Land doi: 10.3390/land15081445

Authors: Özge Öztan Aslı Bozdağ Ahmet Emin Karkınlı Mustafa Hüsrevoğlu Fatih Eren Tahsin Yomralıoğlu Ramazan Alper Kuçak Zeynep Ünal

Prioritising properties for early review in dense urban renewal areas is a spatial multi-criteria decision problem in which physical condition, accessibility, environmental quality, and hazard exposure must be weighed before formal appraisal. This study develops a reproducible GIS-based multi-criteria decision analysis workflow for pre-transformation valuation support in Fatih Neighborhood, Esenler District, Istanbul, covering 54 independent property units. A 311-indicator geodatabase was screened for local discrimination, leaving 284 active sub-criteria under 10 retained main criteria. Expert pairwise judgments were converted into weights by six procedures compared under a common log-ratio objective, and the resulting TOPSIS rankings were tested for redundancy, benchmark divergence, judgment uncertainty, and structural robustness. The retained variables carry substantial overlapping spatial information, so the matrix does not provide hundreds of independent evidence signals, and equal within-group allocation concentrates influence in single-variable criteria. The leading priority tier nevertheless remains stable under calibrated weight variation and realistic judgment noise, whereas the wider rank order is sensitive to grouping, weighting, normalisation, and scoring choices. The workflow therefore separates robust priority signals from model-dependent rankings without interpreting the scores as market-value estimates, so that the intensity of field verification and appraisal can follow the reported stability of each unit.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081444

Authors: Ningning Wei Ruitong Liu Yuqi Li Zhiyuan Tan

Global rural population mobility and structural transition are profoundly reshaping agricultural land use patterns. Amid large-scale rural population out-migration in China, the regulatory mechanisms of traditional acquaintance-based social capital on farmers’ cultivated land use behavior are being reconstituted. Using survey data from 1086 farmers in the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain, this study employs structural equation modeling and multi-group analysis to examine how social capital (social trust, social networks, and social norms) influences farmers’ green cultivated land use transition under population mobility. The results show that all three dimensions significantly promote green transition behavior, with social norms exhibiting the strongest direct effect (β = 0.267), followed by social networks (β = 0.182) and social trust (β = 0.154). Mediation analyses indicate that social networks operate primarily through information acquisition, whereas social trust and social norms function mainly through technology cognition. Multi-group analyses reveal that short-term out-migration significantly strengthens the information transmission function of social networks, while long-term out-migration weakens the binding force of social norms. These findings provide a theoretical basis for understanding the relationship between population mobility and rural land governance, and they offer empirical evidence for formulating differentiated agricultural environmental policies adapted to the characteristics of population mobility.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081443

Authors: José L. Peralta Vital Reinaldo Gil Castillo Francisco H. Martínez Luzardo Yanna Llerena Padrón Oscar Díaz Rizo Emil Fulajtar José Fabrega Duque

Isotopic and nuclear techniques, including fallout radionuclides (FRNs), fingerprinting (FP), and isotope hydrology (IH), are essential tools for assessing soil and water degradation. However, as in state-of-the-art reviews, isolated application of FRNs, FP and IH limits their potential to address complex, interconnected environmental processes across landscapes. This study proposes a novel methodology based on the concept of Synergistic Convergence to integrate FRNs, FP, and IH into a unified framework for assessing soil and water degradation. Validated through a case study in Cuba’s Hanabanilla sub-basin, the five-stage methodology improves the identification of erosion hotspots, sediment sources, and water resource vulnerabilities. Results demonstrate that combining FRNs (quantifying soil redistribution), FP (tracing sediment sources), and IH (evaluating water dynamics) provides a robust approach for sustainable landscape management, according to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the One Health framework. The integrated methodology proves superior to the non-integrated approach, connecting causes (erosion), drivers (water), and consequences (sedimentation, pollution). The Synergistic Convergence methodology effectively integrates isotopic and nuclear techniques (INTs) (FRNs, FP, and IH), enabling a holistic assessment of soil and water degradation and their interactions within terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081442

Authors: Sunantana Nuanla-or Kim N. Irvine Manat Srivanit Thongchai Roachanakanan

Rapid peri-urban sprawl is intensifying flood risk by replacing natural landscapes with dense, impervious residential developments. Thailand’s land use regulations require a 5% minimum green space allocation for new housing developments as a measure to promote livability and well-being. Green space also has the potential to sustainably manage stormwater runoff, but for Thailand’s peri-urban development, the question remains whether 5% green space is sufficient to reduce flood risk. As such, this study critically evaluates whether this 5% green space guideline is sufficient for peri-urban runoff and flood management in peri-urban Pathum Thani, particularly given the acceleration of Bangkok’s urban sprawl over the past 30 years. Using a multi-scalar framework, we integrated GIS spatial analysis of 164 gated communities (1995–2025) with site-specific PCSWMM hydrologic modeling to test baseline conditions and Nature-based Solution (NbS) interventions against 5-, 10-, 50-, and 100-year design storms. Findings reveal developers generally adhere to the 5% guideline, thereby addressing policy while maximizing salable land space. PCSWMM simulations show the 5% baseline alone does not adequately manage runoff, with localized residential flooding expected for a 5-year design storm under current baseline conditions. Scenario testing indicates a hybrid grey–green infrastructure approach would optimally manage flooding. Given economic barriers to expanding open space, converting roads to permeable pavements offers a possible optimization strategy. Ultimately, static area-based regulations remain insufficient; policies must transition to performance-based volumetric retention targets to mitigate downstream flooding and foster resilient communities.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081441

Authors: Lucia Piana Soulaima Azizi Enrico Dinelli Maria Filippini Alessandro Gargini Nicolas Greggio Andrea Mustoni Alessandro Petraglia Laura Pezzolesi Abdullah A. Saber Federico Santi Mara Simonazzi Daniel Spitale Marcello Tomaselli Flavia Tromboni Marco Cantonati Stefano Segadelli

Springs are biodiversity hotspots and climate refugia, yet they remain among the most overlooked and threatened freshwater ecosystems, largely absent from regional monitoring programs. In the Emilia-Romagna Region (Northern Apennines, Italy), where more than 8400 springs are documented but most persist as unmonitored “ghost springs”, we developed and tested an ecohydrogeological framework to support their long-term monitoring and conservation. Twenty-five springs were selected as representatives of five strategic zones, which we identify, defined by aquifer type (Ophiolites, Turbiditic Sandstones, Shallow Marine Sandstones, Triassic Gypsum, and lowland Fontanili) and characterized through integrated hydrogeological, hydrochemical, and biological sampling. Benthic diatoms (393 species in 69 genera) growing on three different substrates (epibryon, epilithon and epipelon) per spring, vegetation, and physical and chemical parameters were analyzed. Diatom assemblage composition differed significantly among zones (PERMANOVA, p < 0.001), structured primarily by electrical conductivity between sites (community level) and by discharge regime between substrates (microhabitat level); the proportion of aerial diatoms (88 species) proved a useful indicator of discharge fluctuations, inferable from a single biological sample. Threatened taxa (41% of evaluated species) concentrated in the ridge zones. Although calibrated in the Northern Apennines, the five-zone framework offers a biologically validated and transferable tool to other regions for spring conservation as sentinel ecosystems under climate change and anthropogenic exploitation.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081440

Authors: Leticia Merchán Hugo Díez Antonio Miguel Martínez-Graña Humberto Castillo-González Lorena Salgado Rubén Forján

