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Agricultural Landscape and Rural Sustainability

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 July 2026 | Viewed by 156

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Institute of Economics and Rural Development, Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences, Vilnius, Lithuania
Interests: socioeconomic resilience and sustainability of rural regions; performance management; consumer behavior; development of business in unfavorable conditions; shadow economy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Economics and Rural Development, Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences, Vilnius, Lithuania
Interests: agriculture; common agricultural policy; resilience; sustainability; sustainable development; MCDM; subsidies; direct payments
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to foster rural sustainability, emphasizing the promotion of resilient, inclusive, and ecologically sound developments in rural regions with a special focus on preserving the agricultural landscape. Agriculture remains a focal factor behind rural development, providing not only employment possibilities, but also preserving culture, thereby maintaining social bonds and fostering the transition to a more carbon neutral societies in non-urbanized areas.

This Special Issue is open to any interdisciplinary research dealing with ways of how agricultural practices shape land use patterns, ecosystem services, and rural socio-economic resilience. We also welcome studies on challenges and opportunities for rural development presented by global environmental changes (especially those related to food security in the developing world), market volatilities (including, but not limiting to price, demand changes, shifts in consumer preferences, etc.), and rural development policies such as the EU CAP or Green Deal requirements. Contributions are expected to highlight innovative solutions that bridge agricultural productivity with ecological and social sustainability, supporting transitions toward more inclusive and adaptive rural futures.

Dr. Mangirdas Morkunas
Dr. Artiom Volkov
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

  • rural sustainability
  • rural resilience
  • agricultural landscape
  • non-urbanized areas

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

30 pages, 3924 KB  
Article
Exploring the Mechanisms of Digital Economy’s Impact on Rural Revitalization Efficiency: A Framework of Shared Technologies and Sustainable Concepts
by Zhuyi Xue and Helu Xiao
Sustainability 2026, 18(1), 278; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18010278 (registering DOI) - 26 Dec 2025
Abstract
The digital economy, driven by data-enabled innovation, has become a critical engine for advancing agricultural modernization and promoting inclusive and sustainable rural revitalization in China. This study conceptualizes the rural revitalization system as an integrated system comprising five interconnected subsystems. A global parallel [...] Read more.
The digital economy, driven by data-enabled innovation, has become a critical engine for advancing agricultural modernization and promoting inclusive and sustainable rural revitalization in China. This study conceptualizes the rural revitalization system as an integrated system comprising five interconnected subsystems. A global parallel Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model with shared inputs is developed to evaluate the total system and subsystem efficiencies of rural revitalization. In addition, quantification of the digital economy’s development level is achieved through the joint application of the entropy weight method and TOPSIS. Finally, based on a 2013–2022 panel of 31 provincial-level units in China, this paper identifies the impact and underlying mechanisms of the digital economy on the total system and subsystem efficiencies of rural revitalization. The findings reveal that (i) the digital economy significantly enhances rural revitalization efficiency, and this conclusion remains robust after addressing endogeneity and conducting multiple robustness tests. (ii) Heterogeneity analyses indicate that the digital economy contributes more in regions with lower rural revitalization efficiency, medium economic development, larger labor forces, or lower levels of Internet development. Furthermore, although digital economy does not have a significant impact on the subsystem efficiency of social etiquette and civility, its impacts on the remaining subsystem efficiencies are all significant. (iii) The impact of the digital economy on improving rural revitalization efficiency is mediated by technological innovation, and the expansion of the scale of non-agricultural employment enhances the promoting effect of the digital economy on rural revitalization efficiency. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agricultural Landscape and Rural Sustainability)
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