Geospatial Technologies for Housing Sustainability and Urban Development
A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Land Planning and Landscape Architecture".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2026 | Viewed by 159
Special Issue Editors
2. TRADE Research Focus Area, North-West University, Potchefstroom 2531, South Africa
Interests: land demand assessment; real estate market analysis; urban studies; economic development
Interests: housing market dynamics; price forecasting; sustainable real estate; environmental studies; social justice
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
2. Institute of Education, Art and Community, Federation University, Mount Helen, Australia
Interests: urban development; micro-economics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Geospatial technologies are now widely accessible through open-source tools like QGIS and cloud platforms such as Google Earth Engine. The availability and development of these technologies have transformed how researchers and industry professionals analyse and address urban development and housing sustainability. These tools allow for precise spatial and temporal visualization and analysis of data that contribute to research that support management decisions and evidence-based planning. We are in need of research in this field to translate the technical advances into resilient and sustainable urban development that supports the use of land as a scarce resource. Geospatial technology enables, amongst other things, predictive modeling that helps cities anticipate future growth patterns. Growing cities increase in complexity and geospatial technologies provide the tools to analyse trends, opportunities and risks to support the development of tomorrow’s cities. Housing affordability and sustainable land use are central urban challenges and require research on encouraging compact growth, access to services, and climate resilience; additionally, environmentally responsible development requires spatially precise evidence.
Combining data with geospatial tools can reveal a multi-layered view of urban dynamics such as land use change, heat islands, green cover loss, urban landscape design benefits, formal and informal settlement growth, transportation access and infrastructure gaps. It is anticipated that the research in this Special Issue could incorporate studies in the fields of geography, urban studies, landscape architecture, property, and applied economics. Research at the intersection of geospatial technologies and housing sustainability is essential because widely available tools and richer datasets now make robust and spatial analysis feasible. That capability directly improves understanding of urban processes, supports evidence-based housing and land-use policy, and empowers diverse stakeholders to pursue more affordable, resilient, and sustainable urban futures.
The goal of this Special Issue is to collect papers (original research articles and review papers) to give insights about how geospatial technologies can be applied to advance housing sustainability and urban development.
This Special Issue will welcome manuscripts with the following themes:
- Methods for land‑use optimisation
- Predictive modelling of urban growth
- Geospatial analyses of housing affordability
- Infrastructure and service access
- Evidence‑based policy and planning
- Adoption of green energy infrastructure
We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.
Dr. David Dyason
Dr. Song Shi
Dr. Peter Fieger
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
- geospatial technology
- urban growth
- affordability
- land use
- housing sustainability
- cities
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