Engineered nanomaterials have been increasingly proposed for the treatment of contaminated soils. Nevertheless, most available evidence has been obtained in water, artificial substrates or short-term laboratory experiments, and performance in real soil is substantially more variable. This review examines nanoscale zero-valent iron, photocatalytic metal oxides, carbon-based nanomaterials, and supported or hybrid formulations, with particular attention to the soil properties and contaminant characteristics that control their mobility, transformation, reactivity, and persistence. Nano-enabled treatments can decrease the mobility of arsenic, chromium, lead, and other potentially toxic elements and can promote the degradation of selected pesticides and hydrocarbons. However, opposite responses have also been reported, including mobilisation of non-target elements, nanoparticle aggregation and passivation, effects on microbial communities and plants, contaminant rebound, and potential transport beyond the treated zone. Environmental assessment should therefore consider both the target contaminant and the applied or transformed nanomaterial, together with ecological and occupational exposure pathways. Current evidence does not support nanoremediation as a general replacement for conventional technologies. Its main value lies in its use as a site-specific component of integrated remediation strategies selected according to soil properties, contaminant behaviour, treatment scale, cost, life-cycle impacts, and future land use. European field experience remains limited, particularly in unsaturated soils, and no harmonised EU-wide authorisation procedure specifically for soil nanoremediation currently exists. Wider implementation will require realistic field trials, long-term monitoring, safer and recoverable formulations, transparent regulatory assessment, and evaluation of soil functions and ecosystem-service recovery. A site-specific decision framework is proposed to support material selection, risk–benefit evaluation, and responsible implementation.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081439

Authors: Yuxiang He Tianqi Fu Zhangqian Ye Shiquan Zhao Chunwei Wu Weilong Zhou Chunyu Wang Yue Cao

National parks in densely populated regions face growing pressure to shift from boundary-based protection toward cross-boundary landscape governance, yet connectivity between wildlands within and outside the national park remains understudied. China’s large population and marked spatial variation in anthropogenic pressure make it a particularly informative setting for investigating this issue. We developed a rewilding-oriented framework for wildland network modeling, applied to Baishanzu National Park and its surrounding counties in China. By integrating Boolean overlay, wilderness continuum analysis, and circuit theory, we systematically delineated wilderness patches, corridors, and pinch points. We identified 143 wilderness patches covering 1102.79 km2 (14.06% of the study area), dominated by small fragments indicative of severe landscape fragmentation. High current-density zones are concentrated along continuous montane forest belts, valley-ridge transition zones, and narrow inter-patch passages. Twenty-six pinch points were identified, primarily within Baishanzu National Park, southeastern Jingning County, and the northern Yunhe–Longquan interface, alongside 15 internal corridors within the park. Rewilding strategies for montane national parks in human-dominated landscapes may benefit from extending beyond boundaries. Cross-boundary wildland network modeling offers a methodological reference for corridor planning and rewilding practice globally.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081438

Authors: Junqi Li Xiang Fan Yanshu Li Chuxin Zhu Yuqi Yang Xiucheng Yue Liyijia Zhang Zhoumeng Zhao Xinyue Cao Yujie Ma

In regions where severe topographic constraints coincide with intensive human activity, the mechanisms underlying landscape ecological risk (LER) and its spatial differentiation remain poorly understood. In particular, the nonlinear responses and threshold effects arising from the combined influence of complex natural gradients, urban expansion, and policy interventions have not been adequately characterized, limiting effective regional ecological management and policy formulation. Taking the Taiyuan section of the Fen River Basin as the study area, this study constructed an LER index using land-use data for 2014, 2019, and 2024. Landscape metrics and spatial autocorrelation analyses were used to characterize the spatiotemporal evolution of LER, and a LightGBM-SHAP model with spatial block cross-validation was employed to identify the nonlinear effects of natural and socioeconomic drivers. A four-quadrant zoning framework integrating current risk state and driver sensitivity was then developed. The results showed that: (1) LER followed a fluctuating trajectory, rising from 2014 to 2019 and declining from 2019 to 2024, with evident spatial differentiation. Low- and relatively low-risk zones dominated about 71% of the area, while medium- to high-risk zones clustered mainly in the northeast, south, and parts of the northwest; high-risk agglomerations gradually contracted. (2) LER was driven by both natural and socioeconomic factors, with natural factors playing the stronger role. Slope, NDVI, elevation, and GDP were the key drivers. (3) The effects of these drivers were strongly nonlinear: slope increased risk at 5–13° but reduced it above 13°; NDVI displayed an inverted U-shaped relationship, with the strongest positive contribution at 0.60–0.75.; and elevation shifted from a positive to negative contribution near 1200 m. Based on these results, the framework coupling risk state and driver sensitivity delineated differentiated management units, providing fine-scale spatial guidance for ecological protection, restoration, and development control in topographically constrained river-valley basins.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081437

Authors: Zhao Deng Ming Cheng Junde Xie Tianyong Wan Pengzhi Yang Jianbo Tan Sixue Xia Jia Zhang Xin Wu

Cropland non-grain and non-agriculturalization monitoring (CNNM) is of great significance for ensuring national food security. Recently, semantic segmentation has been a promising approach that can fully exploit the advantages of high-resolution remote sensing imagery. It is of great significance to clarify the performance of semantic segmentation algorithms for CNNM and their influencing factors. This paper contributes to research on deep learning-based semantic segmentation models for CNNM by investigating the robustness and generalization ability of detection models in complex scenarios. To investigate these models, seven mainstream segmentation models were examined with respect to two self-constructed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based cropland monitoring datasets under various experimental settings. The experimental results reveal several key findings: For the datasets employed in the present study, remote sensing semantic segmentation models demonstrate superior performance relative to generic visual models. Increasing backbone depth does not guarantee significant performance improvements. The recognition challenges posed by task-specific categories such as agricultural facility land further underscore the need for tailored deep learning semantic segmentation algorithms for CNNM. These experimental results provide valuable insights into the practical performance of deep learning semantic segmentation models and offer useful guidance for future semantic segmentation research in the field of CNNM.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081436

Authors: Baihui Ning Yunlu Jiang Abudukeyimu Abulizi Ruolin Yang Xianang Li Shanshan Tang Xuemei Wei Amanzhuli Yerkenhazi

Addressing the issue of ecological vulnerability and against the backdrop of urban expansion in arid regions, this study constructs a composite urban resilience capacity index (CURCI) for the urban agglomeration on the northern slopes of the Tianshan Mountains and examines its space-time evolution together with the relative contribution of key indicators. The evaluation system was constructed from economic, social, ecological, and infrastructure dimensions. The CRITIC-entropy combined weighting method, TFPW-MK method, standard deviation ellipse, and XGBoost-SHAP model were used to analyze urban resilience capacity from 2005 to 2022. Results show that, temporally, CURCI showed a sustained overall increase. Urumqi City and Karamay City grew relatively fast as dual core cities, while peripheral and county-level cities improved gradually. Spatially, resilience was higher in the north and west and lower in the south and east. High-value areas expanded, low-value areas gradually disappeared, and the resilience centroid point remained near the boundary between Urumqi City and Changji City, with a northwest–southeast orientation. In terms of factor contributions, economic factors contributed most, followed by social and ecological factors. Based on contribution differences, cities were classified into industrial-advantage, ecological-advantage, natural-constraint, and population-pressure types. These findings provide a reference for resilience assessment and differentiated governance in arid-region urban agglomerations.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081435

Authors: Pelin Özden Koray Velibeyoğlu Şeniz Çıkış Müge Usta Mehmet Kaya Burçak Karlı Ölmez

