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Agricultural Resources Management and Sustainable Ecosystem Services

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 5 November 2026 | Viewed by 1514

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Institute of Farmland Irrigation, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Xinxiang 453002, China
Interests: optimization and allocation of agricultural water resources; unconventional water safety utilization technology; evaluation of agricultural water environment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
College of Water Resource and Hydropower, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya’an 625014, China
Interests: high-efficiency utilization of water and fertilizer in crops; agricultural water and soil resources and environment
College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450002, China
Interests: efficient utilization and environmental regulation of water and soil resources; remediation and safety control of soil heavy metal pollution; agricultural non-point source pollution and waste resource utilization

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Guest Editor
College of Agricultural Engineering, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, China
Interests: efficient use of water resources; integrated research on water and fertilizer

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aligns with Sustainability’s focus on sustainability challenges and integrated development approaches. It will tackle gaps in sustainable agricultural water–soil resources management, a core component of sustainable development. This Special Issue will showcase research on agricultural water–soil co-optimization, exploring how to balance resource utilization efficiency with ecological protection. It also focuses on enhancing agricultural ecosystem resilience to climate change and disturbances, as well as constructing healthy agro-ecosystems that support multiple services. By integrating socio-economic, scientific, and policy perspectives, it will define and quantify sustainability in agricultural resources management, develop monitoring tools, and provide policy-relevant insights. Ultimately, it will advance integrated approaches for sustainable agricultural resources use, contributing to global sustainable development goals while ensuring food security and ecological integrity.

This Special Issue supplements the existing literature by focusing on agricultural water–soil resources, an under-integrated area in sustainability research. Unlike studies emphasizing single resources, it highlights co-optimization mechanisms, addressing gaps in multi-resource coordination. It advances research on ecosystem resilience by linking agricultural practices to resilience quantification, a key need identified in sustainability monitoring. Additionally, it fills gaps in healthy agro-ecosystem studies by integrating socio-economic factors with ecological health. Aligning with Sustainability’s goal of developing integrated approaches, it connects local resource management to global sustainability metrics, providing a more holistic framework than disciplinary-focused studies and enriching tools for sustainability assessment in agriculture.

  1. Focus: Sustainable co-optimization of soil and water for resilient, healthy agro-ecosystems and SDG delivery.
  2. Scope: co-optimization of agricultural water–soil resources:
    • Enhancing the resilience of agricultural ecosystems;
    • Construction of healthy agro-ecosystem;
    • Optimal allocation of urban water resources and smart water conservancy;
    • Adaptation of water and soil resources under climate change;
    • Sustainability assessment of agricultural resources;
    • Multi scale sustainable management of agricultural resources.

Prof. Dr. Ping Li
Dr. Yingjun She
Dr. Yatao Xiao
Dr. Zhiguang Dai
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-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

  • agricultural water–soil resources
  • sustainable use
  • co-optimization
  • ecosystem resilience
  • healthy agro-ecosystem
  • sustainability quantification
  • integrated management
  • agricultural resources management

