed and determined the location characteristics of the utilization facilities. We classified the extracted utilization facilities into different categories and used the k-means method to group vacant house utilization facilities according to their categories and regional characteristics. The results obtained in this study can help local governments and businesses implement appropriate location-specific utilization projects. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Land Use and Management, 2nd Edition)
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23 pages, 2523 KiB  
Article
Multi-Scenario Simulation of Land Use Change and Ecosystem Service Value Based on the Markov–FLUS Model in Ezhou City, China
by Maomao Zhang, Enqing Chen, Cheng Zhang, Chen Liu and Jianxing Li
Sustainability 2024, 16(14), 6237; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16146237 - 22 Jul 2024
Viewed by 482
Abstract
Changes in land use patterns, types, and intensities significantly impact ecosystem services. This study follows the time series logic from history to the expected future to investigate the spatial and temporal characteristics of land use changes in Ezhou and their potential impacts on [...] Read more.
Changes in land use patterns, types, and intensities significantly impact ecosystem services. This study follows the time series logic from history to the expected future to investigate the spatial and temporal characteristics of land use changes in Ezhou and their potential impacts on the ecosystem services value (ESV). The results show that the Markov–FLUS model has strong applicability in predicting the spatial pattern of land use, with a Kappa coefficient of 0.9433 and a FoM value of 0.1080. Between 2000 and 2020, construction land expanded continuously, while water area remained relatively stable, and other land types experienced varying degrees of contraction. Notably, the area of construction land expanded significantly compared to 2000, and it expanded by 70.99% in 2020. Moreover, the watershed area expanded by 9.30% from 2000 to 2010, but there was very little change in the following 10 years. Under the three scenarios, significant differences in land use changes were observed in Ezhou City, driven by human activities, particularly the strong expansion of construction land. In the inertial development scenario, construction land expanded to 313.39 km2 by 2030, representing a 38.30% increase from 2020. Conversely, under the farmland protection scenario, construction land increased to 237.66 km2, a 4.89% rise from 2020. However, in the ecological priority development scenario, the construction land area expanded to 253.59 km2, a 10.13% increase from 2020. Compared to 2020, the ESV losses in the inertia development and farmland protection scenarios were USD 4497.71 and USD 1072.23, respectively, by 2030. Conversely, the ESV under the ecological protection scenario increased by USD 2749.09, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing ecological protection in Ezhou City’s development. This study may provide new clues for the formulation of regional strategies for sustainable land use and ecosystem restoration. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Land Use and Management, 2nd Edition)
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22 pages, 4015 KiB  
Article
Spatial and Temporal Differences and Influencing Factors of Eco-Efficiency of Cultivated Land Use in Main Grain-Producing Areas of China
by Yan Ma, Xingyu Wang and Chuanliang Zhong
Sustainability 2024, 16(13), 5734; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16135734 - 4 Jul 2024
Viewed by 527
Abstract
With global population growth and economic development, the sustainable utilization of arable land resources has become the key to guaranteeing food security and ecological balance. Eco-efficiency in cultivated land use (ECLU)has been increasingly emphasized as an important indicator of the coordinated development of [...] Read more.
With global population growth and economic development, the sustainable utilization of arable land resources has become the key to guaranteeing food security and ecological balance. Eco-efficiency in cultivated land use (ECLU)has been increasingly emphasized as an important indicator of the coordinated development of agricultural production and the ecological environment. Studying ECLU in main grain-producing areas (MGPAs) is of great significance for realizing China’s food security guarantee, formulating and implementing scientific land use policies and measures, and safeguarding the long-term healthy development of agriculture. Based on provincial panel data of MGPA from 2008–2021, ECLU is calculated by the super-efficiency slacks-based measure model based on non-desired outputs (SSBM) and non-parametric kernel density estimation. The Dagum Gini coefficient decomposition model was used to explore the spatial non-equilibrium characteristics of ECLU in China, and the geographical and temporal weighted regression (GTWR) model was used to analyze the influencing factors of ECLU. The results showed the following: (1) ECLU in the MGPA showed a fluctuating upward trend, but the overall level was low. (2) In terms of regional disparity, the absolute difference in the development of ECLU among provinces showed a trend of “small-scale expansion followed by reduction”. (3) ECLU showed significant spatial imbalances, with notable internal disparities within the three basins. (4) The effects of economic development level and agricultural irrigation index on ECLU in the MGPA were positively correlated. Based on these findings, this paper suggests implementing region-specific and phased policies tailored to the natural resources and socio-economic conditions of different areas. The aim is to enhance the ecological environment, promote coordinated agricultural development, optimize regional growth, reduce agricultural disparities, and achieve sustainable development for both people and arable land. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Land Use and Management, 2nd Edition)
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22 pages, 9885 KiB  
Article
A Multi-Temporal Analysis on the Dynamics of the Impact of Land Use and Land Cover on NO2 and CO Emissions in Argentina for Sustainable Environmental Management
by Viviana Fernández-Maldonado, Ana Laura Navas, María Paula Fabani, Germán Mazza and Rosa Rodríguez
Sustainability 2024, 16(11), 4400; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16114400 - 23 May 2024
Viewed by 622
Abstract
This study presents an analysis of NO2 and CO emissions in Argentina, utilizing remote sensing data. This research aims to determine the spatiotemporal distribution of NO2 and CO emissions from 2019 to 2021. It examines the influence of land use and [...] Read more.
This study presents an analysis of NO2 and CO emissions in Argentina, utilizing remote sensing data. This research aims to determine the spatiotemporal distribution of NO2 and CO emissions from 2019 to 2021. It examines the influence of land use and cover on NO2 and CO emissions using various climatic, anthropic, and natural indicators. The year with the highest CO and NO2 concentration was 2020. NO2 exhibited the highest concentrations in built-up urban areas and croplands, notably impacting the capital city and the northern region of Buenos Aires province. Also, CO concentration was influenced by anthropic variable distances to national route, mining extraction, power plants, airports, and urban index (UI). They were also influenced by climatic and natural variables (Palmer drought index, vapor pressure, maximum environment temperature, wind speed, DEM, humidity, and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI)) for the different uses and land covers. NO2 concentrations were influenced by anthropic (distance to airports, service stations, open dumpsites, power plants, and factories), climatic, and natural variables (Palmer drought index, vapor pressure, wind speed, and DEM) for the different uses and land cover. This research supports sustainable environmental management by guiding the development of effective emission mitigation strategies for improved community health and well-being. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Land Use and Management, 2nd Edition)
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