Economic Valuation Assessment and Sustainable Management of Ecosystem Services: From Theory to Policy Applications
A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Land Use, Impact Assessment and Sustainability".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 13 February 2026 | Viewed by 59
Special Issue Editors
Interests: human dimensions of natural resources; economic valuation of ecosystem services; assessment of cultural services
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: environmental and resource economics; integrating the environment into economic analysis; environmental valuation; applied econometrics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Ecosystem services (ESs) are the benefits that humans derive from nature—including provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural services—and valuing these services accurately is essential for informed policy decisions, effective environmental management, and balancing development with conservation goals. Despite growing academic and policy attention, challenges remain in operationalizing ES valuation, integrating it into decision-making, and translating theoretical insights into practical applications. This Special Issue addresses these critical gaps, highlighting the role of interdisciplinary research in enhancing the visibility, measurement, and governance of ecosystem services.
The aim of this Special Issue is to collect original studies and review articles that advance our understanding of how ecosystem services can be assessed, economically valued, and sustainably managed across various ecological and institutional contexts. The topic aligns closely with Land’s scope by focusing on the sustainable use and governance of land and natural resources, and by exploring how ES-based frameworks can contribute to land use planning, policy-making, and community development.
We welcome theoretical contributions, empirical case studies, and policy-oriented papers that address, but are not limited to, the following themes:
- Economic valuation techniques for ecosystem services;
- The integration of ES valuation into land use and spatial planning;
- The assessment and valuation of different types of ecosystem services (provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural);
- Trade-offs and synergies among ESs in land management;
- ES assessments in coastal, rural, or urban contexts;
- Institutional frameworks for ES-based policy;
- Applications of stated preference, revealed preference, and hybrid methods;
- Policy instruments for sustainable ES governance.
Article types may include original research articles, methodological papers, policy reviews, and case-based analyses.
Prof. Dr. Chi-Ok Oh
Dr. Hyun No Kim
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.
Keywords
- ecosystem services
- economic valuation
- land use policy
- sustainable management
- environmental decision-making
- non-market valuation
- environmental policy
- land use conflicts
- ES trade-offs
- land use planning
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