Cooperation of Geoinformatics and Landscape Ecology for Sustainable Development

Dear Colleagues,

The methods and tools of landscape ecology can be considered as key approaches to studying the environment, landscape, and human social development. Landscape ecology (LE) as a subdiscipline of ecology is the study of how both landscape structure and dynamics affect the abundance and distribution of organisms. Thus, LE is aimed at the effects of patterns and processes on a landscape scale. Currently, changing land use is one of the world’s major forces altering ecosystem services in landscapes all over the world. Human activities are transforming land at a faster rate and greater extent than at any time in history. This is a challenge for research in the field of emerging sustainability science.

Researchers are increasingly aware that all phenomena and processes are spatially related because everything takes place in a certain space. We can find numerous studies that put more and more emphasis on incorporating spatial relationships and properties. This can be achieved only through the use of quality spatial data. Geoinformatics methods and approaches are used for this purpose. Today, it is beyond doubt that these two mentioned disciplines complement, intertwine with, and mutually enrich each other. Their cooperation leads to a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of environmental processes.

In this context, this Special Issue of Sustainability aims to bring together multidisciplinary knowledge and to present examples of functional cooperation, with the main aim of bringing qualitatively new results enabling sophisticated and objectively documented decisions on landscape and natural processes.

Studies are expected to address:

• Innovative concepts and approaches to solve selected landscape ecology problems using advanced geoinformatics methods;

• Innovative concepts and approaches to derive qualitatively better information about landscape;

• Modeling ecosystem functions and services;

• Innovative concepts and approaches in landscape design (e.g., GeoDesign).

Dr. Vilém Pechanec
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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• predictive modelling
• spatial patterns
• spatial decisions
• risk of natural hazard
• quantification of ecosystem functions
• geodesign