Urban Forests and Diversified Landscape Planning: Latest Advances and Prospects
A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Urban Forestry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 4
Special Issue Editors
Interests: landscape ecology; green building; ecological planning; urbanization dynamic monitoring
Interests: urban landscape ecology; remote sensing; ecological modeling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Urban forests are a fundamental and indispensable component of urban ecosystems, providing a comprehensive set of interconnected ecosystem services that are crucial for reducing urban environmental pressure and maintaining ecological balance. Recent research has gradually revealed the complex relationships between the functional characteristics of trees and ecosystem multifunctionality, in which the composition, structural configuration, and spatial distribution of plant species are key determinants of the ability of urban forests to achieve multiple ecological functions, including carbon sequestration, air purification, and microclimate regulation. These functional processes are mediated by different mechanisms, which exhibit systematic differences between urban suburban gradients and heterogeneous functional areas within cities.
Increasingly, evidence clearly indicates that there is a profound and multifaceted connection between urban forests and human health and well-being, including by improving physical and mental health outcomes, increasing physical activity levels, promoting children's cognition and social development, and strengthening community social cohesion. Even brief exposure to urban forest environments can effectively alleviate symptoms of anxiety and depression, establishing urban green spaces as a cost-effective public health intervention strategy. Therefore, by utilizing the ecosystem services of urban forests and their beneficial impacts on residents' health and well-being, sustainable urban development can be promoted through healthy landscape planning.
Prof. Dr. Tiemao Shi
Dr. Chunlin Li
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
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. Forests 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.
Keywords
- urban landscape ecology
- nature-based solutions
- healthy landscape planning
- ecological function
- urban forest design and planning
- human health and well-being
- green infrastructure
- urban planning
- landscape architecture
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