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Sustainability
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Sustainable Landscape Management: Geoinformatics on the Conservation of Cultural Heritage
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Sustainable Landscape Management: Geoinformatics on the Conservation of Cultural Heritage

A Special Issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2026 | Viewed by 2823

Editors

Prof. Dr. Ernesto Marcheggiani

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, UNIVPM, 60131 Ancona, Italy
Interests: rural development and regional development; spatial planning; geomatics; landscape ecology and complexity; tourism and heritage
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. MD Abdul Mueed Choudhury

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agriculture, University of Calabria (UNIRC), Località Feo di Vito snc, 89122 Reggio Calabria, Italy
Interests: remote sensing applications in urban forestry

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue of Sustainability invites original research and review articles that explore the integration of geoinformatics into sustainable landscape management to preserve cultural heritage. The aim is to advance innovative approaches that leverage geospatial technologies, including GIS, remote sensing, UAVs, spatial modeling, and digital twins, to monitor, protect, and manage cultural landscapes under pressure from urbanization, climate change, tourism, and land-use transformations. The scope includes methodologies for mapping and assessing cultural ecosystems, predictive risk-management tools, participatory planning, policy frameworks, and interdisciplinary practices that bridge environmental, social, and cultural dimensions. Contributions focusing on case studies, novel geospatial tools, data-driven decision support systems, and community-based heritage conservation are particularly encouraged. This Special Issue seeks to foster dialog among researchers, planners, policymakers, and heritage practitioners to promote resilient and sustainable cultural landscapes.

The aim of this Special Issue, “Sustainable Landscape Management: Geoinformatics on the Conservation of Cultural Heritage”, is to provide a platform for innovative research that integrates geospatial technologies with sustainable strategies to safeguard cultural landscapes and heritage. This topic fits squarely within the scope of Sustainability, as it bridges technical, environmental, cultural, and social fields to address sustainability challenges. By leveraging tools like GIS, remote sensing, spatial modeling, and digital mapping, the Special Issue seeks to enhance our understanding of how cultural heritage can be preserved amid climate change, urban expansion, tourism pressures, and land-use changes. It aligns with the journal’s mission to support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by promoting responsible stewardship of cultural and natural resources, fostering community resilience, and ensuring intergenerational equity. The subject encourages interdisciplinary contributions spanning the natural and applied sciences, engineering, the social sciences, and the humanities, reflecting the journal’s cross-disciplinary nature. It invites detailed methodological and experimental research, case studies, policy evaluations, and innovative practices that can support decision-making and impact assessments. Furthermore, it promotes open access, data sharing, and reproducibility, in line with the journal’s values, and invites submissions that will contribute to global scientific understanding and sustainable development.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include, but are not limited to, the following: geospatial technologies for cultural heritage mapping and monitoring, GIS- and remote-sensing-based landscape change detection, spatial risk assessment for climate- and human-induced threats to heritage sites, digital twins and 3D modeling for heritage visualization and preservation, the integration of UAVs and AI-driven geodata for heritage conservation, participatory geoinformatics and community-based heritage management, policy frameworks and governance models for sustainable landscape planning, and ecological–cultural interactions in heritage landscapes. Submissions may include case studies, methodological advancements, data-driven decision support systems, reviews, conceptual papers, technical communications, and short notes on emerging tools or research ideas. Contributions demonstrating interdisciplinary approaches combining environmental science, engineering, social sciences, and humanities are particularly encouraged.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Ernesto Marcheggiani
Dr. MD Abdul Mueed Choudhury
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.

Publisher’s Notice

The Special Issue has been removed from Section Tourism, Culture, and Heritage on 7 January 2026. At the time of the move, there were no publications in this Special Issue.

