Transitioning to Sustainable Land Systems Using Nexus Approaches: Impact Assessment, Modeling and Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Rapid urbanization and climate change have degraded our environment and increased the vulnerability of our land systems. With the growing natural resource scarcity, the close linkages of land system with agriculture, energy, and water sectors are also amplifying the challenges on securing sufficient food, energy, and water to meet the rising demand. Several regions of the world are already experiencing Food–Energy–Water (FEW) security challenges, which adversely affect their economic growth and stability. Land use and associated ecosystem services are also changing rapidly and therefore their environmental impacts are highly dynamic. Addressing these challenges will require adopting holistic system-based approaches.

This Special Issue invites papers on emerging methodologies on nexus modeling and case studies on management practices/tools that will lead to sustainable land use planning. It seeks papers addressing the interplays and trade-offs of FEW security with human, economic and environmental sustainability, such as assessment of adopting renewable energy and green infrastructure in sustaining the human and ecosystems in rural or urban areas; development of new governance or partnership frameworks to address the interruption from climate change on stream flows, local livelihood and ecosystem services. The goal of this Special Issue is to provide, from global to local, from rural to urban, innovative and interdisciplinary solutions towards sustainable land use planning. 

This Special Issue will select works from GLP 2018 Asia Conference. Each submission to this Special Issue should contain at least 50% new material, e.g., in the form of technical extensions, more in-depth evaluations, or additional use cases. These extended submissions will undergo a peer-review process according to the journal’s rules of action. At least two technical committees will act as reviewers for each extended article submitted to this Special Issue; if needed, additional external reviewers will be invited to guarantee a high-quality reviewing process. Participants in this conference will receive a 20% discount on the Article Processing Charges.

Dr. Ching-Cheng Chang
Prof. Dr. Jiaguo Qi
Dr. Wan-Yu Shih
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. Environments 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 1800 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 drivers and impacts
• trade-offs for land use and conflicts
• food-energy-water nexus approach
• integrated system-based modeling
• ecosystem and environmental services
• green economy and renewable energy
• green infrastructure
• land use planning and governance
• sustainable development