Sustainable Land Management Practices in the Face of Climate Change

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change presents a formidable challenge to our planet's ecosystems, rural and urban areas. The critical link between land management and the global climate system has been firmly established for decades, leading to significant research into practices like conservation tillage, afforestation, and agroforestry. The escalating pace of climate change—marked by increasing temperatures, altered precipitation patterns, and a higher frequency of extreme weather events—fundamentally challenge these established paradigms. This raises critical questions for the scientific community. Are the sustainable land management (SLM) practices of the past robust enough for the future? How can we effectively scale up solutions from local plots to entire landscapes? What are the critical socio-economic and ecological tipping points beyond which current land use systems are no longer viable? Do static inputs and models adequately capture the dynamic and often non-linear responses of terrestrial ecosystems to climate stressors?

We believe a necessary evolution in this field requires a shift in focus: from optimizing isolated practices to designing resilient, adaptive land management systems, including a focus on adaptation at high populated areas.

The goal of this Special Issue is to collect papers (original research articles and review papers) to give insights into the latest advancements in sustainable land management practices as a response to climate change. We aim to create a comprehensive volume that contributes to fostering a collaborative dialog that will inform policy, guide practice, and shape future research agendas in the field of sustainable land management.

This Special Issue will welcome manuscripts that link the following themes:

• Climate-resilient agriculture and forestry
• Urban and peri-urban adaptation land management measures
• Land use governance and policy for climate action
• Water-sensitive land management
• Socio-economic dimensions of Sustainable Land Management

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

Dr. Inmaculada Gómez Jiménez
Dr. Javier Velázquez Saornil
Dr. Rui Alexandre Castanho
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.

• sustainable land management (SLM)
• urban adaptation
• socio-ecological systems
• landscape water management
• climate resilience
• land use policy