Geographical Behavior and Health: Insights for Sustainable Well-Being

Dear Colleagues,

a. Focus

This Special Issue focuses on the interrelationship between geographical behavior (the spatial dimensions of human activities, mobility patterns, environmental perceptions, and daily practices) and geographical health (health outcomes influenced by spatial, environmental, and contextual factors). It aims to deepen our understanding of how space and place—both physical and perceived—mediate health-related risks, resilience, and behaviors across populations and landscapes.

b. Scope

The scope of this Special Issue encompasses theoretical, empirical, and methodological studies exploring the following themes:

Spatial determinants of health: The influence of built environment, urban/rural infrastructure, green space, walkability, food environments, and environmental exposures on health behaviors and outcomes.

Mobility and exposure: How daily mobility patterns, activity spaces, and time-use behaviors affect environmental and social exposures (e.g., air pollution, heat, and social isolation).

Technological integration: The use of GIS, GPS, mobile sensing, remote sensing, and AI to map and analyze health-related behaviors at fine spatiotemporal resolutions.

Population health disparities: The exploration of spatial health inequalities across different regions, socioeconomic groups, and ethnic minorities.

Planning and policy translation: Evidence-based recommendations for urban planning, environmental regulation, health promotion, and sustainability interventions.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to bridge the conceptual and methodological gaps between behavioral geography and health geography, emphasizing spatially explicit approaches to sustainable health outcomes. By foregrounding how people’s interactions with their environments shape their health, this Special Issue will contribute to policy-relevant insights that advance equity, resilience, and sustainability.

Contribution to Existing Literature and Relation to Sustainability

This Special Issue complements a growing body of literature that recognizes the spatiality of health and behavior. Building on seminal work in time geography, environmental epidemiology, and spatial behavior modeling, it will highlight integrative approaches that consider both objective spatial structures and subjective experiences of place.

Recent studies have illustrated how traditional residential-based exposure metrics may underestimate the true spatial exposures individuals encounter in their daily lives. As such, there is increasing demand for dynamic, individualized, and spatially aware approaches to health research that integrate environmental data, behavioral tracking, and health outcomes. This Special Issue aims to address this gap, offering transdisciplinary perspectives that are grounded in real-world spatial practices.

This Special Issue directly aligns with the aims and scope of Sustainability by emphasizing the following:

Advancing socio-spatial equity: Addressing health disparities rooted in environmental injustice, mobility inequality, and spatial exclusion, which are core barriers to sustainable development.

Integrating scientific tools for sustainability assessment: Applying geospatial technologies, spatial modeling, and behavior-based indicators to measure and monitor sustainability-related health impacts.

Informing sustainable policy and planning: Providing empirical evidence and analytical frameworks to guide sustainable urban design, transportation systems, and health infrastructure that foster long-term well-being.

Prof. Dr. Haoran Yang
Dr. Xiangfen Cui
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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.

• geographical behavior
• health geography
• human mobility
• environmental exposure
• spatial health inequality
• built environment
• sustainable urban planning
• GIS and spatial analysis
• place-based health
• behavioral geography