Integrating Nature-Based Tourism, Urban Community Planning, and Sustainable Land Use

Dear Colleagues,

The acceleration of global urbanization has led to a triple crisis of ecological space squeezing, land-use fragmentation, and community dysfunction. Addressing the systemic challenges inherent in "tourism development, community reconstruction, and land regulation" from a single-disciplinary perspective proves inadequate. The United Nations' New Urban Agenda and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals underscore the necessity for a paradigm shift in spatial planning. There is an urgent need to establish a collaborative framework that facilitates the capitalization of natural tourism resources, enhances community resilience, and promotes integrated land use. This Special Issue seeks to foster the deep integration of human geography, landscape ecology, and public policy research, providing theoretical support and methodological advancements for reconstructing the territorial spatial planning system by dissecting the interaction chain of "value realization of ecological products—community function iteration—land property rights reorganization". Key topics include, but are not limited to, multidisciplinary methodological innovations (e.g., space syntax coupled with ecosystem service assessment, ABM simulations of land decision-making behavior), scalable technical parameter systems (such as dynamic models of ecotourism capacity and measurement criteria for carbon sinks in brownfield regeneration), and institutional breakthrough cases (like national park gateway communities and pilot areas for cross-basin ecological compensation). Special emphasis is placed on leveraging digital technology (including 3D cadastral rights confirmation and the real-time monitoring of ecological footprints) and innovating policy tools (such as the securitization of land development rights and community planning contract systems). Research should highlight contradictory findings (for instance, conflicts of interest between ecological protection and land appreciation) and propose clear solutions.

• Collaborative mechanism of nature tourism and urban community planning.
• Sustainable technology system of land compound use.
• Spatial reconstruction model of surrounding communities in ecologically sensitive areas.
• Framework for mediation of "development–conservation" conflicts in cultural heritage sites.
• Stakeholder collaborative governance model.
• Intelligent technology enables system integration.
• Evaluation of policy tool innovation.

Kind regards,

Dr. Hu Yu
Dr. Shengrui Zhang
Guest Editors

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