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Remote Sensing in Monitoring and Modelling the Patterns and Processes...
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Remote Sensing in Monitoring and Modelling the Patterns and Processes of Land System Change

A special issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Remote Sensing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 4640

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Yu Cao

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Guest Editor
Department of Land Management, School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Interests: landscape ecology and land use & cover change; ecosystem services; remote sensing & GIS applications
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Narumasa Tsutsumida

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Information and Computer sciences, Graduate school of Science & Engineering, Saitama University, 255 Shimo-Okubo, Sakura Ward, Saitama City 338-8570, Japan
Interests: geographical information (GIS & remote sensing); land use/cover monitoring; spatial accuracy assessment; spatial modeling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Chuyuan (Carter) Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Geography and Environmental Planning, Towson University, Towson, MD 21252, USA
Interests: remote sensing; urban climate; urban sustainability; land use land cover change; terrestrial ecosystems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Chengbin Deng

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, The Center for Spatial Analysis, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
Interests: remote sensing image processing; land use and land cover change; environmental change; urbanization
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Land system changes, influenced by anthropogenic activities ranging from local land management to global trade, hold significant implications for sustainability transformations. A more profound comprehension of the state, trajectory, and consequences of these alterations is central to understanding the dynamic nature of land systems and unravelling their effects on ecosystem services and human well-being. Remote sensing, with its unparalleled ability to capture extensive spatial and temporal information, has emerged as a powerful tool in advancing our understanding of land system dynamics. Exciting new prospects are also arising in the comprehension of its social-ecological drivers by incorporating remote sensing data and crowd-sourced social sensing data.

This Special Issue focuses on novel approaches and applications in utilizing remote sensing and social sensing for monitoring and modeling the patterns and processes of land system change. By highlighting the role of remote sensing technology in this domain, we aim to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and advance knowledge in the field of land system science. Papers covering any spatial and temporal scale and any subcomponent within the diverse socio-ecological systems are of interest, and studies on both abrupt and more salient changes and ecological processes are encouraged. We invite original research articles, reviews, and methodological papers that cover, but are not limited to, the following themes:

  • Remote sensing applications for mapping land use and land cover changes;
  • Integrating remote sensing data with socio-economic indicators to assess the drivers of land system change;
  • Assessing the impacts of urban–rural integration on land systems;
  • Quantifying ecosystem service supply and flow in response to land system changes;
  • Advancements in satellite imagery for deforestation and afforestation monitoring;
  • Combining remote sensing with geospatial analysis for ecological restoration studies;
  • Remote sensing-based assessments of habitat fragmentation and biodiversity loss;
  • Pixel-based observation of agricultural intensification;
  • Artificial intelligence techniques in analyzing remote sensing data for land system modeling;
  • Role of remote sensing in detecting telecoupled land systems;
  • Case studies and practices in utilizing remote sensing for sustainable land management;
  • Analyzing the characteristics of social-ecological system by incorporating remote sensing data and crowd-sourced social sensing data;
  • The impact of social and ecological driving factors on the ecosystem services and human well-being;
  • Associations between land use structure/function and environmental outcomes;
  • Ecological consequences of changes in landscape composition and configuration.

Prof. Dr. Yu Cao
Dr. Narumasa Tsutsumida
Dr. Chuyuan (Carter) Wang
Dr. Chengbin Deng
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. 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.

Keywords

  • land system science
  • human–environment interactions
  • ecosystem
  • ecological process
  • land degradation
  • land use function
  • land configuration
  • environmental performance
  • change detection
  • time series analysis
  • ecological restoration
  • social-ecological systems
  • human well-being

