Land Use/Cover Change and Its Impacts on Regional Sustainable Development

Dear Colleagues,

With the global urbanization and economic development, monitoring and analyzing land use and land cover (LULC) change have become a focal point in many interdisciplinary research fields. Rapid urbanization, agricultural expansion and industrialization have contributed to significant alterations in land use and land cover patterns, often resulting in habitat fragmentation, deforestation and loss of biodiversity. These changes not only directly affect the ecological processes and functions of the affected areas, but also have far-reaching consequences on regional climate, water cycles and carbon sequestration. Moreover, the implications of LULC change on food security, human health and socio-economic well-being of communities cannot be underestimated. Therefore, accurately monitoring changes in LULC and comprehensively understanding their impacts on regional sustainable development is of paramount importance in formulating effective strategies for integrated land management. In this context, the integration of remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial modeling techniques has emerged as a powerful tool for monitoring, assessing and predicting LULC dynamics and their impacts on regional sustainable development. The application of these advanced technologies facilitates the generation of spatially explicit and temporally dynamic information on LULC patterns, allowing for a comprehensive analysis of the drivers, processes and consequences of LULC change.  

The goal of this Special Issue is to collect papers (original research articles and review papers) on the monitoring of changes in LULC and the assessment of their impacts related to sustainable development in the region, closely aligned with the scope of Land. The Special Issue specifically emphasizes the assessment of such impacts in relation to sustainable development in the region. Therefore, the papers published in this Special Issue are expected to contribute to the broader scope of research published in Land.

This Special Issue welcomes high-quality studies focusing on monitoring LULC changes and analyzing the impacts of their changes on regional sustainable development. Relevant themes include, but are not limited to:

• Land cover and land use change monitoring;
• Spatio-temporal data mining, data fusion, modeling and analysis of land cover change;
• The relationship between land use/cover change and regional sustainable development;
• The driving forces and mechanisms of land use/cover change;
• Land cover changes and associated impacts on the environment.

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

Dr. Shengbiao Wu
Dr. Xiao Zhang
Dr. Xidong Chen
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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