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Land
Special Issues
Spatial Optimization for Multifunctional Land Systems
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Spatial Optimization for Multifunctional Land Systems

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Land Systems and Global Change".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 January 2026 | Viewed by 941

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Thanh Thi Nguyen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Organic Plant Production and Agroecosystems Research in the Tropics and Subtropics, Universität Kassel, Witzenhausen, Germany
Interests: land use change; sustainable landscape; remote sensing and modeling
Dr. Melvin Lippe

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institute, Institute of Forestry, 21031 Hamburg, Germany
Interests: forestry; land use change and impact of ecosystem function; ABM; particpatory
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The increasing complexity of land system dynamics—driven by competing demands for food production, biodiversity conservation, urban development, and climate mitigation—calls for robust and integrative spatial planning tools and approaches. These demands often conflict in space and times at landscape-level. Spatial optimization has emerged as a key approach to support the allocation of land uses in a way that balances multiple, often conflicting objectives while accounting for spatial, ecological, and socio-economic constraints.

This Special Issue  aims to bring together recent innovative research that advances theory, methods, and applications of spatial optimization in multifunctional land systems. We invite original research articles, reviews, and case studies that address spatial trade-offs and synergies among ecosystem services, land use demands, and sustainability goals. Studies that incorporate spatially explicit modeling, GIS, remote sensing, agent-based or system dynamics models, ecosystem service assessments, or machine learning approaches are particularly welcome.

This Special Issue will welcome manuscripts that link the following themes:

  • Trade-off and synergy analysis between land functions or ecosystem services;
  • Coupling optimization with ecological, social, or economic models’ land use management;
  • GIS-based spatial decision-supporting tools;
  • Integration with remote-sensing, agent-based, or system dynamics models;
  • Scenario analysis for sustainable land transitions;
  • Participatory or stakeholder-informed spatial planning.

Dr. Thanh Thi Nguyen
Dr. Melvin Lippe
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.

Keywords

  • spatial optimization 
  • multifunctional land use 
  • land use planning 
  • trade-off analysis 
  • sustainable land management

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

32 pages, 30205 KB  
Article
Assessing the Multifunctional Potential and Performance of Cultivated Land in Historical Irrigation Districts: A Case Study of the Mulanbei Irrigation District in China
by Yuting Zhu, Zukun Zhang, Xuewei Zhang and Tao Lin
Land 2025, 14(12), 2421; https://doi.org/10.3390/land14122421 - 15 Dec 2025
Abstract
Historical irrigation districts (HIDs) are integrated systems of natural and cultural assets, with cultivated land providing critical functions such as food security, environmental conservation, and cultural inheritance. This study presents a research framework for evaluating multifunctional potential, performance, and geographical matching along the [...] Read more.
Historical irrigation districts (HIDs) are integrated systems of natural and cultural assets, with cultivated land providing critical functions such as food security, environmental conservation, and cultural inheritance. This study presents a research framework for evaluating multifunctional potential, performance, and geographical matching along the “potential-performance” dimensions using analytical tools such as SPSS26.0, ArcGIS pro3.5.2, GeoDa1.22, InVEST3.13, and bivariate spatial autocorrelation. We use Mulanbei HID in China as a case study because of its thousand-year irrigation history and unique location at the intersection of coastal urban and rural communities. The results show the following: (1) In the Mulanbei HID, multifunctional cultivated land exhibits functions in the following order: producing functions, ecological functions, landscape–cultural functions, and social functions. The production function has a homogenous distribution characterized by high values. The ecological function, on the other hand, is distinguished by high-value clusters that decrease significantly as building land approaches its periphery. Social and landscape–cultural roles continue to be undervalued, with high-value places isolated on metropolitan margins. (2) In terms of matching multifunctional potential and performance, in the High-Potential–High-Performance cluster, production and ecological functions account for 19% and 20%, respectively, while in the High-Potential–Low-Performance cluster, social and landscape–cultural functions account for 33% and 27%. The Low-Potential–Low-Performance cluster has 4% production, 4% ecological, 10% social, and 13% landscape–cultural functions, but all four functions are less than 4% in the Low-Potential–High-Performance cluster. These findings provide a scientific foundation for improving cultivated land zoning and governance with a focus on heritage protection. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Spatial Optimization for Multifunctional Land Systems)
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17 pages, 3220 KB  
Article
From Subsistence Agro-Pastoral Farming to Tourism-Driven Land Transitions in Ladakh, India
by Andreas Buerkert, Maximilian Ibing, Thanh Thi Nguyen, Martin Wiehle, Imke Hellwig, Kotiganahalli Narayanagowda Ganeshaiah and Eva Schlecht
Land 2025, 14(11), 2120; https://doi.org/10.3390/land14112120 - 24 Oct 2025
Viewed by 723
Abstract
Population growth, urbanization, improved infrastructure, and climate change are reshaping land use systems worldwide, creating spatial trade-offs between economic development, ecosystem services, and cultural heritage. In Ladakh, Himalayan India, mass tourism and recent political changes have triggered a particularly rapid transition from traditional [...] Read more.
Population growth, urbanization, improved infrastructure, and climate change are reshaping land use systems worldwide, creating spatial trade-offs between economic development, ecosystem services, and cultural heritage. In Ladakh, Himalayan India, mass tourism and recent political changes have triggered a particularly rapid transition from traditional subsistence farming to market-oriented production, raising concerns about the sustainability of changing land management practices, cultural identity, and growing dependence on external inputs. To disentangle these concerns, we investigated land use changes, development patterns, and socio-economic drivers over the past 40 years. To this end we merged Landsat-based remote sensing data with household surveys in two contrasting, urbanizing regions—the Union Territory’s capital Leh and its more remote, third largest town of Diskit. Spatially explicit land cover maps for three periods of the 1970s, the 2000s, and the 2020s revealed an eightfold increase in residential area in Leh, with 41.7% of agricultural land converted to urban use, compared to a twofold increase and only 1.7% farmland loss in Diskit. Expansion of urban land use in Leh occurred in all directions across multiple land use types, while in Diskit, it remained localized to previously unused land. Survey data on socio-economic parameters showed a production shift toward goods demanded by tourism and the military, the latter being linked to border tensions with China and Pakistan. The divergent dynamics highlight the need for integrated spatial planning and scenario analysis to balance globalization-driven development with the conservation of cultural landscapes and ecosystem services. We recommend ecotourism-based strategies as an optimized pathway toward sustainable and multifunctional land systems in mountain regions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Spatial Optimization for Multifunctional Land Systems)
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