Keywords

  • cultural heritage conservation
  • sustainable landscape management
  • geoinformatics
  • GIS
  • remote sensing
  • spatial analysis
  • heritage risk assessment
  • cultural landscapes
  • digital heritage
  • participatory planning

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

Published Papers (2 papers)

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26 pages, 6222 KB  
Article
Identifying Clusters + Evaluating Development Potential: An Integrated Framework for Traditional Village Clustered Protection and Utilization
by Yanlin He, Huadong Zhao, Zhihao Yang, He Jiang, Ernesto Marcheggiani, Linyue Xue, Hong Wei and Baoguo Liu
Sustainability 2026, 18(13), 6491; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18136491 - 25 Jun 2026
Viewed by 408
Abstract
The preservation and development of traditional villages are often affected by careless and scattered methods. The conservation paradigm has shifted from focusing on individual villages to regional clusters. This paper examines 275 national-level traditional villages in Henan Province, China, and develops an integrated [...] Read more.
The preservation and development of traditional villages are often affected by careless and scattered methods. The conservation paradigm has shifted from focusing on individual villages to regional clusters. This paper examines 275 national-level traditional villages in Henan Province, China, and develops an integrated identification–evaluation–strategy framework. First, cluster identification was performed using the three-dimensional indicator system that combined spatial, historical, cultural, and distinctive resources. This study identifies 16 traditional village clusters using K-means clustering and presents a unified spatial structure referred to as “one pole, three cores, four belts, and multiple points.” Based on cluster identification, a dual-dimensional evaluation system, including internal and external elements, was established to assess the development potential of the identified clusters. The external factors, including ecological resources, humanistic resources, and supporting conditions, were evaluated using a suitability evaluation. Simultaneously, the internal factors, i.e., value potential, spatial potential, and functional potential, were evaluated through the Cloud Model. Lastly, according to the evaluation results and unique resource analysis, the clusters were classified into five development typologies, with a corresponding strategy suggested for each. The integrated framework provides a replicable approach for clustered conservation and revitalization of traditional villages, offering scientific support for regionally integrated heritage management and sustainable rural development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Landscape Management: Geoinformatics on the Conservation of Cultural Heritage)
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27 pages, 58661 KB  
Article
Connectivity Optimization of Mountain Heritage Corridors Based on an Adaptive MCR Gravity Model: A Case Study of the Mount Song World Heritage Landscape in China
by Xiaojun Yao, Fengshuo Kang, Gengwei Zhang, He Jiang, Baoguo Liu, Zhuo Li and Hong Wei
Sustainability 2026, 18(11), 5429; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18115429 - 28 May 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 620
Abstract
Mountainous cultural landscapes, characterized by fragmented heritage sites, present significant challenges for integrated conservation and regional planning. Taking the Mount Song Culture Circle in Dengfeng City, China—a World Heritage site embodying the core of Chinese ritual civilization—as a case study, this study proposes [...] Read more.
Mountainous cultural landscapes, characterized by fragmented heritage sites, present significant challenges for integrated conservation and regional planning. Taking the Mount Song Culture Circle in Dengfeng City, China—a World Heritage site embodying the core of Chinese ritual civilization—as a case study, this study proposes an adaptive minimum cumulative resistance (MCR) gravity model to optimize heritage corridor resilience against spatial fragmentation and development imbalances. Based on a spatial database of 294 cultural relic units, the adaptive model introduces a dynamic cultural value weight (CVIndex = 0.82) and a time decay function (λ = 0.05) to capture the interplay between cultural significance and ecological constraints—features absent in traditional static approaches. The model identifies three optimized heritage corridor networks—”Seeking Wisdom in the Mountains”, “Searching for Culture in the Landscape”, and “Exploring the City Along the River.” Compared with a traditional static MCR model (αindex = 0.42; core area node density = 0.74 nodes/km2), the adaptive approach improves network connectivity by 37% (α-index = 0.58, p < 0.01) and increases core area heritage node density to 1.12/km2. Space syntax analysis further confirms that optimized network integration values strongly correlate with cultural dissemination efficiency (R2 = 0.78, p < 0.01, n = 48). This research offers a methodological innovation for resilient conservation of complex cultural landscapes in World Heritage contexts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Landscape Management: Geoinformatics on the Conservation of Cultural Heritage)
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