Monitoring and Modelling Human–Environment Interactions in Urban–Rural Areas

Dear Colleagues,

Human–environment interactions across urban–rural areas are becoming increasingly complex under rapid urbanization, climate pressures, and shifting socio-economic activities. These processes reshape land use, ecosystem services, ecological functions, and the flows of people, resources, and information between cities and their surrounding regions. Understanding these dynamics is crucial to promoting sustainable land management and ensuring balanced, resilient development. Yet research often remains fragmented, with limited integration of ecological, social, and spatial perspectives.

This Special Issue welcomes interdisciplinary manuscripts that advance understanding of urban–rural interactions through empirical, methodological, or theoretical contributions. Submissions using geospatial analysis, remote sensing, telecoupling/metacoupling frameworks, socio-ecological modelling, ecosystem service assessment, big-data analytics, or scenario simulation are particularly encouraged. We also invite case studies from underrepresented regions. By bringing together diverse approaches, this Special Issue aims to support sustainable, equitable, and resilient urban–rural system planning.

Themes of interest include the following:
• Planning and management strategies for conserving natural and cultural heritage;
• Impacts of land-use change on ecosystem services and ecological quality;
• Climate-change effects on landscapes and associated socio-ecological risks;
• GIS-based and spatial analytical approaches for sustainable land management;
• Interactions among land use, disturbance events, and ecosystem resilience.

Dr. Nan Jia
Dr. Haimeng Liu
Dr. Zhimeng Jiang
Dr. Junyu Zhang
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. Land 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.