Teleconnection and Telecoupling in Land System Science

Dear Colleagues,

Land systems are shaped by a complex interplay of environmental processes, socio-economic dynamics, and governance structures operating across multiple spatial and temporal scales, and, while land use and land cover change has traditionally been examined through locally or regionally focused approaches, growing evidence suggests that many land system dynamics are increasingly influenced by processes occurring far beyond the boundaries of the locations where their effects are observed. These long-distance interactions challenge conventional assumptions about spatial proximity and necessitate analytical frameworks that can capture connections across distant regions.

Within this context, the concepts of teleconnection and telecoupling have gained prominence in land system science. Teleconnections, originally rooted in climate science, describe statistical and physical linkages between climate processes occurring in geographically distant regions. More recently, the telecoupling framework has been developed to examine coupled human–environment interactions across space, explicitly accounting for sending, receiving, and spillover systems connected through flows of material, energy, information, and people. Together, these concepts provide complementary lenses for understanding how distant drivers and feedbacks influence land use change, ecosystem services, and socio-environmental outcomes.

The increasing integration of global markets, the expansion of international supply chains, urbanisation processes, and the intensification of climate-related impacts have further amplified the relevance of long-distance interactions in land systems. Land use decisions in one region may be shaped by consumption patterns, policy choices, or environmental changes occurring elsewhere, often with indirect or delayed effects. As a result, land system trajectories emerge from interconnected processes that extend across administrative, ecological, and political boundaries.

Against this backdrop, research on teleconnection and telecoupling has become increasingly important for advancing the understanding of land system dynamics in a globalised world, and, by integrating insights from geography, environmental science, economics, and spatial analysis, this research area contributes to a more comprehensive interpretation of land use change and its implications for sustainability, resilience, and land governance across all scales.

This Special Issue aims to provide a focused platform for advancing research on teleconnection and telecoupling within the field of land system science. By bringing together original research articles and review papers, the Special Issue seeks to examine how long-distance interactions shape land use dynamics, land management practices, and socio-environmental outcomes across different spatial and institutional contexts.

This Special Issue aligns closely with the scope of the journal Land, which addresses land use and land cover change, land system analysis, spatial planning, and the interactions between human activities and environmental processes. Teleconnection and telecoupling research contribute directly to these themes by offering conceptual and methodological approaches that extend land system analysis beyond locally bounded perspectives, enabling a more integrated understanding of land dynamics in an interconnected world.

Through contributions that draw on empirical case studies, comparative analyses, and methodological developments, the Special Issue aims to highlight how distant drivers—such as climate variability, global trade, policy frameworks, and socio-economic transitions—interact with local land use decisions. In doing so, it supports the journal’s interest in interdisciplinary research that integrates spatial analysis, geographic information systems, and environmental modelling with social and institutional perspectives.

Overall, this Special Issue aims to foster scholarly dialogue on the role of cross-scale and cross-regional interactions in land systems, encouraging contributions that enhance the conceptual clarity and empirical grounding of teleconnection and telecoupling research, while remaining firmly embedded within the thematic and methodological orientation of Land.

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

• Teleconnection and telecoupling processes in land system science;
• Climate variability, climate-related teleconnections, and land use dynamics;
• Global trade, supply chains, and distant drivers of land use change;
• Urban–rural linkages and cross-regional land system interactions;
• Applications of GIS, remote sensing, and spatial modelling in telecoupled land systems;
• Implications for land governance, planning, and sustainability.

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

Dr. Loredana Mariana Crenganiș
Prof. Dr. Salvador García-Ayllón Veintimilla
Prof. Dr. Nilanchal Patel
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-anonymized 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.

• telecoupling
• teleconnection
• GIS and spatial modelling
• land system science
• land-use and land-cover change
• global land systems
• climate variability
• spatial interactions