Climate change is intensifying heat-related risks in Mediterranean urban environments, increasing the need for pedestrian-scale approaches that combine spatial diagnostics with lived thermal experience. The pilot study develops a three-layer diagnostic framework for assessing outdoor thermal comfort in the central neighbourhoods of Urla, İzmir, Türkiye. The framework integrates UMEP-SOLWEIG microclimatic modelling, citizen science field measurements and structured thermal perception diaries. First, Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) and mean radiant temperature (Tmrt) were modelled for 24 November 2023 and used as spatial diagnostic layers to identify three pilot areas with distinct urban morphologies. Second, an independent citizen science thermal walk campaign was conducted on 5 November 2025, during which 12 volunteers recorded in situ air temperature and relative humidity at predefined measurement points. Third, participants completed thermal diaries based on ASHRAE Standard 55 to document thermal sensation, comfort, preference, acceptability and adaptive responses. The modelling and fieldwork components were not designed as same-day validation datasets but as complementary layers for interpreting spatial thermal patterns and perceived thermal conditions. The results show that modelled PET values were relatively homogeneous across the three areas, while field-measured air temperature and subjective thermal responses varied more clearly at the pedestrian scale. These differences suggest that surface conditions, shading, spatial openness and user perception may jointly shape outdoor thermal experience, although the findings should be interpreted as descriptive tendencies due to the single autumn fieldwork session and small sample size. The study contributes a cautious, repeatable pilot framework for linking spatial screening, citizen-generated microclimatic data and structured perception evidence in climate-responsive urban design and local climate governance.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081434

Authors: Xianshu Xu Wenwei Lin Huiting Zhang Qunyue Liu Hongxin Wang He Huang

As climate change intensifies and urbanization continues, Fuzhou faces growing public health risks from the urban heat island effect. This study develops a Heat Risk Index (HRI) by integrating the Local Climate Zone (LCZ) classification with the Crichton Risk Triangle framework. Hazard was characterized using quality-controlled Landsat LST and the proportion of valid MYD11A2 composites exceeding a citywide P90 LST threshold. Exposure was represented by normalized population density; ln(P + 1) was used only for cartographic classification. Vulnerability incorporated older population, nighttime light, NDVI, and MNDWI. The continuous HRI was calculated as H × E × V, and ln(HRI) was used only for Jenks five-class map presentation. The results show clear spatial differences among LCZ types and counties, with higher risks concentrated in densely built and populated areas of the five urban districts, Changle, and localized county centers. LCZ differences in LST and HRI were statistically significant (both p < 0.001), and HRI showed significant positive spatial autocorrelation. These findings provide a basis for LCZ-specific heat-risk management while acknowledging uncertainty associated with data-year mismatch, spatial resampling, remotely sensed surface temperature, and the absence of independent health-outcome validation.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081433

Authors: Anastassiya Islamgulova Dmitry Malakhov Liliya Dimeyeva Aibek Baibulov Zhuldyz Salmukhanbetova Bektemir Osmonali Valeriya Permitina Gulzhan Yerubayeva Alexandr Cherednichenko Rashid Iskakov

This article presents a spatial assessment of rangeland productivity, forage resources, and the potential carrying capacity of saiga (Saiga tatarica (L., 1766)) habitats within the Korgalzhyn State Nature Reserve (Kazakhstan). This research integrated field geobotanical surveys, remote sensing data, and spatial modelling approaches. During fieldwork conducted in July 2025, 44 geobotanical descriptions were completed. Long-term Sentinel-2 imagery (2015–2025), spectral vegetation indices, and ensemble machine learning algorithms (Random Forest and Gradient Boosted Decision Trees) were used to model rangeland productivity. The study area includes 16 types of rangelands. The forage resource base is primarily formed by dry-steppe communities dominated by Stipa, Festuca, and Artemisia. At the same time, halophytic vegetation containing Atriplex, Bassia, and Halocnemum provides additional forage resources under arid and saline conditions. The total annual forage reserve was estimated at 3,308,921.2 centners, and the potential annual carrying capacity was calculated at 363,033 saiga individuals across 313,868 ha. These values represent the theoretical forage-carrying capacity of the territory and should not be interpreted as actual population estimates. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of integrating remote sensing, field observations, and machine learning methods for assessing forage resources and spatial heterogeneity of rangeland ecosystems in the steppe regions of Kazakhstan.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081430

Authors: Runhong Xu Aibin Wu Yanxia Zhao Huitao Shen Bo Nan Xin Liu Yanjie Qin

Urban expansion directly reduces vegetation via impervious surface growth, though indirect urban environmental effects may partially offset these losses. This study examines the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region from 2000 to 2025 by integrating multi-source remote sensing and socioeconomic data to investigate the effects of urban expansion on vegetation greenness (NDVI) and productivity (NPP). The results show that impervious surfaces expanded from 21,747 km2 to 33,688 km2. Yet NDVI and NPP did not decline in tandem. Instead, they responded differently. NDVI exhibited broad increases—particularly in the northwest ecological zones. NPP was more sensitive to impervious surface expansion. Further analysis reveals that impervious surface coverage is the primary driver of NPP, while per capita GDP dominates NDVI. Correlation analysis confirms these relationships are consistent in direction. The combined contribution of socio-economic variables (GDP, per capita GDP, and population) substantially exceeds that of impervious surface area. This suggests that economic development, as a whole, is the dominant force shaping vegetation greenness in the region. These findings challenge the conventional trade-off narrative between urban growth and vegetation health. They demonstrate that urban expansion and ecological improvement can advance in parallel. This requires sustained greening investments and coordinated regional planning. The results offer actionable insights for carbon-sensitive land-use regulation in rapidly urbanizing regions.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081431

Authors: Darshana Athukorala Yuki Iwai Yuji Murayama Takehiro Morimoto

Urban wetlands and agricultural lands are among the most important socio-ecological systems in urban areas. They support food production, biodiversity conservation, water regulation, climate resilience, and human well-being. However, rapid urbanization negatively affects wetland–agricultural coexistence (WAC) by destroying habitats, fragmenting landscapes, and intensifying land-use conflicts. Our study proposed a Wetland–Agriculture Coexistence Index (WACI) to assess the spatial pattern of WAC in Colombo, Sri Lanka. We considered four components for the WACI framework: wetland condition (WC), agricultural condition (AC), urban pressure (UP), and hydrological connectivity (HC). The WACI was developed using Landsat 8/9, Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), and Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) data, along with road network, population, and hydrological network data. Variables used in this study include land surface temperature (LST), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Modified Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (MSAVI), Bare Soil Index (BSI), soil moisture, elevation, slope, population density, distance to roads, hydrological connectivity, and built-up %, which were normalized and integrated into four dimensions using an equal-weighted approach to develop the WACI. The results showed substantial spatial heterogeneity in WAC across Colombo. The average WACI was 0.51, indicating a moderate WAC. This study further identified that favorable environmental conditions, rich hydrological connectivity, and low urban pressure increased coexistence potentials. The spatial pattern of WACI identified priority areas for conservation, restoration, and sustainable urban planning implications in Colombo. Our WACI framework provides a practical and transferable method for assessing WAC in urban areas. The findings of this study support balanced urban wetland–agricultural management, conservation, food security, and long-term sustainability of rapidly urbanizing cities.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081432

