AI and Remote Sensing Applications for Sustainable Land Use and Management

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainable land use and management is a critical nexus for achieving multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), SDG 13 (Climate Action), and SDG 15 (Life on Land). However, significant gaps remain in measuring the environmental–social–economic trade-offs in land development and management. The recent development of AI techniques and the growing availability of remote sensing data for land use and management studies offer an opportunity to track progress toward these SDGs. However, studies that integrate satellite-based data (e.g., nighttime light, Aerosol Optical Depth) with ground-level sources (e.g., street-view imagery) remain relatively rare. This fragmentation constrains our ability to deliver evidence-based insights to inform land use policy and planning.

This Special Issue, "AI and Remote Sensing Applications for Sustainable Land Use and Management", aims to address this gap by bringing together empirical research that combines geospatial AI with satellite-based and ground-based remote-sensing data to evaluate the economic, social, and environmental impacts of land use and management. We particularly encourage contributions that move beyond methodological innovation to offer clear, policy-relevant insights for sustainable land-use decision-making.

We welcome original research, review articles, and case studies that utilize satellite datasets, street-view imagery, or other geospatial sources to evaluate the impacts of land use and management. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Land use and land cover change;
• Environmental pollution and carbon emissions;
• Social equity and environmental justice;
• Economic development and spatial planning;
• Nighttime light;
• Land use policy.

Dr. Yifu Ou
Dr. Nan Xu
Guest Editors

Dr. Dongwei Liu
Guest Editor Assistant

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. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2700 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.