Integrating Climate, Land, and Water Systems

Dear Colleagues,

Advances in Earth system science highlight the significant connections between land, climate, and water systems, emphasizing their dynamic interactions and cascading effects on environmental change. These systems are inherently interconnected, and alterations in one domain often trigger consequences in another. For example, shifts in land use can change local climates and disrupt hydrological cycles; at the same time, climate variability can aggravate land degradation and intensify water stress. Despite growing recognition of these interdependencies, major knowledge gaps still exist, particularly on regional and global levels. These gaps hinder the development of sustainable solutions that find a compromise between environmental preservation, economic growth, and societal requirements. A deeper understanding of the inter-relations between land, water resources, and climate is essential for a sustainable future as global populations increase and climatic impacts become more severe. Innovations in geospatial technologies and data analytics provide novel opportunities to map, track, and model such complex systems, supporting evidence-based decision-making to enhance sustainability and resilience.

The goal of this Special Issue is to gather original research articles and review papers that explore the interconnections between land, climate, and water systems across spatial and temporal scales, offering insights to advance sustainability and resilience goals.

This Special Issue welcomes manuscripts that link the following themes:

• Land Use and Land Cover Dynamics: to explore how changes in land use and cover influence climate, water resources, and ecosystem services.
• Climate–Land–Water Interactions: to investigate the relationships between climatic processes, land systems, and water cycles.
• Sustainability and Resilience Strategies: to develop approaches to balance environmental conservation, resource management, and societal needs across land–climate–water systems.
• Geospatial Tools and Data Analytics: to apply innovative technologies to monitor, map, and model integrated land, climate, and water systems.

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

Dr. Krzysztof Raczynski
Prof. Dr. Jamie Dyer
Dr. Łukasz Chabudziński
Dr. Katarzyna Baran-Gurgul
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.