Urban Land Use Dynamics and Smart City Governance

Dear Colleagues,

Globally, horizontal and vertical urbanisation has led to complex transformations in land use patterns, alongside recent advancements in digital tools, technology, and data-driven approaches, demanding intelligent, more inclusive, and sustainable approaches to urban planning and governance. The relationship between urban land use dynamics and governance mechanisms is becoming increasingly important for ensuring environmental, economic, and social resilience. Smart city models that use digital technologies, big data, geospatial analytics, generative AI, and participatory governance present promising opportunities for more data-informed and evidence-based decision-making. In this context, geovisualisation plays a vital role in improving our ability to interpret land use patterns and predict planning trends across various urban settings.

Accordingly, this Special Issue invites scholarly contributions that explore how novel and emerging digital tools and technologies can shape urban planning and smart city development. We welcome multi-scale empirical studies, methodological innovations, and comparative assessments that illuminate mechanisms and trade-offs in the governance of land use change. By critically examining the nexus between urban land dynamics and smart governance, the issue seeks to inform planning strategies, policy frameworks, and digital infrastructures that foster more adaptive, equitable, and sustainable urban futures.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Spatiotemporal analysis of urban expansion, shrinkage, and densification;
• Land use change modelling and forecasting;
• Machine learning, predictive modelling, and artificial intelligence for land use;
• Drivers and impacts of land use transformation (e.g., gentrification, peri-urbanisation);
• Monitoring land consumption and urban sprawl using remote sensing and GIS;
• Urban land use and ecosystem services;
• Climate adaptation and resilience;
• Digital tools, platforms, and technologies for urban planning and decision-making;
• Integration of EO (Earth Observation), IoT, and sensor data for urban planning ;
• Urban informality and inclusion in digital planning tools;
• Comparative studies on digital urban planning tools across regions, e.g., the Global South and the North;
• E-governance and citizen engagement in land use planning;
• Standards in smart city data infrastructures, digital twins;
• Blockchain, digital twins, and AI in urban governance.

The aim of this Special Issue is to collect original research papers that provide insights into innovative and smart uses of digital tools and technologies for urban planning and land use governance. This Special Issue will compile advanced research and comprehensive reviews focusing on the mechanisms by which data-driven methodologies inform land use planning and decision-making processes in the dynamic world we live in today. It aims to assess socio-economic and environmental impacts and to concatenate novel insights to present integrative, equitable, and resilient frameworks for sustainable urban development. Particular emphasis is placed on multi-scale analyses, comparative case studies, mixed-method approaches, and practice-oriented insights that bridge academic theory with policy implementation within urban science.

This Special Issue welcomes manuscripts that investigate the following themes, among other relevant topics, exemplifying the previously presented topics:

• Spatial analytics for land use forecasting
• Digital twins and 3-D cadastres
• Mobility data in zoning and TOD policies
• Smart-city governance versus informal settlements
• Public participation and XR visualisation
• Ethics, privacy, and data justice in land management
• Smart climate adaptation
• Smart ecosystem management
• Explicit socio-economic considerations in smart city planning

We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.

Dr. Irma Kveladze
Dr. Ida Maria Bonnevie
Prof. Dr. Jamal Jokar Arsanjani
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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.

• smart-city governance
• urban land use modelling
• urban land use dynamics
• geovisualization
• spatial analytics and GIS
• generative AI
• remote sensing
• digital twins
• data-driven decision-making
• machine learning
• spatial planning
• participatory planning
• citizen engagement
• climate adaptation
• sustainability and resilience