Authors: Guohua Hu Xiaofei Yang Tianyu Chen Yige Ju Feng Mi

Coordinated regional development plays an increasingly important role in promoting low-carbon transitions across China’s urban agglomerations. This study examines the effect of the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Coordinated Development Strategy, elevated to major national strategic status in 2014, on urban carbon emissions. Using an unbalanced panel of 294 prefecture-level and higher-level cities from 2010 to 2023, we employ a two-way fixed-effects difference-in-differences model to evaluate the strategy’s overall carbon-mitigation effect, potential transmission pathways, and spatial heterogeneity. The baseline DID coefficient is −0.052, corresponding to a 5.0% decline in city-level total CO2 emissions in the 13 treated cities relative to the national comparison group after policy implementation. Within the same comparison framework, further analysis documents significant positive post-policy differentials in both the industrial-structure-upgrading index and green invention-patent applications; the industrial-structure-upgrading results are consistent with a potential emissions-reduction pathway. The heterogeneity analysis indicates a statistically significant relative carbon-mitigation effect for the prefecture-level cities of Hebei compared with the national comparison group, with a larger relative effect in Beijing and Tianjin. This spatial pattern is consistent with differences in industrial structure, innovation capacity, and environmental governance capacity across cities. The findings provide city-level quasi-experimental evidence that coordinated regional development can promote urban carbon mitigation and support differentiated carbon governance, coordinated industrial upgrading, and cross-regional low-carbon policy design.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081429

Authors: Junyi Tang Yan Xu Qiuxuan Xu Tianhao Zhou Xiaobo Liu Qin Liu

Assessing ecosystem services, identifying their driving factors, and optimizing their spatial patterns are essential for coordinating ecological conservation and socioeconomic development in mountainous regions. Taking the Anning River Basin in southwestern China as the study area, this study quantitatively assessed ecosystem services from 2010 to 2024, integrated trade-off intensity into the Integrated Ecosystem Services Index, applied a Bayesian network model to identify the driving factors of ecosystem services, and proposed strategies for spatial pattern optimization. The results showed that: (1) the mean values of water conservation and soil conservation in the Anning River Basin were 94.45 mm and 1179.64 t ha−1, respectively, both showing substantial interannual fluctuations. The habitat quality index was 0.83, and the mean carbon storage was 132.68 t ha−1; both habitat quality and carbon storage declined slightly. The mean food production was 0.46 t ha−1, indicating an improvement in the food production function. (2) The trade-off intensity among ecosystem services was 0.33, and the Integrated Ecosystem Services Index was 0.51, remaining generally stable overall. Ecosystem services were mainly influenced by land use, precipitation, population count, and fractional vegetation cover. Their spatial heterogeneity was pronounced, with relatively low values in the Anning River Plain, the Jinsha River dry-hot valley, and the Yanyuan Basin. (3) The identified priority conservation areas for ecosystem services covered 8307 km2 and were mainly distributed within ecological conservation redline areas and regulated zones. The general functional areas for ecosystem services covered 149 km2 and were concentrated in urban construction areas and along major transportation corridors in the basin. Targeted strategies were further proposed to enhance the synergistic improvement of ecosystem service supply. This study provides theoretical and practical support for ecosystem management in the Anning River Basin and other mountainous watersheds.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081428

Authors: Reşat Geçen Enes Karadeniz Fatih Sunbul Selman Er Murat Karabulut M. Taner Sengun

Türkiye is one of the biologically richest regions of the temperate zone, yet the national-scale spatial structure of its biodiversity remains insufficiently quantified using formal spatial statistical approaches. In this study, province-level biodiversity indicators derived from the Noah’s Ark National Biodiversity Database were analysed to assess whether species richness and endemism exhibit non-random spatial patterns across the country. Global Moran’s I, Anselin Local Moran’s I, and Getis–Ord Gi* statistics were applied within a GIS framework to identify spatial clustering and biodiversity hotspots. The results indicate statistically significant positive spatial autocorrelation for seven of the nine biodiversity indicators, with the strongest values observed for the rate of endemism and the number of endemic taxa. Vascular plant richness shows marginal evidence of clustering at the 90% confidence level, whereas bird richness does not differ significantly from spatial randomness. High-value clusters are concentrated along the Mediterranean belt, the Eastern Black Sea region, and the Taurus mountain system, whereas comparatively lower biodiversity values occur in several inland provinces. These spatial patterns are interpreted in relation to Türkiye’s pronounced climatic, topographic, and land-use heterogeneity.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081427

Authors: Wenting Zhang Pinlin Li Jiaxian Jiang Di Wang

Coal mining landscapes require restoration strategies that account not only for where ecological risk is concentrated but also for how risk constrains landscape connectivity. However, landscape ecological risk assessment is still commonly used as a zoning tool, with weak links to resistance surface parameterization and node-level restoration. Using the Shenmu coal mining area in northern China as a case study, we developed a risk-informed ecological network framework based on multi-source spatial data from 1995 to 2020. The framework combined landscape ecological risk assessment, GeoDetector-based driver analysis, ecological source screening, resistance surface construction, minimum cumulative resistance modeling, a gravity model, and circuit theory-based node diagnosis. Landscape dominance showed the highest explanatory power within the tested factor set (q = 0.06083), followed by land use type, water body proximity, and landscape fragmentation, while most factor interactions showed bivariate or nonlinear enhancement. Risk zoning delineated ecological conservation (467.62 km2), enhancement (1434.86 km2), and restoration areas (2566.49 km2). The framework identified 10 ecological sources; 18 potential corridors with a total length of 213.18 km; and 89 key nodes, including 52 pinch points, 4 barrier points, and 33 fracture points. The main contribution of this framework lies not in combining established ecological network tools, but in transferring ecological risk information into resistance surface parameterization and linking different types of critical nodes to differentiated restoration priorities. These outputs should be interpreted as model-based structural and potential functional connectivity priorities, rather than as direct evidence of realized species movement.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081426

Authors: Junhee Woo Leon dos Santos Catarino Amarpreet Singh Arora Birte Meller Thorsten Schuetze

Cities are confronted with heat, drought, and pluvial flooding, highlighting the need for renovation strategies that enhance climate resilience while minimizing greenhouse gas emissions. This research developed an integrated assessment framework to quantify the mitigation potential of urban and building surface components using five area-based key performance indicators (KPIs): Surface Heat Contribution (SHC), Flood Mitigation Factor (FMF), Water Storage Capacity (WSC), Evaporation Volume (EVA), and Global Warming Potential (GWP). The framework combines simplified life-cycle assessment with biophysical models for heat, water storage, and evaporation, designed as an accessible complement to 3D microclimate tools. Applied to an exemplary residential area in Daegu, South Korea, the method benchmarks existing surfaces and evaluates renovation scenarios targeting heat reduction, flood mitigation, and drought resilience. Results show that surface renovation measures improve mitigation potential. The performance varies across KPIs, involving trade-offs with embodied emissions. Optimal outcomes arise from balanced hybrid strategies integrating complementary measures. Selective greening combined with low heat capacity, high-conductivity materials (e.g., metal façades) effectively reduces heat stress but increases embodied GWP and structural demands. Permeable and greened surfaces improve WSC and EVA, supporting short-term flood mitigation, yet reveal limitations under prolonged rainfall. The proposed framework supports transparent and low-carbon climate-resilient renovation decision-making.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081425

