Untangling Urban Analysis Using Geographic Data and GIS Technologies—Second Edition

A Special Issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X) belonging to the section "Urban Contexts and Urban-Rural Interactions".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 18 December 2026 | Viewed by 689

Editors

School of Geosciences, University of South, Florida 4202 East Fowler Ave, Tampa, FL 33620, USA
Interests: GIScience; food environment; health geography; big data; urban planning; spatial data mining; spatial statistics; geovisualization
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Geosciences, University of South, Florida 4202 East Fowler Ave, Tampa, FL 33620, USA
Interests: GIScience; wildlife ecology; health; transportation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce a Special Issue of Land, titled ‘Untangling Urban Analysis Using Geographic Data and GIS Technologies—Second Edition’.

Urbanization is a major global trend that is profoundly affecting our societies and economies. The rise of widespread urban living has facilitated economic development, technological innovation, cultural exchange, and enhanced access to healthcare and education. Nonetheless, it also brings challenges such as overcrowding, insufficient infrastructure, housing shortages, social inequity, environmental degradation, etc. There is an urgent need to address these challenges and promote sustainable urbanization on a global scale. Concomitantly, with the further development of urbanization, geographic data and geographic information systems (GIS) technologies have emerged as powerful tools for untangling urban analysis. By using these technologies, urbanists and policymakers can find effective ways to address critical issues, including those related to population growth, transportation, land use, public health, environmental sustainability, and socio-economic development. As cities continue to evolve and face new challenges, these geographic information technologies will remain integral in shaping urban landscapes, enhancing quality of life, and facilitating the development of intelligent and resilient cities for the future.

The goal of this Special Issue is to collect original research articles and review papers that provide insight into untangling urban analysis using geographic data and GIS technologies. Submissions to this Special Issue should focus on, but are not limited to, the following themes:

  • Innovative methodologies for urban analysis with GIS/remote sensing;
  • Urban landscapes and ecosystems;
  • Predictive analysis of urbanization for policy, planning, or designing;
  • Urban green space monitoring;
  • Spatial–temporal analysis of urbanization and urban evolution;
  • Uncertainties in urban environments with GIS/remote sensing;
  • Spatial and social inequalities in urban development.

We look forward to receiving your submissions.

Dr. He Jin
Prof. Dr. Joni Downs Firat
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.

Keywords

  • urban planning
  • urban environment
  • GIS
  • geographic data
  • spatial or spatial-temporal analysis

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

23 pages, 20370 KB  
Article
Sustainable Development Goal 11 and National Physical Plan Thrust 2 in Focus: Studying a Decade of Land Use and Land Cover Change in Penang Island, Malaysia, Using SPOT 6 and SPOT 7 Satellite Imagery
by Nur Faziera Yaakub, Mohd Hasmadi Ismail and Azita Ahmad Zawawi
Land 2026, 15(8), 1355; https://doi.org/10.3390/land15081355 - 28 Jul 2026
Viewed by 481
Abstract
Urbanization profoundly influences social, economic, and environmental systems, imposing a comprehensive understanding of spatial and temporal land use and land cover (LULC) transformations. This study aims to quantify the LULC changes from 2014 to 2023 in Penang Island, Malaysia, using SPOT 6 and [...] Read more.
Urbanization profoundly influences social, economic, and environmental systems, imposing a comprehensive understanding of spatial and temporal land use and land cover (LULC) transformations. This study aims to quantify the LULC changes from 2014 to 2023 in Penang Island, Malaysia, using SPOT 6 and SPOT 7 satellite imagery with a 1.5 m spatial resolution. After preprocessing and transforming data, five LULC classes—namely built-up, forest, water bodies, agriculture and horticulture, and barren land—were classified. The Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier achieved accuracies of 90.8% in 2014, 91% in 2019, and 94.2% in 2023, with kappa coefficients of 0.85, 0.84, and 0.9, respectively. Analysis at the district level revealed that built-up area decreased by 4.53 km2, forest expanded by 10.32 km2, water bodies grew by 0.26 km2, agriculture and horticulture increased by 8.47 km2, and barren land declined by 11.84 km2. Interestingly, the decline in built-up areas presents a paradox to the conventional narrative of urban growth, which typically anticipates an increase in developed land over time. This counterintuitive trend invites further inquiry into factors that may have driven such a reversal in urbanization patterns. Nevertheless, the findings align with SDG 11 and the NPP, which advocate for sustainable and resilient urban development. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop