Participatory Spatial Modelling, Governance and Territorial Resilience

Dear Colleagues,

Spatial planning and territorial governance are increasingly challenged by accelerating climate-related disturbances, ecosystem degradation, demographic change, and rapid technological transformations. We are facing critical dilemmas and competing development choices that request our collective creation, responsibility, and intelligence. Indeed, the dynamics and uncertainty of spatial, economic, and social processes require the study of the history of complex spatial problems.

In this context, Participatory Spatial Modelling (PSM) has emerged as a powerful framework for co-creating and discussing scenarios that combine scientific knowledge, local expertise and decision-support tools. This approach enhances collective understanding of territorial dynamics and support more inclusive, informed, dynamic, and effective land-use planning processes. The growing availability of free high-quality satellite imagery sources, high-resolution orthoimagery, advanced geospatial methods and tools (e.g., collaborative mapping platforms, GIS, GeoIA, etc.), sophisticated simulation models, intelligent algorithms and big data analytics offer unprecedented opportunities to strengthen governance mechanisms and improve territorial resilience. Coupling PSM with territorial governance structures can contribute to this goal.

This Special Issue seeks original research that (i) advances theoretical and methodological foundations of PSM, (ii) demonstrates innovative applications of collaborative GIS, scenario co‑creation and geospatial AI for land-use and land‑cover change, and (iii) evaluates the contribution of such approaches to adaptive governance, climate adaptation, disaster risk reduction and community resilience. We also welcome empirical studies and critical reviews that employ PSM toward more sustainable, climate‑responsive territorial development.

Research areas may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Trends in Participatory Spatial Modelling and collaborative GIS;
• Co‑creation of scenarios with leading‑edge geospatial models and tools, and challenges for practice and research;
• Land-use and land-cover change research and multi-level decision-making;
• GeoAI for historical land-use and land-cover trajectories;
• Participatory processes and stakeholder engagement in land‑use policy;
• Smart governance and decision‑support tools for land-use management;
• Climate adaptation planning and territorial resilience;
• Community resilience and socio-ecological systems;
• Nature-based solutions and sustainable land-use management.

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

Dr. Raquel Faria de Deus
Dr. José António Tenedório
Dr. Sérgio Freire
Dr. Bruno Neves
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-anonymized 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.

• participatory spatial modelling
• anticipatory knowledge
• land-use planning
• collaborative geographical information systems (GIS)
• geospatial artificial intelligence (GeoAI)
• sustainable land-use management
• social engagement
• territorial resilience
• climate adaptation
• socio-ecological systems