Rural Landscape Characterization, Planning and Design Guided by Agrobiodiversity
A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Landscape Ecology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 26 October 2026 | Viewed by 199
Special Issue Editors
Interests: historic rural landscapes; landscape ecology; planning; urban green areas
Interests: historic and contemporary parks and gardens; agricultural landscape; green urban design; ornamental plants; postharvest cut flowers
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Rural landscapes are complex systems results of the co-evolution across centuries between humans and the environment. For this reason, every agricultural landscape is characterized by specific features and identity elements with historical and cultural values. These landscapes are less mechanizable than others and, for this reason, maintain high levels of agrobiodiversity. Indeed, traditional agricultural practices and landscape mosaics are well preserved. Furthermore, the less extensive cultivation and decreased use of fertilizers maintain a good biodiversity, which in some types of rural landscapes (i.e., terraced landscapes) is very high. However, rural landscapes are threatened by some vulnerability elements, which in many cases cause their abandonment (i.e., senility in agriculture, high efforts for the cultivation, low remuneration). Furthermore, resilience to environmental challenges in many contexts (i.e., climate change) requires the implementation of adaptation strategies. For these reasons, the identification and characterization of rural landscapes are priorities to increase the knowledge about agricultural heritage and to identify planning strategies for their future conservation.
For this Special Issue, we aim to collect papers (original research articles and review papers) that give insights into the characterization, planning, and design of rural landscapes to strengthen the agrobiodiversity that characterizes them and to preserve their historical and cultural values.
This Special Issue invites manuscripts that link the following themes:
- landscape ecology;
- landscape planning;
- landscape analysis
We look forward to your submissions.
Dr. Enrico Pomatto
Dr. Marco Devecchi
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
- landscape dynamics
- resilience
- mapping
- participatory approaches
- historical landscapes
- traditional agricultural practices
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