Special Issue "Policy, Land Use and Management of Natural Resources"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Resources and Sustainable Utilization".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 12 January 2022.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Manuel Marey-Pérez
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Research group—PROePLA (http://proepla.com/), Department of Crop Production and Project Management of Campus Terra in Lugo, University Santiago de Compostela, 27002 Lugo, Spain
Interests: forest management; project management; wildfire
Dr. Verónica Rodríguez-Vicente
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Research group—PROePLA (http://proepla.com/), Department of Crop Production and Project Management of Campus Terra in Lugo, University Santiago de Compostela, 27002 Lugo, Spain
Interests: forest management; forest governance; forest property

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to provide a scientific forum for the exchange and compilation of the latest information and research concerning different disciplines and interest groups (biodiversity, ecology, environment, landscape, rural development, socioeconomy, technology, etc.) linked to policy, land use and management of natural resources. In other words, the objective is to examine the scope and polyhedric character of natural resource management worldwide, scrutinizing its numerous component issues: agronomy, forestry, ecosystem services, conservation and protection; socioeconomic and environmental impacts; mitigation and adaption to climate change; and other subjects related to this broad topic. Therefore, technical and research guidance in different fields of expertise is presented in this Special Issue as a tool for policy makers and planners, researchers and analysts, among others, in understanding, modelling and decision-making support. Papers selected for this Special Issue are subject to a rigorous peer-review procedure in order to guarantee the journal’s standards of publication and the wide dissemination of research results and conclusions, developments and applications.

Prof. Dr. Manuel Marey-Pérez
Dr. Verónica Rodríguez-Vicente
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 papers will be 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 1900 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

  • policy in natural resources
  • land use and natural resources
  • forest management and natural resources
  • governance and natural resources
  • sustainability in natural resources
  • quality of natural resources
  • resilience and managment of natural resources
  • bioeconomy
  • circular economy

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

Article
Spatio-Temporal Characteristics and Obstacle Factors of Cultivated Land Resources Security
Sustainability 2021, 13(15), 8498; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158498 - 29 Jul 2021
Viewed by 380
Abstract
The security of cultivated land resources is closely related to a country’s food security, economic security and social security, and as such is always the top priority of those responsible for the governance and administration of state affairs. The study area is 13 [...] Read more.
The security of cultivated land resources is closely related to a country’s food security, economic security and social security, and as such is always the top priority of those responsible for the governance and administration of state affairs. The study area is 13 prefecture-level cities in Hubei Province. An entropy weight method, comprehensive index method, spatial analysis and obstacle degree model are employed to explore the spatio-temporal characteristics and obstacle factors of cultivated land resources in quantity, quality and ecological security. The study shows that (1) the security level of cultivated land resources in Hubei Province showed an upward trend between 2010 and 2019. The land resources’ quality and ecological security showed an upward trend, while quantity security showed a downward trend. (2) The security of cultivated land resources presents obvious spatial differences, generally showing a decreasing trend from west to east. Among them, quantity security presents a spatial pattern of being high in the central, low in the east and lower in the west of Hubei Province. Quality security presents a spatial pattern of being high in the central region and low in the east and west. Ecological security presents a spatial pattern of being high in the west and low in the east. (3) The main obstacles to its security in quantity, in quality and in ecology are obviously different. Finally, some countermeasures are put forward to ensure the security of cultivated land resources from the perspectives of quantity, quality and ecological security, and to assist with the implementation of different protection policies in the western, central and eastern areas of Hubei. This study expands the content and perspective of cultivated land resources security and has a certain novelty in the selection of the index of water resources per unit of land area, and the application of the obstacle degree model expands the research on the influencing factors of cultivated land resource security. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Policy, Land Use and Management of Natural Resources)
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Article
Monitoring Land Use/Cover Change Using Remotely Sensed Data in Guangzhou of China
Sustainability 2021, 13(5), 2944; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052944 - 08 Mar 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 538
Abstract
Land use/cover change (LUCC) has a crucial influence on ecosystem function, environmental change and decision support. Rapid and precise monitoring of land use/cover change information is essential for utilization and management of land resources. The objectives of this study were to monitor land [...] Read more.
Land use/cover change (LUCC) has a crucial influence on ecosystem function, environmental change and decision support. Rapid and precise monitoring of land use/cover change information is essential for utilization and management of land resources. The objectives of this study were to monitor land use/cover change of Guangzhou of China from 1986 to 2018 using remotely sensed data, and analyze the correlation between artificial surface expansion and the gross domestic product (GDP) growth. Supervised classification was performed using Random Forest classifier, and the overall accuracy (OA) ranged from 86.42% to 96.58% and kappa coefficient (K) ranged from 0.8079 to 0.9499. The results show that the built-up area of Guangzhou of China from 1986 to 2018 continued to increase. However, the vegetation area continued to decrease during 32 years. The built-up area increased by 1315.56 km2 (increased by 439.34%) with an average growth of 41.11 km2/year. The vegetation area reduced by 1290.78 km2 (reduced by 19.99%) with an average reduction of 40.34 km2/year. Research has shown that the reduced vegetation area was mainly converted into built-up area. The area of water bodies and bare lands was relatively stable and had a little change. The results indicate that the GDP had a strong positive correlation with built-up area (R2 = 0.98). However, there is a strong negative correlation between the GDP and vegetation area (R2 = 0.97) in Guangzhou City, China. As a consequence, the increase of built-up area was at the cost of the reduction of vegetation area. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Policy, Land Use and Management of Natural Resources)
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Article
Integrating Environmental Impact and Ecosystem Services in the Process of Land Resource Capitalization—A Case Study of Land Transfer in Fuping, Hebei
Sustainability 2021, 13(5), 2837; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052837 - 05 Mar 2021
Viewed by 477
Abstract
The contradiction between human and land has always been a problem in the process of development and utilization of land resources. Under such circumstances, relevant government agencies put forward the management concept of land resource capitalization. As an effective policy to implement the [...] Read more.
The contradiction between human and land has always been a problem in the process of development and utilization of land resources. Under such circumstances, relevant government agencies put forward the management concept of land resource capitalization. As an effective policy to implement the conception of land resource capitalization, land transfer is of great significance to reforming rural land systems and liberating productivity in poor areas of Tai-hang Mountain in Hebei. However, how to integrate environmental impact and value evaluation of ecosystem services of land transfer in the process of resource capitalization deserves our attention. This paper takes the land transfer of Fuping, Hebei in Tai-hang Mountain as an example, combined with life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle cost assessment (LCC), and the methods of value evaluation of ecosystem services to quantify the changes of environmental loads, economic costs, and ecosystem services in the whole process and different stages of land resource capitalization. Moreover, through the sensitivity analysis of key environmental indicators, the possibility of restricting environmental costs is explored. This paper studies land transfer from the direction of the cross-discipline and provides a new idea for land resource management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Policy, Land Use and Management of Natural Resources)
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