Authors: Huiru Liu Bo Li Duohan Liang Huimin Zhou

This study aims to evaluate the inclusive green growth (IGG) performance of resource-based cities and to diagnose the structural bottlenecks that constrain their transition. Using a city-level panel of 37 resource-based cities in the Yellow River Basin, China, from 2011 to 2024 (518 city-year observations) drawn from official statistical yearbooks, government documents, and remote-sensing products, we construct a multidimensional IGG index covering economic growth, social equity, and environmental protection, measured through entropy-weighted TOPSIS; kernel density estimation, global and local spatial autocorrelation analysis, a gravity-based potential-interaction network, and an obstacle-degree model are then applied to examine temporal evolution, spatial differentiation, and constraint structure. The results show that (1) the basin-wide IGG index rose from 0.2199 to 0.2845 (+29.4%), with a visible adjustment around 2015 and a stronger acceleration after 2020; (2) environmental protection improved fastest (0.7027 in 2024), while economic growth remained the weakest dimension (0.2408); (3) spatial dependence strengthened significantly from 2017 onward, with high-high clusters concentrated in lower-reach Shandong cities; and (4) the economic-growth dimension constitutes the dominant obstacle (54.43%), led by export-capacity and social-insurance shortfalls. A robustness check with an alternative combined weighting scheme confirms these patterns. The findings indicate that transition policy should shift from pollution control toward capability building, with differentiated pathways by city type and river reach.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081424

Authors: Qi Wu Peijun Lu

Compound flooding increasingly threatens developed coastal deltas. High risk pressure does not necessarily produce a resilience deficit where capacity is sufficient, whereas moderate-pressure areas may remain vulnerable when capacity is weak. Recent assessments increasingly integrate hazard, exposure, vulnerability, and adaptive capacity within unified risk frameworks such as the IPCC AR5 risk model. However, by collapsing these dimensions into a single composite risk score, such formulations cannot explicitly diagnose where—and by how much—compound flood risk pressure exceeds intrinsic resilience capacity, which is the information most directly needed for prioritizing resilience investment. This study diagnoses compound flood resilience deficits across Jiangsu Province, China, at county scale from 2000 to 2020. We introduce a diagnostic approach that separates risk pressure from intrinsic resilience capacity and quantifies their spatial mismatch. The risk pressure index is evaluated for consistency with observed disaster-loss indicators—direct economic loss and flood-affected area—over 2010–2020, and spatial statistics, time-series clustering, and explainable machine learning identify deficit patterns, pathways, and associated factors. Both the risk-pressure index and the derived deficit index are positively associated with observed losses, confirming that the framework captures major flood impacts. The resilience deficit index reveals persistent risk–resilience mismatch across Jiangsu. Three pathways emerge: capacity-buffered exposure, inland adaptive adjustment, and coastal resilience-deficit lock-in. Land-system conditions, communication access, transport connectivity, and economic recovery capacity are jointly associated with resilience deficits. The framework offers a transferable approach for prioritizing differentiated flood-risk management in coastal deltas.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081423

Authors: Bohan Zhao Haoyu Tang Teng Wang Yingying Wang Ziqi Meng Yaqiu Liu

Under the Yellow River Basin’s strategic imperative of ecological protection and high-quality development, the critical question is whether rapid urbanization’s population agglomeration and land expansion are genuinely aligned with-or increasingly decoupled from-underlying economic vitality. To address this, we construct a unified analytical framework that synchronously captures coupling coordination, decoupling trajectories, and land-use efficiency, operationalized through multi-source county-level panel data for the Jinan Metropolitan Area in lower Yellow River Basin across 2000, 2010, and 2020. Unlike conventional two-dimensional assessments, the framework distinguishes system coordination, evolutionary direction, and input–output performance while using harmonized nighttime light data to capture the spatial intensity of economic vitality. The results show that: (1) the mean county-level coordination grade increased from 4.76 to 5.32, although strong core–periphery disparities persisted; (2) the decoupling structure shifted from relative homogeneity to pronounced differentiation, and strongly decoupled counties accounted for 48% of all units by 2020; and (3) average efficiency rose from 0.25 to 0.39, but most counties remained below the efficiency frontier, producing a pattern of central agglomeration and peripheral dispersion. Cross-classification further identifies coordinated but inefficient, efficient but dysfunctional, and low-coordination–low-efficiency trajectories that cannot be detected using a single model. The framework therefore provides a transferable diagnostic tool for differentiated territorial planning in metropolitan regions undergoing rapid structural transformation.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081421

Authors: Georgiana Crețu-Văculișteanu Silviu-Costel Doru Mihai Niculiță

CORINE Land Cover (CLC) is one of the most used land databases intended for pan-European-scale analysis. Despite periodic updates, the data suffer from generalization, subjectivity, and inconsistent local knowledge, leading to a distorted representation of reality. In this study, we raise awareness of the use of CLC data in local analysis, for which it was never intended. Our study investigates whether incorporating auxiliary spatial data and local geographical knowledge can yield a higher-accuracy CLC product, without departing from the official CLC definitions and standards. We critically remapped polygon by polygon the 1990, 2000, and 2006 CLC layers, for Iași County (NE Romania), using topographic maps (1972–1989), aerial imagery (1978–2008), and satellite data (1980–2006), and compared it to the original CLC, through change detection analysis. The new maps revealed several issues imposed by (a) generalization—cartographical omissions among settlements, due to the application of a 25 ha minimum mapping unit and a 100 m minimum mapping width; (b) confusions between land cover and land-use classes, such as pasture and wetlands, especially under varying climatic conditions, or imposed by landforms, where we suggest the use of complementary data, such as a Digital Elevation Model (DEM); and (c) the inconsistencies of mapping between successive CLC editions. Our results indicate that the CLC should not be used for downscaling analysis. Therefore, the authors advocate integrating multiple temporal remote sensing layers to achieve a more accurate assessment of land cover classes, thereby compensating for the data’s top-down character. Based on these findings, we propose an error classification approach to serve as a reference for risk mitigation in downscaled spatial analysis. We emphasize the need for CLC data users to validate their data against ground truth to mitigate analytical uncertainties.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081422

Authors: Dastan Bamwesigye Jitka Fialova Evans Yeboah Dalibor Safarík David Brezina Jitka Menhazova Petra Hlavackova

Whereas agroforestry has emerged as a vital Nature-Based Solution (NBS) in the face of climate change, it is yet to be fully embraced in many parts of the world including Uganda. Therefore, understanding the various dynamics surrounding agroforestry adaptation such as the associated benefits and drivers is equally important. The study aimed to explore perceptions and preferences for agroforestry benefits from both ecological and socioeconomic aspects in Uganda. The study employed a non-probability convenience online survey and a total of n = 1138 responses were collected and subjected to descriptive and binary regression analysis. Assessment of agroforestry benefits demonstrated very high ecological preferences. The socioeconomic factors of wood fuel, forest incomes, and forest food and fruits ranked moderately. The models showed a consistent cluster of positive relations among provisioning/protection outlooks of forest food and fruits, water protection and soil conservation services. Moreover, the trade-offs between livelihood dependency for wood fuel/firewood energy, forest income and conservation attitudes (saving nature) were observed. The demographics characteristics (age and gender) were mainly not significant across most models. The efforts of the government of Uganda had a positive and very significant correlation with a preference for wood fuel, indicating policy problems. The study outcomes not only provide a strong case for future studies regarding agroforestry benefits but also offer insights for policy advice such as integrated approaches in agroforestry systems in Uganda.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081420

