Land Use Change from Non-Urban to Urban Areas: Problems, Challenges and Opportunities—Third Edition

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce a Special Issue of Land entitled 'Land Use Change from Non-Urban to Urban Areas: Problems, Challenges and Opportunities—Third Edition'.

Population growth is now one of the most critical factors affecting our planet, and it is the cause of a growing demand for resources. To meet this demand, humans are constantly modifying the environment, leading to changes in the use and coverage of the land in which rural lands become urban; these processes occur over very short periods of time.

These rapid processes and changes are generally not adequately planned nor are they part of a long-term vision, which ends up undermining the integrity of urban areas, human beings themselves, and the environment. The change of land use from non-urban to urban areas brings several types of problems related to ecosystem services, basic services, water supply, healthy spaces, and food provision for the population, among others. The solutions for the mentioned problems should be addressed from the beginning, which requires adequate planning to guarantee sustainable and resilient territories.

Additionally, these problems the changes from non-urban to urban areas and the iterations thereof need to be analyzed in a multidisciplinary way, under which these new challenges can become opportunities to achieve the sustainable development of resilient territories. For this Special Issue, we welcome studies related to land use change and non-urban–urban relationships at all spatiotemporal scales, including the following topics:

• Land use planning schemes for progressive urban expansion;
• Regulatory strategies;
• Planning for a sustainable future;
• Geospatial decision support systems (DSSs);
• Spatiotemporal dynamics, socioeconomic implications, water supply problems, and land degradation under deforestation (e.g., the increase in the imperviousness of surfaces) produced by urban expansion and the resource requirements these issues give rise to.

Studies including the exploitation of low-/high-level remote sensing imageries are also welcomed.

Dr. Víctor Hugo González-Jaramillo
Dr. Ruetger Rollenbeck
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.

• land use change
• land use planning
• urban expansion
• urban and rural development
• land degradation
• regulatory strategies
• spatiotemporal dynamics
• remote sensing imageries

• Land Use Change from Non-urban to Urban Areas: Problems, Challenges and Opportunities II in Land (10 articles)