Integrating Climate Change Adaptation and Sustainable Resource Management: Community-Based and Nature-Based Approaches for Resilient Future

Dear Colleagues,

Anthropogenic climate change is calamitously intensifying pressures on ecosystems, livelihoods, and natural resources worldwide. Incremental and fragmented adaptation practices are proving inadequate in addressing the scale of the challenge. Incremental approaches will fail to safeguard the critical ecological and socioeconomic foundations of human wellbeing. What is urgently required are transformative strategies that integrate climate adaptation with sustainable resource management, advancing solutions that operate across sectors, communities, and ecosystems.

This Special Issue will feature innovative scholarship and practice that move beyond conventional approaches. By foregrounding community-led adaptation, ecosystem-wide approaches, and nature-based solutions, it aims to highlight how locally grounded actions can generate systemic resilience, enhance biodiversity, and secure livelihoods in a sustained manner under rapidly changing conditions.

Contributions in social and natural sciences, drawing from literature, case studies, research, and evaluation, are invited. Specifically, those exploring the potential of integrated approaches that strengthen social-ecological systems, promote equity, and foster cross-sector linkages in areas such as agriculture, water management, forestry, urban planning, and coastal protection are welcome. Bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives, the Special Issue seeks to underscore pathways for transformative adaptation—innovative approaches that not only buffer risks but also reconfigure institutions, relations, and practices to build a just and resilient future.

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/about

Dr. Juha Uitto
Dr. Suppiramaniam Nanthikesan
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. Sustainability 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 2400 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.