Authors: Sha Gao Ji Zhang Shu Gan Kesheng Jin Qiyun Luo Jingtang Zhang

Digital elevation models (DEMs) and vegetation cover (FVC) are critical foundational data for ecological and environmental monitoring and land-use management; however, the application of domestically produced commercial high-resolution optical satellite stereo imagery for high-precision DEM construction and vegetation parameter inversion in areas with complex topography still requires further exploration. This study focuses on the hilly area in the northeastern part of Kunming City, Yunnan Province, and utilizes tri-view stereo imagery from the Beijing-3 (BJ3-N2) satellite to conduct research on DEM reconstruction, topographic correction, image fusion, and vegetation cover inversion. DEM products were generated by matching multiple sets of panchromatic and multispectral stereo imagery, and their accuracy was verified using ICESat-2 ATL08 laser altimetry data. The results indicate that DEMs generated from panchromatic imagery exhibit higher accuracy than those from multispectral imagery; among them, the PAN-0103 DEM demonstrated the best overall performance, with a global RMSE of 3.42 m. Topographic slope and land cover type were found to have significant effects on DEM accuracy. A terrain-constrained Gram–Schmidt fusion model was constructed based on the optimal DEM to generate the fused image MP-01, which had a spectral angle (SAM) of 3.2° and a band correlation coefficient (CC) of 0.92. Further, by integrating field RTK plot data, an improved pixel binary model was constructed to perform FVC inversion. The results showed that the Mahalanobis distance classification method yielded the best classification performance, with a model inversion RMSE of 0.074—a 41.7% reduction compared to the traditional fixed-end element model. The study demonstrates that the high-resolution stereo imagery from Beijing-3 can effectively support the refined construction of DEMs and quantitative monitoring of vegetation cover in complex hilly areas and can provide a technical reference for the application of domestically produced commercial remote sensing satellites in the field of ecological monitoring.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081419

Authors: Enkhbayar Davaatseren Tsolmon Sodnomdavaa Sainbuyan Bayarsaikhan Erkhetbayar Enkhbayar Urtnasan Mandakh Miyegombo Dorj

Soil organic carbon (SOC) restoration in degraded drylands is increasingly promoted for climate mitigation and hydrological co-benefits, yet the scale at which these benefits remain detectable remains uncertain. We therefore evaluate SOC recovery and its hydrological effects across three scales—local, basin, and Earth-system—for a 220,966 ha rangeland restoration pilot in Öndörshireet soum, Central Mongolia, using a cold-calibrated RothC model, Monte Carlo uncertainty propagation, machine-learning-assisted measurement support, and basin-scale mass-balance accounting. Baseline SOC averaged 28.27 tC ha−1, and 20-year RothC simulations projected SOC gains of 0.9–6.4 tC ha−1 across rotational, fenced, and seeded–fenced strata. Monte Carlo emission-reduction rates were 0.33–2.19 tCO2e ha−1 yr−1, and the conservative VM0042 deduction chain yielded approximately 10,900–12,200 verified carbon units per year. At the local scale, translating SOC gains into plant-available water capacity produced a small but positive hydrological response—reduced flash runoff, lower flood exceedance and storm runoff, higher baseflow contribution, and lower streamflow flashiness—expressed through flow stabilization rather than increased annual water volume. Across the three scales evaluated here, SOC recovery yields a small increase in plant-available water capacity (≈0.09 mm) locally, associated with reduced flash runoff and greater flow stability; at the basin scale, the signal is three to four orders of magnitude below interannual discharge variability; and at the Earth-system scale, no measurable freshwater or global cooling effect is supported. National-scale estimates indicate substantial credible mitigation potential but negligible Arctic freshwater impacts. By separating local mechanisms from basin- and Earth-system detectability, this framework distinguishes credible local co-benefits from Earth-system over-attribution in dryland carbon projects.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081418

Authors: Zelian Guo Yecui Hu Yang Zhang Yinbing Zhao

China launched the major function-oriented zone planning (MFZP) strategy in 2010 to address regional imbalances and resource–environment pressures through differentiated regulation. Using county-level data from 2010 to 2020, this study develops a “scale–structure–efficiency” framework and applies a self-organizing feature map (SOFM) model to examine construction land supply across four functional zones. The findings show that: (1) Key development zones provide the largest supply, while optimized zones supply the smallest but at the highest intensity, and restricted zones generally meet control targets. (2) Optimized zones record the highest incremental–stock supply index (ISSI), yet incremental supply still dominates; urbanized zones have balanced functional structures, whereas agricultural and ecological zones are more concentrated. (3) Supply efficiency in urbanized zones exceeds that of agricultural and ecological zones. (4) SOFM clustering identifies four distinct supply modes, reflecting regional heterogeneity in policy alignment. Overall, China’s differentiated land supply strategy broadly matches national goals, though some regions face excessive intensity and low efficiency, calling for tailored optimization measures.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081417

Authors: Eleni Adam Athanasia Mavrommati Angelos Patakas

Rainfed wheat covers much of the semi-arid Mediterranean, yet its environmental cost is rarely measured at the field scale where management decisions are made. This study assesses the carbon and environmental footprint of rainfed wheat in the Mygdonia Basin, Northern Greece, drawing on a primary dataset of 1385 fields (~976 ha). Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was coupled with Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to link environmental performance with technical efficiency. Carbon footprint ranged from 2030 to 3110 kg CO2e ha−1, revealing pronounced spatial variability across management systems. Excess nitrogen fertilization emerged as the principal driver of greenhouse gas emissions, acidification, and eutrophication in lowland systems. High-altitude systems showed lower impacts per hectare, an advantage partly offset by higher terrestrial ecotoxicity from increased machinery use. DEA revealed widespread technical inefficiency, most fields scoring between 0.70 and 0.90, with input slacks tracing this to excess nitrogen and seed. The convergence of LCA and DEA findings identifies nitrogen management as the key leverage point for improving environmental and technical performance without compromising productivity. The findings support spatially differentiated interventions under the Common Agricultural Policy, promoting precision nutrient management and conservation-oriented practices to strengthen the resilience of Mediterranean agroecosystems.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081416

Authors: Ricardo Gilson da Costa Silva Diego Alves Luz Marcel Eméric Bizerra de Araújo Tiago Roberto Silva Santos Marcelo Horta Messias Franco Viviane Vidal da Silva

This article analyzes the territorial reconfiguration of Rondônia at the beginning of the 21st century, emphasizing the concept of “Matogrossization” as a framework for understanding the profound socio-spatial transformations resulting from the expansion of globalized agribusiness, particularly the associated monocultures of soy and corn. This concept refers to the diffusion of productive practices and territorial logics characteristic of Mato Grosso, applied to Rondônia, which has led to a significant restructuring of the regional agrarian space. Methodologically, the research comprised three distinct stages: bibliographic and documentary research, cartographic mapping, and fieldwork in both Rondônia and Mato Grosso. The growth of commodity production has driven territorial appropriation aimed at export markets, resulting in a “rush” for new lands in Rondônia. This process has intensified the development of peripheral agricultural regions and caused drastic changes in the Amazonian landscape, including accelerated deforestation. It has also deepened rural conflicts over land and territory, highlighting the resistance of peasant communities and Amazonian peoples. Demographically, there is a decline in the rural population and an increase in urban growth, driven by migration from the countryside to the cities, evidencing socio-economic transformations and spatial reorganization. The concept of “matogrossization” explains this new territorial logic, which reconfigures land use to connect Rondônia to global agribusiness.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081414

