Urban Land Governance and Spatial Sustainability in Global Urbanization Transitions
A Special Issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X) belonging to the section "Land Socio-Economic and Political Issues".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026 | Viewed by 352
Editors
Interests: land use conflicts; urban-rural integration; land use transition; territorial spatial planning
Interests: urban resilience; theories and methods of mountain city planning
Interests: geographic information science; spatial economics; spatial analysis in health, transportation, and environmental science; remote sensing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: urban and rural resilience; regional planning; land use conflicts
Interests: optimal land allocation and urban-rural development; protection of territorial space and green development; land use transition
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Global urbanization is reshaping the ways in which urban land is governed, developed, redeveloped, and protected. Across both rapidly urbanizing and post-growth regions, cities face common challenges related to urban expansion, built-up land redevelopment, land tenure, informal development, climate risks, infrastructure provision, social equity, and the coordination of land use across administrative boundaries. In this context, urban land governance has become central to steering spatial development toward more sustainable, resilient, inclusive, and efficient urban and regional futures.
This Special Issue aims to advance international and comparative understanding of how institutions, planning systems, policy instruments, market mechanisms, and community practices shape urban land governance and spatial sustainability under global urbanization transitions. Rather than focusing primarily on general land use transition pathways or their economic, ecological, and environmental effects, this Special Issue emphasizes the governance processes, institutional innovations, planning responses, and spatial justice implications through which urban land systems are transformed. In doing so, it is closely aligned with the scope of Land, particularly its emphasis on land-use change, land management, land policy, spatial planning, and sustainable land systems. We welcome contributions from diverse geographical contexts, including Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, and other rapidly urbanizing or post-growth urban regions.
This Special Issue will welcome manuscripts that link the following themes:
- Theoretical and methodological innovations in measuring and modeling land use transitions;
- Socio-economic and ecological impacts of land use transitions;
- Policy, legal, and institutional innovations in urban land governance;
- Spatial planning strategies for sustainable urban renewal and urban-rural integration;
- Smart land governance leveraging digital technologies (e.g., AI and Big Data);
- Land-use conflicts, spatial equity, property rights, and spatial justice;
- Sustainable land management and policy evaluation in different regional contexts.
We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.
Dr. Junfeng Tian
Prof. Dr. Yunyan Li
Prof. Dr. Chuanrong (Cindy) Zhang
Dr. Binyan Wang
Dr. Shijin Qu
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 land governance
- spatial sustainability
- global urbanization transitions
- metropolitan governance
- urban land redevelopment
- growth management
- land institutions and planning systems
- climate-resilient land use
- comparative land policy
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