Soil Ecosystem Services, Land Planning, Landscape Design and Management
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 38708
Special Issue Editors
Interests: agricultural landscape; biodiversity; cultural landscapes; ecosystem services; sustainable productions; resilient agro-ecosystems; urban agriculture
Interests: urban forest; landscape ecology; landscape planning; land management; forest management; environmental science
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: archaeological landscape; ecological landscape design; contemporary metropolis; urban project
Interests: soil fertility and healthiness; soil pollutants; wastes
Interests: climate change; desertification; land-use; sustainable agriculture; urban sprawl; urban and rural geography
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The UN strategic objectives for sustainable development (Agenda 2030) identify sustainable management of terrestrial ecosystems and use of environmental resources as a priority of action, together with the design of resilient and endurable cities. These challenges depend on the relationship of man to land, as soil, a complex matrix of materials and organisms, a physical substrate, an ecological matrix, and a non-renewable resource. The quality of this relation depends on land use and planning as well as on environmental and landscape design. Soil is a system that supplies ecosystem services which are crucial for the survival and human life quality in contemporary habitats, providing food, hosting most of the biosphere, allowing carbon storage and mitigating the effects of climate change, ensuring the cycle of elements and water, preserving the historical and cultural values of the places, and drawing the landscape. Many drivers threaten the functionality of the soil system, like sealing due to urbanization, the loss of biodiversity as a consequence of inappropriate agricultural or forestry uses, the contamination and desertification due to climate change, the erosion and consumption caused by hydrogeological instability. Counteracting the phenomena that irreversibly compromise soil fertility and productivity requires new interdisciplinary knowledge and innovative and integrated strategies for sustainable land use, sustainable planning, and an ecological landscape design in all environments from the natural and rural to peri-urban and urban ones.
In this context, this Special Issue of Sustainability aims to bring together multidisciplinary knowledge and cross-sectoral approaches for the maintenance of soil functionality and the provision of soil ecosystem services through a sustainable planning, design, and land use.
Studies are expected to address:
- Innovative strategies for counteract soil degradation and recover soil functionality
- agricultural and forestry system’s management for safeguarding soil resilience and prevent land degradation in natural, rural, and urban areas;
- Innovative technologies and approaches for preserving soil biodiversity and healthiness;
- Innovative concepts and approaches in landscape design in urban and rural areas;
- Sustainable land use planning;
- Mapping soil related ecosystem services;
- Measure of the values of soil ecosystem services.
Prof. Rita Biasi
Prof. Marco Marchetti
Prof. Alessandra Capuano
Dr. Anna Benedetti
Dr. Luca Salvati
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- ecological landscape design
- forestry planning
- landscape urbanism
- phytoremediation
- resilient agriculture
- urban forestry
- environmental planning
- sustainable urban design
- water-sensitive design
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