Authors: Mingqi Zhao Zhenhui Ding Weixuan Wei Nannan Dong

In China’s water-town regions, rural spatial governance is transitioning from land-use restructuring toward multifunctional ecological management, creating a demand for spatial units that capture interactions among land-use patterns, ecological processes, and governance objectives. To address this challenge, this study proposes the concept of Composite Ecological Space (CESpace) and develops an integrated identification–evaluation framework for ecological-oriented spatial governance. Using 38 indicators derived from remote sensing, terrain, soil, and hydrological data, CESpaces were identified through a two-stage SOM–K-means clustering approach, while their ecological performance was evaluated through ecosystem services and ecological vulnerability assessments based on an Indicator–Land Use–Dimension framework with entropy weighting. Applied to the Zhoupu Town Comprehensive Land Consolidation Pilot Area in Shanghai, the framework identified four dominant CESpace types. Type 2 (Watercourse Confluence—Productive Agroforestry) exhibited the highest ecosystem service performance and relatively low ecological vulnerability, whereas Type 4 (Build-up Settlement—Impervious Surface) showed limited ecological functions and the highest vulnerability. Spatial differentiation among CESpace types was mainly associated with variations in hydrological dynamics, vegetation productivity, and soil conditions. The proposed framework provides an operational approach for identifying CESpaces and linking spatial classification with ecological diagnosis and differentiated governance in similar water-town landscapes.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081415

Authors: Long Xin Yidan Liu Yuyao Wang Chanyuan Liu

Optimizing the allocation of national land resources is a crucial measure for safeguarding food security and ecological security, as well as a key pathway for achieving urbanrural integration and coordinated regional development. Against the backdrop of the global digital transformation, artificial intelligence offers new opportunities for intelligent and refined land resource management. However, existing research has not sufficiently explored the impact of AI on land resource allocation. Using panel data of 265 Chinese cities from 2010 to 2023, this study investigates the effect of artificial intelligence level (AIL) on land resource misallocation (LRM) and its underlying mechanisms. The findings demonstrate the key conclusions: (1) AIL significantly reduces urban LRM. This result remains robust after adjusting the sample, accounting for province–time interactions, controlling for other policy effects, excluding outliers, and addressing endogeneity concerns. (2) Mechanism analysis indicates that AIL reduces urban LRM by enhancing government environmental concerns, promoting land transfer marketization and industrial structure upgrading. (3) Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the inhibitory effect of AIL on LRM is more pronounced in non-old industrial base cities, low-population-density cities and strong government intervention cities. These findings suggest that local governments should tailor AI research, development, and application strategies according to their cities’ resource endowments and developmental foundations. This study not only enriches empirical evidence on AI’s role in reducing LRM but also offers practical pathways and decision-making references for other countries to optimize territorial governance and achieve sustainable land resource utilization through digital and intelligent technologies.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081413

Authors: Minghong Wang Yushuang Wang

Compound hot–humid events are placing increasing pressure on urban health and land-use governance as climate warming and urban expansion continue. This study examined urban built-up areas in 21 prefecture-level cities and prefectures of Sichuan Province for 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020, and 2024. Using the IPCC hazard–exposure–vulnerability framework, ERA5-Land, MODIS land-cover, GHSL population, and socioeconomic data were combined to construct the Humid Heat Hazard Index (HI), Population-Density Exposure Index (EI), Socioeconomic Vulnerability Index (VI), and Comprehensive Urban Heat–Humidity Risk Index (HHRI). Contribution decomposition, LISA, and standard deviation ellipse analysis were then used to examine risk changes and spatial patterns. The mean HHRI decreased from 0.42 to 0.24, but rebounds appeared in 2010 and 2024. HI varied strongly among years and drove short-term risk changes, EI declined continuously, and VI dropped from 0.87 to 0.30, making it the main factor behind long-term risk reduction. Higher-risk areas were mainly located in southern Sichuan, southeastern Sichuan, and the central-eastern Sichuan Basin. LISA results showed high-risk clusters in basin cities and low-risk clusters on the western Sichuan Plateau. The standard deviation ellipse remained mostly within the basin and followed the basin urban belt. Future adaptation should combine public-service improvement with heat warnings, cooling services, and emergency preparedness.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081412

Authors: Emilia Herman

Romanian agricultural landscapes have undergone substantial transformation between 2000 and 2024, driven by agricultural modernization, market integration, and uneven regional development. This study assesses the opportunities and risks associated with these changes within a landscape-scale sustainability framework. Using 24 indicators describing land use, crop structure, productivity, mechanization, irrigation, input use, and socio-economic characteristics, we combined paired-sample t-tests, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and cluster analysis to examine temporal and spatial patterns of agricultural transformation across Romanian counties. The results reveal significant increases in arable land, mechanization, labour productivity, and cereal yields, accompanied by declining agricultural employment and growing crop specialization. PCA identified six key dimensions of transformation, highlighting increasing differentiation between intensive, productivity-oriented systems and traditional agricultural structures. Cluster analysis revealed nine distinct agricultural typologies and increasing spatial polarization between highly modernized, input-intensive lowland systems and persistent grassland-based mountain agroecosystems. The comparison between 2000 and 2024 indicates stronger specialization, technological intensification, and territorial differentiation of agricultural systems. These changes create opportunities through improved labour productivity and efficiency, while also reflecting increasing landscape simplification and evolving agri-environmental management patterns. The findings emphasize the need for regionally differentiated policies that support agricultural competitiveness, territorial cohesion, and sustainable rural development.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081411

Authors: Lanjing Li Huanyu Zhang Junchen Chen Ling Wang Zhaohua Li Kun Li

Alternanthera philoxeroides (A. philoxeroides) is one of the worst invasive alien species in the world and poses serious threats to both ecological security and agricultural production in China. However, the effects of environmental factors on its growth across different habitat types remain insufficiently understood. To reveal the determining natural factors influencing the growth of A. philoxeroides, fieldwork, including 50 sample quadrats in six field sites, was conducted in the Yangtze River Basin of Hubei Province. In every quadrat, soil properties, soil moisture, pH, soil temperature, soil nutrients (N, P, and K), light intensity, plant cover, and aboveground plant fresh biomass were measured. Cluster analysis showed that A. philoxeroides habitats can be divided into five cluster groups: wetland, grassland, forest understory, farmland and aquatic communities. The results showed that both total community biomass and A. philoxeroides biomass were positively correlated with water content, whereas no significant relationships were found between biomass and soil nutrients, including N, P, and K. The biomass of A. philoxeroides was significantly higher in aquatic habitats, while no significant differences were observed among the other four terrestrial habitats. These findings suggest that hydrological management, together with early control in aquatic habitats, may be an effective strategy to limit the spread of A. philoxeroides.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081410

Authors: Li Yu Yunzhe Dai Lina Peng Jianxin Yang

Megacities represent an advanced stage of urban development where expansion-induced carbon debt increases environmental pressure. This study examined the spatial response of carbon stock change to urban expansion in megacities. Based on 2000–2020 land use/land cover data for 11 Chinese megacities, concentric ring analysis and spatial exploratory methods were employed to quantify urban expansion intensity and carbon stock change and to infer stage transition characteristics. The results indicate that: (1) urban expansion intensity declined over time as growth shifted from rapid edge or infill expansion toward smart-growth-oriented development; (2) carbon budget fluctuations weakened, and emission patterns evolved toward improved carbon balances and enhanced sink effects, with Beijing and Tianjin emerging as local carbon sinks; (3) the carbon effects of LUCC showed a stage transition from rapid expansion–intensive emission to slow expansion–moderate emission, and policy intervention reshaped this relationship. The carbon effects of megacity expansion are stage-dependent rather than linear, and policy intervention can shift this relationship before economic maturity, offering guidance for low-carbon planning in developing-country contexts.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081409