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

27 pages, 5923 KB  
Article
Analysis of the Spatiotemporal Evolution and Driving Mechanism of Green Total Factor Productivity in the Grassland Animal Husbandry Industry in Qinghai Province
by Yanmin Wang, Jiajin Zhang and Airu Zhang
Sustainability 2026, 18(9), 4173; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18094173 - 22 Apr 2026
Viewed by 303
Abstract
Qinghai Province shoulders the heavy responsibility of serving as China’s ecological security barrier. In the process of implementing the “ecological priority” strategy, the green development of grassland animal husbandry in Qinghai Province plays an especially important driving role. To systematically reveal the temporal [...] Read more.
Qinghai Province shoulders the heavy responsibility of serving as China’s ecological security barrier. In the process of implementing the “ecological priority” strategy, the green development of grassland animal husbandry in Qinghai Province plays an especially important driving role. To systematically reveal the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics and core driving mechanism of Green Total Factor Productivity (GTFP) and provide a decision-making basis for the green transformation and high-quality development of regional animal husbandry, this paper, based on relevant data from 2010 to 2024 in Qinghai Province, constructs a measurement and influencing factor index system for the GTFP of grassland animal husbandry. Then, it conducts a systematic analysis of the temporal evolution and spatial differentiation characteristics of the GTFP of grassland animal husbandry in Qinghai Province using methods such as trend surface analysis and standard deviation ellipse. Subsequently, the influencing factors are discussed through the geographic detector model. The research findings are as follows: (1) During the study period, the GTFP of grassland animal husbandry in Qinghai Province shows an overall upward trend. Spatially, it presents a regional pattern of “strong in the north and stable in the south,” with the migration center moving towards the northeast and the distribution becoming more concentrated. (2) The level of fiscal support for agriculture, accessibility of transportation, the degree of environmental governance and the degree of digitalization play core driving roles in the process of GTFP climbing in grassland animal husbandry. (3) Interaction analysis shows that the explanatory power of any two influencing factors in the study area is higher than that of a single factor, and the interaction between the level of fiscal support for agriculture and the degree of environmental governance is the most significant. Therefore, the key to improving the GTFP of grassland animal husbandry in Qinghai Province lies in the coordinated allocation and linkage of financial support for agriculture and environmental governance. At the same time, this study can provide reference value for the green transformation and high-quality development of plateau grassland animal husbandry. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agricultural Resources Management and Sustainable Ecosystem Services)
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25 pages, 4555 KB  
Article
Long-Term Spatiotemporal Assessment of Land-Use Change, Drought Stress, and Vegetation Resilience in Alabama’s Black Belt: Implications for Sustainable Agricultural Resource Management
by Salem Ibrahim, Gamal El Afandi, Melissa M. Kreye and Amira Moustafa
Sustainability 2026, 18(8), 3702; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18083702 - 9 Apr 2026
Viewed by 341
Abstract
Climate-induced drought and intensifying land-use pressures threaten ecosystem services and agricultural productivity, particularly in regions with distinctive soil and ecological characteristics. Alabama’s Black Belt, defined by its clay-rich soils and shaped by a legacy of plantation agriculture, uneven land tenure, and persistent socioeconomic [...] Read more.
Climate-induced drought and intensifying land-use pressures threaten ecosystem services and agricultural productivity, particularly in regions with distinctive soil and ecological characteristics. Alabama’s Black Belt, defined by its clay-rich soils and shaped by a legacy of plantation agriculture, uneven land tenure, and persistent socioeconomic disadvantage, is increasingly vulnerable to these interacting stressors. This study analyzes long-term (2000–2023) spatiotemporal patterns of Land Use Land Cover (LULC) change and vegetation response to drought to inform sustainable resource management. Multi-temporal Landsat imagery and National Land Cover Database (NLCD) products were used to quantify LULC dynamics. At the same time, vegetation condition and moisture stress were assessed using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI). Drought conditions were evaluated using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), which incorporates temperature-driven evaporative demand. Results indicate substantial landscape change, including declines in deciduous forest (−17.78%) and pasture/hay (−13.17%), alongside increases in medium-intensity developed land (+20.25%) and evergreen forest (+10.62%). Declining NDVI and NDMI values indicate increasing vegetation stress, particularly during prolonged droughts. Vegetation response exhibited a weak relationship with SPI (R = 0.37) but a stronger association with SPEI (R = 0.59), underscoring the importance of accounting for atmospheric water demand. These findings highlight the growing vulnerability of Black Belt ecosystems to coupled climate and land-use pressures and provide insights to strengthen climate-resilient agricultural management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agricultural Resources Management and Sustainable Ecosystem Services)
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30 pages, 4994 KB  
Article
Water Scarcity, Socio-Ecological Dynamics, and Adaptive Responses in the Jordan Valley: An Integrated SES–WEFE Qualitative Analysis
by Safaa Aljaafreh, Abeer Albalawneh, Maram Al Naimat, Luma Hamdi, Rasha Al-Rkebat, Ahmad Alwan, Nikolaos Nikolaidis and Maria A. Lilli
Sustainability 2026, 18(7), 3161; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18073161 - 24 Mar 2026
Viewed by 609
Abstract
The Jordan Valley, a critical agro-ecosystem in Jordan, faces escalating challenges from chronic water scarcity compounded by environmental and socio-economic pressures, necessitating a systems perspective to understand cross-sector interactions beyond isolated sectoral issues. This study interprets socio-ecological interactions influencing sustainability outcomes in the [...] Read more.
The Jordan Valley, a critical agro-ecosystem in Jordan, faces escalating challenges from chronic water scarcity compounded by environmental and socio-economic pressures, necessitating a systems perspective to understand cross-sector interactions beyond isolated sectoral issues. This study interprets socio-ecological interactions influencing sustainability outcomes in the region and identifies key feedback loops and adaptive responses under water scarcity through an integrated Socio-Ecological Systems (SES) and Water–Energy–Food–Ecosystems (WEFE) framework. Employing a qualitative document analysis (QDA) design, a purposive collection of peer-reviewed studies and institutional publications (n = 50) published between 2002 and 2025 was assembled and systematically coded using a structured deductive–inductive strategy grounded in SES components and WEFE domain interactions. Results reveal seven interconnected themes: water scarcity as a structural constraint, agricultural intensification and resource pressures, climate change as a stress multiplier, ecosystem degradation and service loss, pollution and environmental quality challenges, socio-economic vulnerability and livelihood constraints, and fragmented governance with coordination gaps. These themes highlight reinforcing loops where scarcity promotes groundwater reliance and non-conventional water use, intensification heightens salinity and contamination risks, climate variability escalates irrigation demands, and ecological degradation diminishes buffering capacity, while socio-economic limitations hinder adaptation and governance fragmentation impairs integrated planning and enforcement. While prior studies have examined water scarcity, agricultural intensification, or climate impacts in isolation, this study advances the literature by synthesizing these dynamics through an integrated SES–WEFE analytical lens, revealing reinforcing system feedbacks and governance constraints that are not visible within single-sector or descriptive syntheses. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agricultural Resources Management and Sustainable Ecosystem Services)
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