Climate Change, Land Use, and Soil Erosion: Toward Resilient Soil Systems
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Soil Conservation and Sustainability".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 26 August 2026 | Viewed by 47
Special Issue Editors
Interests: soil–water interaction; internal erosion; seepage; coupled DEM simulation; centrifugal physical modeling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: DEM simulation; constitutive model; internal erosion; fabric evolution; anisotropy
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In the context of climate change, soil erosion driven by intensive land use can lead to engineering failures and geohazards, posing a threat to geosystem engineering. Soil erosion, which encompasses surface scour, internal erosion, contact erosion, and other forms, refers to the process by which a water flow induces mass loss, structural weakening, and even instability in geomaterials. This process not only impacts the short-term safety of engineering structures but also critically affects their long-term durability, making it a key concern for disaster prevention and control in embankments, slopes, roads, and underground works. Under climate change scenarios, soil erosion issues are further exacerbated. A thorough understanding of its mechanisms, an accurate risk assessment, and the establishment of a multi-layered, systematic prevention framework based on these insights serve as the cornerstone for ensuring the safety and stability of major infrastructure and advancing the sustainable development of geosystems.
This Special Issue works to provide an extensive understanding of soil erosion-induced issues concerning land use under climate change and to offer insights into potential approaches to model, evaluate, and mitigate related engineering issues and hazards, with the goal of achieving a resilient geosystem. The aim of this Special Issue aligns with the scope of Sustainability, particularly with respect to the sustainable development of land use from the perspective of geotechnical engineering and geosciences.
In this collection, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Mechanisms and modeling of various types of erosion in geomaterials (including soils, rocks, and other sediments);
- Sustainable approaches to enhancing the erosion resistance of geomaterials, including but not limited to geosynthetics, biogeomechanics, and other improvement methods;
- Novel computational studies on erosion-related geosystem engineering;
- Soil erosion triggered by climate change;
- Monitoring of erosion and associated failures or hazards in the field;
- Challenges and mitigation strategies for soil erosion in sustainable geosystems;
- Early warning studies on erosion-induced hazards;
- Risk assessment studies on erosion in geosystems;
- AI-driven approaches to modeling and predicting erosion-related issues in geosystems;
- Case studies on erosion-induced geotechnical engineering problems (e.g., dam or embankment failure, ground collapse, foundation pit failure).
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Yao Tang
Dr. Zhicheng Gao
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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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. 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.
Keywords
- seepage
- soil erosion
- climate change
- monitoring and early warning
- soil improvement
- geosystem
- geotechnical engineering
- geohazards
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