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Land
Special Issues
Connections Between Land Use, Land Policies, and Food Systems
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Connections Between Land Use, Land Policies, and Food Systems

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Water, Energy, Land and Food (WELF) Nexus".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2026 | Viewed by 4324

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Xiangzheng Deng

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Interests: land use/land cover change; ecosystem services; food security; ecological livability; urbanization
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Peiheng Yu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Interests: sustainable urban development
Dr. Yuping Bai

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Land Science and Technology, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China
Interests: land use; ecosystem services; land use management; spatial analysis; sustainable development
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The dynamic interplay between land use, land policies, and food systems is a vital concern in today's world. Understanding and addressing this relationship is essential for promoting sustainable development and ensuring food security for all. This Special Issue explores vital links between how land is used, the policies that shape it, and the food systems that rely on it. As global challenges like urbanization, climate change, and food insecurity grow, understanding these connections is key to building sustainable and fair food systems.

This Special Issue aims to demonstrate how land use and policies shape food systems, providing critical insights that can empower policymakers, researchers, and practitioners to forge resilient and equitable food systems across the globe.

The goal is to promote a holistic understanding of how land management strategies can foster resilient and equitable food systems that respond effectively to the challenges of the 21st century.

Our primary aim is to discuss the following topics: (1) Land Use and Agricultural Sustainability; (2) Land Tenure and Food Security; (3) Urbanization, Land Use and Food Systems under Climate Change; (4) Policy Innovation for Sustainable Land and Food Systems; (5) Global Perspectives and Local Contexts.

We invite scholars interested in the intersection of land management, food security, and sustainable development, including researchers, policymakers, and those working in agriculture, urban planning, and food systems, to contribute to this Special Issue.

Kind regards

Prof. Dr. Xiangzheng Deng
Dr. Peiheng Yu
Dr. Yuping Bai
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

  • land management
  • land use/land cover change
  • land policies
  • food systems
  • urbanization

