Land Systems and Global Change
A section of Land (ISSN 2073-445X).
Section Information
Land systems (including land-use systems) are complex social–ecological systems composed of interacting social and biological actors, terrestrial environments, and the feedback among these components that shape the dynamics of Earth’s land surface across different scales, from local landscapes to global commodity chains. Land system science aims to understand these complex two-way interactions towards informing more sustainable governance of Earth’s land, including efforts to adapt to, manage, and mitigate coupled changes in climate, biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, food systems, social systems (including economics as well as issues of power and inequality), new technologies, energy systems, water systems, and other interacting social and ecological dynamics that shape the future of Earth’s land.
The transdisciplinary methods and tools of land system science are diverse and cut across the social and natural sciences in addition to the practices of environmental governance. Research methods include the remote sensing of land cover and land use and other approaches to social and environmental mapping as well as analysis, case studies of the causes and consequences of social and environmental change on the ground, metastudies and other approaches to knowledge synthesis, and regional as well as global simulations of coupled human–environment interactions over time. Applied land system science investigates and informs the operations of land systems, including strategies for researching and negotiating tradeoffs in addition to competing demands among diverse stakeholder populations, the governance of multifunctional landscapes, national and international policies and informal institutions governing land rights and access to land and other resources, commodity production and trade, the conservation and restoration of native habitats, and food system architectures at regional and global scales.
We invite authors to submit articles to Land that help to advance the scientific and applied understanding of the functioning and dynamics of land systems from regional to global scales. Articles that meet these goals, including the development of new scientific methods and governance tools that help translate knowledge into action, are welcome.
Editorial Board
Topical Advisory Panel
Special Issues
Following special issues within this section are currently open for submissions:
- Towards Land System Sustainability: Navigating Global Challenges and Local Realities (Deadline: 31 May 2026)
- Applications of Trajectory Analysis to Describe Changes in a Time Series of Maps (Deadline: 31 May 2026)
- Resilient Land Systems in the Face of Increasing Disaster Risks (Deadline: 31 May 2026)
- Monitoring Forest Dynamics Using Remote Sensing and Spatial Data (Deadline: 31 May 2026)
- Key Hydrological Processes and Its Controlling Factors in Terrestrial Ecosystems: 2nd Edition (Deadline: 30 June 2026)
- Monitoring and Modelling Human–Environment Interactions in Urban–Rural Areas (Deadline: 30 June 2026)
- Adaptive Management Strategies for Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas Facing Climate Disruption (Deadline: 30 June 2026)
- Spatial Optimization for Multifunctional Land Systems (Deadline: 31 July 2026)
- Advances in AI and Geospatial Analytics for Land Use and Cover Change Modelling (Deadline: 1 August 2026)
- Feature Papers for "Land Systems and Global Change" Section: 3rd Edition (Deadline: 31 August 2026)
- Teleconnection and Telecoupling in Land System Science (Deadline: 31 August 2026)
- The Mechanism of Land-Water Interaction and Management Strategies: Recent Discoveries and the Way Forward (Deadline: 31 August 2026)
- Rural Demographic Changes and Land Use Response (Deadline: 31 August 2026)
- Monitoring Land Use/Land Cover Change and Forest Dynamics Through Remote Sensing (Deadline: 1 September 2026)
- Land Use Sustainability from the Viewpoint of Carbon Emission: 3rd Edition (Deadline: 30 September 2026)
- Land Modifications and Impacts on Coastal Areas, Second Edition (Deadline: 30 September 2026)
- Transforming Land Management Through Digital Technologies: Opportunities and Implications (Deadline: 1 October 2026)
- Digital Technologies and Ecological Modelling for Land Risk Monitoring and Prediction (Deadline: 15 October 2026)
- Earth Observation and Intelligent Methods for Land System Changes (Deadline: 15 October 2026)
- Sustainable Land Use and Governance in Forest and Grassland Ecosystems (Deadline: 31 October 2026)
- Global Change and Vulnerable Land Ecosystems: Integrated Vegetation–Hydrology–Climate Responses and Policy Implications for Sustainable Land Governance (Deadline: 1 November 2026)
- Rethinking Rural–Urban Interactions in Terms of Food Security and Agriculture Development (Second Edition) (Deadline: 15 November 2026)
- Land System Change and Ecological Environment Response (Deadline: 31 December 2026)
- Carbon Cycle Dynamics and Climate Risk Response in Urban and Rural Land Systems (Deadline: 31 December 2026)
- Dryland Systems Under Global Change: Resilience, Sustainability, and Nature-Based Solutions (Deadline: 31 December 2026)