Governance and Spatial Planning for Sustainable Urban and Rural Development

Dear Colleagues,

With rapid globalization and urbanization, urban and rural development are encountering unparalleled challenges, such as the uneven distribution of resources, environmental degradation, and extensive social inequalities. These challenges have led to irreversible social, economic, and ecological changes, which have had an impact on sustainable development in various contexts. Therefore, it has become imperative to implement robust governance strategies and to advance spatial planning techniques to achieve long-term rural–urban development. Sustainability is now a crucial aspect of rural–urban planning and governance. This Special Issue is devoted to exploring innovative governance modes and spatial planning methods, evaluating their efficacy in promoting sustainable development in urban and rural areas.

The goal of this Special Issue is to collect papers (original research articles and review papers) to provide insights about case studies, theoretical advancements, methodological innovations, and empirical research that highlight successful practices, challenges, and lessons learned in implementing sustainable development goals through effective governance and spatial planning.

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

• The impact of governance on sustainable urban and rural development strategies;
• Challenges and paths for sustainable urban and rural governance;
• Theoretical frameworks and governance mechanisms for sustainable development;
• The integration of environmental sustainability into spatial planning processes;
• Climate change adaptation and resilience in spatial planning;
• The intersection of spatial planning with environmental, social, and economic sustainability;
• The role of technology and big data in enhancing governance and spatial planning;
• Multi-scale governance cases for sustainable development;
• Case studies of sustainable spatial planning initiatives.

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

Prof. Dr. Chao Ye
Prof. Dr. Jinliao He
Prof. Dr. Uchendu Eugene Chigbu
Prof. Dr. Zhituan Deng
Prof. Dr. Liang Zhuang
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.

• sustainable development
• sustainable theory and practice
• sustainable governance and policy
• sustainability strategies
• urban and rural governance
• cooperative governance
• climate change adaptation
• spatial planning
• green infrastructure
• technological innovations in planning