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

29 pages, 2759 KB  
Article
Exploring the Coordinated Development of Water-Land-Energy-Food System in the North China Plain: Spatio-Temporal Evolution and Influential Determinants
by Zihong Dai, Jie Wang, Wei Fu, Juanru Yang and Xiaoxi Xia
Land 2025, 14(9), 1782; https://doi.org/10.3390/land14091782 - 2 Sep 2025
Viewed by 486
Abstract
Water, land, energy, and food are fundamental resources for human survival and ecological stability, yet they face intensifying pressure from surging demands and spatial mismatches. Integrated governance of their interconnected nexus is pivotal to achieving sustainable development. In this study, we analyze the [...] Read more.
Water, land, energy, and food are fundamental resources for human survival and ecological stability, yet they face intensifying pressure from surging demands and spatial mismatches. Integrated governance of their interconnected nexus is pivotal to achieving sustainable development. In this study, we analyze the water-land-energy-food (WLEF) nexus synergies in China’s North China Plain, a vital grain base for China’s food security. We develop a city-level WLEF evaluation framework and employ a coupling coordination model to assess spatiotemporal patterns of the WLEF system from 2010 to 2022. Additionally, we diagnose critical internal and external influencing factors of the WLEF coupling system, using obstacle degree modeling and geographical detectors. The results indicate that during this period, the most critical internal factor was per capita water resource availability. The impact of the external factor—urbanization level—was characterized by fluctuation and a general upward trend, and by 2022, it had become the dominant influencing factor. Results indicated that the overall development of the WLEF system exhibited a fluctuating trend of initial increasing then decreasing during the study period, peaking at 0.426 in 2016. The coupling coordination level of the WLEF system averaged around 0.5, with the highest value (0.526) in 2016, indicating a marginally coordinated state. Regionally, a higher degree of coordination was presented in the southern regions of the North China Plain compared with the northern areas. Anhui province achieved the optimal coordination, while Beijing consistently ranked lowest. The primary difference lies in the abundant water resources in Anhui, in contrast to the water scarcity in Beijing. Internal diagnostic analysis identified per capita water availability as the primary constraint on system coordination. External factors, including urbanization rate, primary industry’s added value, regional population, and rural residents’ disposable income, exhibited growing influence on the system over time. This study provides a theoretical framework for WLEF system coordination and offers decision-making support for optimizing resource allocation and promoting sustainable development in comparable regions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Connections Between Land Use, Land Policies, and Food Systems)
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26 pages, 3570 KB  
Article
Monitoring Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Farmland Abandonment and Recultivation Using Phenological Metrics
by Xingtao Liu, Shudong Wang, Xiaoyuan Zhang, Lin Zhen, Chenyang Ma, Saw Yan Naing, Kai Liu and Hang Li
Land 2025, 14(9), 1745; https://doi.org/10.3390/land14091745 - 28 Aug 2025
Viewed by 1184
Abstract
Driven by both natural and anthropogenic factors, farmland abandonment and recultivation constitute complex and widespread global phenomena that impact the ecological environment and society. In the Inner Mongolia Yellow River Basin (IMYRB), a critical tension lies between agricultural production and ecological conservation, characterized [...] Read more.
Driven by both natural and anthropogenic factors, farmland abandonment and recultivation constitute complex and widespread global phenomena that impact the ecological environment and society. In the Inner Mongolia Yellow River Basin (IMYRB), a critical tension lies between agricultural production and ecological conservation, characterized by dynamic bidirectional transitions that hold significant implications for the harmony of human–nature relations and the advancement of ecological civilization. With the development of remote sensing, it has become possible to rapidly and accurately extract farmland changes and monitor its vegetation restoration status. However, mapping abandoned farmland presents significant challenges due to its scattered and heterogeneous distribution across diverse landscapes. Furthermore, subjectivity in questionnaire-based data collection compromises the precision of farmland abandonment monitoring. This study aims to extract crop phenological metrics, map farmland abandonment, and recultivation dynamics in the IMYRB and assess post-transition vegetation changes. We used Landsat time-series data to detect the land-use changes and vegetation responses in the IMYRB. The Farmland Abandonment and Recultivation Extraction Index (FAREI) was developed using crop phenology spectral features. Key crop-specific phenological indicators, including sprout, peak, and wilting stages, were extracted from annual MODIS NDVI data for 2020. Based on these key nodes, the Landsat data from 1999 to 2022 was employed to map farmland abandonment and recultivation. Vegetation recovery trajectories were further analyzed by the Mann–Kendall test and the Theil–Sen estimator. The results showed rewarding accuracy for farmland conversion mapping, with overall precision exceeding 79%. Driven by ecological restoration programs, rural labor migration, and soil salinization, two distinct phases of farmland abandonment were identified, 87.9 kha during 2002–2004 and 105.14 kha during 2016–2019, representing an approximate 19.6% increase. Additionally, the post-2016 surge in farmland recultivation was primarily linked to national food security policies and localized soil amelioration initiatives. Vegetation restoration trends indicate significant greening over the past two decades, with particularly significant increases observed between 2011 and 2022. In the future, more attention should be paid to the trade-off between ecological protection and food security. Overall, this study developed a novel method for monitoring farmland dynamics, offering critical insights to inform adaptive ecosystem management and advance ecological conservation and sustainable development in ecologically fragile semi-arid regions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Connections Between Land Use, Land Policies, and Food Systems)
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18 pages, 2303 KB  
Article
Rethinking the Evaluation of Agricultural Eco-Efficiency in the North China Plain, Incorporating Multiple Greenhouse Gases
by Yutong Zhang, Wei Fu, Zhen Zhang, Lixuan Ma, Lijun Meng and Chao Wang
Land 2025, 14(8), 1665; https://doi.org/10.3390/land14081665 - 18 Aug 2025
Viewed by 519
Abstract
The reduction of substantial agricultural greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions can make a significant contribution to climate change mitigation and regional sustainable development. Given that most of the current studies about eco-efficiency only considers CO2, while ignoring other GHGs, such as CH [...] Read more.
The reduction of substantial agricultural greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions can make a significant contribution to climate change mitigation and regional sustainable development. Given that most of the current studies about eco-efficiency only considers CO2, while ignoring other GHGs, such as CH4 and N2O, this study analyzes the spatiotemporal characteristics of CO2, CH4, and N2O, and considers them as undesirable outputs to assess the agricultural eco-efficiency (AEE) in the North China Plain from 2004 to 2022, respectively, including AEECO2, AEECH4, AEEN2O, and AEEGHG. The results show that (1) Agricultural GHGs emissions increased significantly before 2018 and slightly decreased after 2018, due to the enforcement of energy-saving and emission-reducing policies. Spatially, GHG emissions are higher in the north but lower in the south. (2) The study demonstrated that incorporating CH4 and N2O significantly affects efficiency (p < 0.01). AEECH4 and AEEN2O are higher than AEEGHG, while AEECO2 is lower than AEEGHG, indicating that only considering a single emission will result in an inefficient outcome. (3) With significant regional heterogeneity, AEEGHG is higher in Henan, Beijing, and Tianjin, while it is the lowest in Hebei. Specific suggestions are proposed to promote sustainable agricultural development. This study presents a novel perspective for comprehensively assessing AEE and offers scientific evidences for agricultural policy formulation to promote climate mitigation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Connections Between Land Use, Land Policies, and Food Systems)
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21 pages, 2228 KB  
Article
The Influence of Rural Land Transfer on Rural Households’ Income: A Case Study in Anhui Province, China
by Yuting Xu, Yitian Lin, Hong Yang, Guoliang Xu and Chao Cheng
Land 2025, 14(2), 294; https://doi.org/10.3390/land14020294 - 30 Jan 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1307
Abstract
This paper looks into the impact of China’s new rural land reform, the three rights separation policy (TRSP), on Chinese farmers’ income. Based on data collected from 360 rural households in Anhui Province, China, 2021, this paper constructed the influence pathways of the [...] Read more.
This paper looks into the impact of China’s new rural land reform, the three rights separation policy (TRSP), on Chinese farmers’ income. Based on data collected from 360 rural households in Anhui Province, China, 2021, this paper constructed the influence pathways of the TRSP on household income and estimated the effects along different pathways using the structural equation model (SEM) model. It showed that through expanding the planting scale and promoting resource-use efficiency, the new land tenure system can indirectly increase transfer-in household income. However, the TRSP has a significant negative direct effect on transfer-out households’ income, and only a slight impact on transferring rural labor to other industries or relaxing the liquidity constraint. In short, the TRSP’s effect on income gains is more prominent in transfer-in households than transfer-out ones, which in the long run would lead to an increased income gap, more so if transfer-out households lack easy access to non-farm employment. Our findings suggest that public authorities should respect farmers’ autonomy in land transfer decisions and pay special attention to labor transfer in poverty alleviation. Meanwhile, widening income disparities among different groups should be heeded while implementing local governments’ service roles. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Connections Between Land Use, Land Policies, and Food Systems)
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