Dynamics of Land Use/Land Cover Change and Ecosystem Service Provision in a Rapidly Changing World

Dear Colleagues,

The urban–rural system is an economically, socially, and environmentally interlinked space. On a global scale, around 68% of the population is projected to live in urban areas by 2050. Exchanges and interactions between urban–rural and inter-regional areas become more intensive, especially concerning land, labor, water, and energy. As an irreplaceable natural resource, land not only has a market value, but also ecological and social functions. In the context of rapid urbanization, rural land with a lower marginal revenue would convert into construction land with a higher marginal revenue. Meanwhile, some land management practices, such as deforestation and agricultural tillage, which reduce carbon stocks, also lead to more carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions into the atmosphere. These changes potentially decrease food security and reduce the provision of ecosystem services, while also causing land degradation, biodiversity loss, and climatic change. Moreover, urbanization and demographic shifts alter the demand and supply structure for food and are a challenge for agricultural land use. To achieve a coordinating development between urban and rural areas, dynamic interactions of elements (land, water, food, and energy) within the urban–rural system and their ecological and social consequences need to be clarified.

For this Special Issue, our aim is to discuss the following topics: (1) to understand the ecological processes that drive ecosystem services and how these are affected by land use changes; (2) how to identify and quantify the specific contribution of the drivers of changes in an ecosystem service; (3) as an interlinked space, how does the urban–rural system respond to gains and losses in an ecosystem service? Papers may address topics including, but are not limited to:

1) Assessing the ecological and social consequences of land use/land cover changes;

2) Analyzing trade-offs and synergies between multiple ecosystem services;

3) Evaluating the influence of land use management on carbon dynamics (e.g., carbon storage, emission, and sequestration) and distributions across climate and environmental conditions;

4) Quantifying the contributions of urbanization to food system transformation and its impacts on agricultural land use and rural livelihoods;

5) Exchanges and interactions of the urban–rural metabolism;

6) Assessing ecosystem vulnerability and resilience of the urban–rural system.

Prof. Dr. Xiangzheng Deng
Prof. Dr. Shaikh Shamim Hasan
Guest Editors

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