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

36 pages, 13078 KB  
Article
Spatial Expansion and Driving Mechanisms of the Yangtze River Delta, Based on RF-RFECV Feature Selection and Night-Time Light Remote Sensing Data
by Dandan Shao, KyungJin Zoh and Huiyuan Liu
Remote Sens. 2026, 18(7), 1033; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs18071033 - 30 Mar 2026
Viewed by 412
Abstract
Rapid urbanization has promoted socioeconomic growth but has exacerbated spatial-structure imbalances. This study investigates 41 prefecture-level cities in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) from 2010 to 2022. Using nighttime light data, we compute the Comprehensive Nighttime Light Index (CNLI) to track urbanization dynamics [...] Read more.
Rapid urbanization has promoted socioeconomic growth but has exacerbated spatial-structure imbalances. This study investigates 41 prefecture-level cities in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) from 2010 to 2022. Using nighttime light data, we compute the Comprehensive Nighttime Light Index (CNLI) to track urbanization dynamics and delineate built-up areas. Furthermore, we apply random-forest recursive feature elimination with cross-validation (RF-RFECV) and a Shapley additive explanations (SHAP)-based interpretation framework to quantify the spatiotemporal evolution of urbanization drivers. The results indicate that urbanization in the YRD increased steadily overall during the study period. Shanghai maintained its core leadership, Jiangsu and Zhejiang advanced steadily, and Anhui rapidly caught up driven by regional integration policies. Although regional disparities generally converged, persistent absolute gaps in small and medium-sized cities and inland areas remain a prominent challenge to balanced development. Spatially, urbanization exhibits a gradient differentiation of “higher in the east and lower in the west, and higher along rivers and coasts than inland.” The regional spatial structure gradually shifted from an early “pole-core–belt” pattern to a polycentric and networked urban agglomeration system, with metropolitan areas and economic belts serving as important carriers for promoting spatial balance. Furthermore, built-up areas exhibit a trajectory of “core agglomeration, corridor-oriented expansion, and intensive transition.” The shrinking coverage of the standard deviational ellipse and a slowdown in expansion rates suggest a shift from extensive outward sprawl to more concentrated development. Regarding driving mechanisms, YRD urbanization has evolved from early-stage factor-scale expansion to a later-stage efficiency- and innovation-driven trajectory. While population density remained the dominant driver, early-stage reliance on transport infrastructure and fiscal decentralization was largely replaced by the strengthening effects of per capita output and green innovation. Overall, these findings provide empirical evidence for optimizing spatial patterns and designing differentiated policies for high-quality urbanization in the YRD. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing in Monitoring and Modelling the Patterns and Processes of Land System Change)
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22 pages, 26794 KB  
Article
Quantification and Driving Factors of Cultivated Land Fragmentation in Rapidly Urbanizing Area: A Case Study in Guangdong Province
by Mengyuan Su, Kaiying Sun, Boyang Deng, Nuo Cheng and Yu Cao
Remote Sens. 2024, 16(14), 2633; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16142633 - 18 Jul 2024
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 2556
Abstract
Cultivated land resources are crucial for food security and economic and social development. However, with the acceleration of urbanization and shifts in land use, cultivated land fragmentation (CLF) has emerged as a significant factor constraining the sustainable development of agriculture in China. As [...] Read more.
Cultivated land resources are crucial for food security and economic and social development. However, with the acceleration of urbanization and shifts in land use, cultivated land fragmentation (CLF) has emerged as a significant factor constraining the sustainable development of agriculture in China. As the most urbanized region, optimizing cultivated land resources and coordinating urban and rural development has become an urgent issue for rural sustainable development in Guangdong Province. This study analyzes the spatiotemporal characteristics of CLF in Guangdong Province from 2000 to 2020 using landscape pattern indices, CRITIC empowerment, and a multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) model. The cultivated land fragmentation index (CLFI) for Guangdong Province reveals a fluctuating trend from 2000 to 2012, increasing from 0.453 in 2012 to 0.641 in 2020. The CLFI is notably high in the Pearl River Delta region, as well as in Meizhou and Maoming. The results show the dynamic changes of the driving factors of CLF at the county scale in 2000, 2010, and 2020. Slope and grain output consistently emerge as key driving factors of CLF. Furthermore, agricultural benefits played a significant role in 2000 and 2020, whereas the coefficient for social economic development was more pronounced in 2010. By identifying the heterogeneity of the driving factors, this study suggests that strategies to address CLF should comprehensively consider aspects such as the optimization of cultivated land resources, farmers’ interests, industrial restructuring, and the multifunctional development of farmland. The study findings can assist government policy-making for rural sustainable development, addressing CLF and food insecurity, and alleviating the regional development imbalance and urban–rural income gap, with the ultimate aim of achieving common prosperity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing in Monitoring and Modelling the Patterns and Processes of Land System Change)
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