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Land Use Change, Air Quality and Environmental Pollution Governance—2nd Edition

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 June 2025) | Viewed by 1665

Special Issue Editors

Department of Land Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Interests: land use change; geospatial artificial intelligence; remote sensing; air pollution
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Guest Editor
School of Resource and Environmental Science, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Interests: remote sensing; ecological restoration; geographic information systems; land use change; google earth engine
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Guest Editor
Advanced Laser Technology Laboratory of Anhui Province, Hefei 230000, China
Interests: environmental science; urban/rural sociology; remote sensing; machine learning
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Clean air is a basic requirement for human survival and development; however, the disorderly expansion of cities and the irrational development of land use has made the total amount and reach of air pollutant emissions increase dramatically. This increase has caused the burden of air pollution on humans to increase and, currently, air pollution has come to seriously threaten human health and social wellbeing, especially in developing countries. A country’s land space is affected by air pollution but it is also the place where the social economy occurs. Therefore, optimizing the structure, size, shape, and spatial distribution patterns of a country’s land space could help to control urban air pollution by improving the degree to which land use is mixed and reducing traffic density, both of which are of great significance for sustainable urban development. In particular, the air pollution controls and predictive analysis tools proposed through careful consideration of socio-economic and land-use changes will provide effective technical support, in terms of air pollution control, to governments and decision-makers.

This Special Issue seeks to compile studies regarding land use change, air pollution, and policies for their control in different geographical settings and from a wide range of disciplines, with the ultimate aim of contributing to the high-quality development of land use and improving urban air quality. This Special Issue welcomes all manuscripts presenting new and advanced scientific contributions in land use and environmental governance through socio-ecological modeling, air pollution exposure modeling, satellite remote sensing using artificial intelligence technologies, big data processing and analysis, public policy analysis, as well as other related topics. We expect this Special Issue will become an important reference for state-of-the-art methods for sustainable land use practices and environmental pollution governance.

Dr. Debin Lu
Dr. Meimei Wang
Dr. Tingting He
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

  • land use change
  • sustainable land use planning
  • regional development strategies
  • sustainable development
  • environmental remote sensing
  • environmental big data

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 5817 KiB  
Article
Optimization Simulation of Land Use in Jiangsu Province Under Multiple Scenarios Based on the PLUS-InVEST Model
by Zhuang Tian, Ge Shi, Jiahang Liu, Yutong Wang, Chuang Chen, Difan Yu and Yunpeng Zhang
Sustainability 2025, 17(12), 5251; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17125251 - 6 Jun 2025
Viewed by 382
Abstract
With the severe challenges resulting from global climate change, the role of land use/land cover (LU/LC) optimization in mitigating carbon emissions and promoting carbon cycle balance has gained increasing attention. This study takes Jiangsu Province as a case study, analyzing the changes in [...] Read more.
With the severe challenges resulting from global climate change, the role of land use/land cover (LU/LC) optimization in mitigating carbon emissions and promoting carbon cycle balance has gained increasing attention. This study takes Jiangsu Province as a case study, analyzing the changes in LU/LC from 1995 to 2020 and their impacts on carbon emissions and carbon storage. For Jiangsu Province’s five development scenarios in 2030 (business-as-usual, carbon emission, carbon storage, and carbon neutrality scenarios), objective functions and constraints were constructed. The PLUS model was employed to simulate land use for 2030, predicting carbon storage, economic benefits, and ecological benefits under each scenario and evaluating the impact of each scenario on achieving carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals. The findings indicate that (1) from 1995 to 2020 there were great changes in land use types in Jiangsu Province, with an overall downward trend in carbon storage. (2) The simulated land use quantity structure and spatial patterns for 2030 under different scenarios exhibited significant differences. Compared with the Business-as-Usual Scenario, the other four optimized scenarios achieved a better balance between economic and ecological values. (3) The Integrated Scenario realized optimal synergy between farmland protection, ecological expansion, and economic output, representing the best compromise under multiple objectives. Full article
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20 pages, 4218 KiB  
Article
Spatial Temporal Differences in Carbon Emissions from Land-Use Change and Carbon Compensation in Gansu Province, China
by Qiang Liu, Shenglong Zhao and Lixia Wang
Sustainability 2025, 17(3), 1005; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17031005 - 26 Jan 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 777
Abstract
This study employs land use and energy consumption data from Gansu Province spanning the years 2005 to 2020 and utilizes models to estimate carbon emissions and the corresponding carbon compensation values. The research calculated the carbon emissions and compensation for various administrative regions [...] Read more.
This study employs land use and energy consumption data from Gansu Province spanning the years 2005 to 2020 and utilizes models to estimate carbon emissions and the corresponding carbon compensation values. The research calculated the carbon emissions and compensation for various administrative regions over different time periods, revealing the following insights: (1) There is a notable increasing trend in net carbon emissions due to land-use changes in Gansu Province, characterized by an initial swift rise, followed by a more gradual growth pattern. Construction land is identified as the primary contributor to carbon emissions, increasing from 26 million tons in 2005 to 55.3 million tons in 2020, which is an increase of 1.80 times; meanwhile, forested areas, as significant carbon sinks, show a slight increase in carbon absorption from 2.33 million tons in 2005 to 2.35 million tons in 2020. (2) The municipalities with high net carbon emissions are predominantly Lanzhou, Qingyang City, and Jiuquan City, which are marked by high levels of carbon emissions and low compensation rates. In contrast, regions with lower net carbon emissions are mainly found in the Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, where emissions are minimal and compensation rates are relatively high. A similarity in the spatial distribution patterns of both net carbon emission intensity and total net carbon emissions is observed among these cities. Alterations in land use have a significant impact on regional carbon emissions. Investigating the spatiotemporal variations of land-use change and carbon compensation in Gansu Province is essential for comprehending the dynamics of regional carbon emissions, developing effective emission reduction strategies, and fostering low-carbon development. Full article
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