Land Governance and Spatial Development
A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Land Socio-Economic and Political Issues".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 14
Special Issue Editors
Interests: land management; farmland preservation; urbanization; land market; industrial development; urban planning; Transfer of Development Rights (TDR)
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Land systems worldwide are undergoing profound transformations driven by rapid urbanization, rural restructuring, technological change, and evolving institutional arrangements. How to govern land—through formal rules, informal practices, market mechanisms, and multi-level governance structures—has far-reaching implications for spatial development outcomes, including land-use efficiency, urban–rural integration, regional competitiveness, ecological sustainability, and social equity. As nations confront challenges such as land scarcity, territorial inequality, administrative fragmentation, and the emergence of new land markets, understanding the governance processes shaping spatial development has become both an academic frontier and a policy priority.
This Special Issue aims to advance theoretical, empirical, and methodological understanding of how land governance influences spatial development across urban, rural, and regional contexts. It invites research that aligns with the journal Land’s broad scope, encompassing land-use change, land policy, spatial planning, and land-market mechanisms. We particularly encourage submissions that examine institutional drivers, governance innovations, and the socio-economic, political, and environmental consequences of land-related interventions. The goal of this Special Issue is to collect original research articles and review papers that provide new insights into the interactions between land governance and spatial development.
This Special Issue welcomes manuscripts addressing (but not limited to) the following themes:
- Land institutions, property rights, and governance innovations
- Land markets, pricing mechanisms, and industrial/urban development
- Regional integration, administrative reforms, and spatial coordination
- Land-use efficiency, productivity, and ecological sustainability
- Social impacts of land policies, including expropriation, compensation, and equity
- Big data, remote sensing, and computational methods in land and spatial research
We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.
Prof. Dr. Hui Wang
Dr. Shenghua Lu
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-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 governance
- spatial development
- land-use policy
- urban–rural integration
- land markets
- regional development
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