Authors: Yu Han Yali Wen

In this study, the InVEST model, GTWR, and the Geodetector were comprehensively employed to systematically assess the spatiotemporal dynamics of habitat quality in Wuyishan National Park and to reveal its response patterns to changes in precipitation and temperature. Throughout the study period, the habitat quality of Wuyishan National Park remained relatively high overall. Temporally, habitat quality displayed a phased pattern of an initial decline followed by an increase; nevertheless, an overall slight downward trend was observed, with the mean value decreasing slightly from 0.934 in 2000 to 0.927 in 2020. Spatially, a “core-periphery” differentiation was observed; spatial heterogeneity was identified in the response of habitat quality to climatic factors. A positive, promoting effect on habitat quality was primarily exerted by precipitation, although localized negative stress effects were observed along the park’s northern and southern edges; a negative, constraining effect was predominantly exerted by temperature, whereas a positive driving effect was observed in the southeastern scenic area. Bivariate enhancement effects were identified among the factor interactions. A scientific basis is provided by these findings for Wuyishan National Park to implement tiered and zoned management and to formulate differentiated climate adaptation strategies, thus enhancing ecosystem resilience and sustainable development capacity.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081408

Authors: Alexandru-Ionut Petrisor Adrian Ursu Ilinca-Valentina Stoica

According to the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity adopted in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, biological diversity is a crucial concept directing public policies governing socioeconomic development in most countries that are part of the convention towards a more responsible environmental attitude [...]

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081407

Authors: Linxi Jiang Chuyue Yao Binxin Hu Shuhan Liu Ji Li Yuyang Wang

The traditional market towns of the Western Sichuan Plain, known as Changzhen, represent a distinctive form of vernacular settlement shaped by the interplay of geographical conditions, migration history, and socio-economic dynamics. In the context of rural revitalisation and integrated urban–rural development, the conservation and renewal of these towns require a deeper understanding of their underlying spatial logic. This study employs a mixed-methods approach combining typo-morphological analysis with spatial measurement and statistical testing to investigate the core morphological indicator that determines plot-type differentiation in linear market towns, using Luodai and Yuantong as two representative cases in the Chengdu Plain. A total of 1113 plots are digitised and measured across four morphological indicators, supplemented by XGBoost classification and SHAP analysis for cross-validation. The findings reveal that plot depth is the core morphological indicator distinguishing the linear type from the enclosed courtyard type, with an effect size substantially larger than that of frontage-to-depth ratio and distance from the street, indicating that plot depth matters more than plot location in determining plot type. The two towns present contrasting patterns of plot-type composition, with frontage enclosed courtyard plots significantly larger than their non-frontage counterparts and no meaningful correlation between plot area and courtyard ratio. This study provides a quantifiable morphological framework for understanding plot-level differentiation in linear market towns and offers practical parameters for conservation and renewal. The findings highlight a specific threshold, with depths below approximately 12 m associated with the linear type and depths above approximately 18 m associated with the enclosed courtyard type, providing a tangible reference for planning decisions in historic districts.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081406

Authors: Suya Zhao Kaiyu Wang Xia Zhang Guofei Shang Chengyu Liu Tengyuan Cui Jingyi Ren

Global climate change has intensified drought risk, threatening water resources, agriculture, and ecosystems. This study evaluated four Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)-based drought indices in Hebei Province: the evapotranspiration-to-potential-evapotranspiration-based Crop Water Stress Index (ET/PET-based CWSI), Temperature Condition Index (TCI), Vegetation Condition Index (VCI), and Temperature Vegetation Dryness Index (TVDI). During 2001–2020, the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), the 1 km gridded soil-moisture product SMCI1.0, Taylor statistics, classification metrics, and typical drought events were used for multi-source consistency evaluation. Although the classification metrics for CWSI indicated moderate drought discrimination and relatively high false-alarm rates, the multi-source consistency evaluation showed that CWSI had the most stable overall performance among the four tested indices. Sen’s slope, the Mann–Kendall test, the Optimal Parameters-based Geographical Detector (OPGD), and random forest were used to examine trends and spatially associated factors. CWSI-derived drought intensity generally decreased, with severe and extreme drought areas decreasing and mild and moderate drought areas increasing. Severe-and-above drought was most prominent in spring. Temperature showed the strongest association with CWSI spatial differentiation, followed by elevation and socioeconomic variables. The interaction between temperature and soil type had the highest explanatory power. These results provide a reference for regional drought monitoring and water resource management.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081405

Authors: Yangran Pei Yilong Wen Lixiang Liu Lin Wang Xunhe Zhang

Taking Lankao County as a case study, this study extends the established StrawFeed framework by linking NHPI-derived harvest dates to spatially differentiated straw release and seasonal equipment scheduling. Time-series Sentinel-2 observations were used to characterize harvest timing, while observed road routes were used to calibrate the detour parameter. The mapped harvest progression was compared with reported aggregate harvest progress and provided spatially differentiated timing inputs for logistics simulation. The results demonstrate that: (1) The spatial-economic framework effectively refine the spatial representation of traditional models in complex fragmented plots. (2) Under the annual shared-fleet baseline, the simulated delivered cost was 28.40 USD t−1. (3) Route calibration yielded a road-detour coefficient of 1.36, demonstrating the effect of road geometry on transport distance. The simulated cost represents the result under the specified demand, road, equipment, and price assumptions rather than a causal penalty attributable to land fragmentation. Consequently, we suggest that land management policies should shift toward “precision-targeted” subsidies, and rural spatial planning should prioritize the layout of decentralized pre-processing hubs to optimize spatial logistics efficiency and economic viability.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081404

Authors: Neal D. Mundahl Ted E. Wilson Karen S. Stettler John R. Stettler

First homesteaded in 1870, Longdale Farm (289 ha) in the Driftless Area hill country of west central Wisconsin, USA, has remained under the same family ownership since 1888 (138 years and five generations). Because such long-term family farm ownership and operation is very rare, our objective was to document and describe how the history and operational changes that took place on this family farm allowed it to continue under management of the same family, while so many other family farms were being sold off or transferred to commercial entities. We examined available farm records, diaries, and documents, governmental records, and historical photographs, and questioned living family members to gather data that allowed us to examine expected shifts away from self-sustaining farming, decreasing farm diversification, and changes in family interest in active farming. Hand-written entries in a multi-volume farm book or diary spanning 1913 through 2007 and information provided by living family members allowed for a generation-by-generation reconstruction of farm activities and assessments of changing practices. The farm has remained as a diversified operation throughout its history, including crop production, livestock (dairy and beef cattle, hogs, chickens) rearing, timber harvest, and wildlife and fish harvest. Farming priorities have shifted significantly across the generations, moving away from being largely self-sustaining but not becoming specialized in one particular area (e.g., dairy production) as have neighboring farms, instead remaining as a diversified operation. Multiple generations of family-owners still reside on and manage the farm with assistance from governmental land management professionals, but the farm’s croplands and pastures are now leased to neighboring farmers as a major source of farm income. Although the latest generations of farm owners have shifted away from active crop and livestock farming, Longdale Farm continues as a sustainable, revenue-generating operation available to future generations.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081403

Authors: Dmitry Chernykh Roman Biryukov Andrey Bondarovich Lilia Lubenets Anar Rakhimzhanova Yerzhan Baiburin Zheniskul Zhantassova

Existing hydrologic landscape classifications, such as Hydrologic Landscape Regions (HLRs) and Hydrologic Response Units (HRUs), group catchments by similarity of climate, geology, and topography, but do not directly link this classification to runoff-generation function, limiting their use for ranking hydrological activity in data-sparse mountain regions. The concept of a landscape–hydrological background, integrating climatic–hydrological, soil–hydrological, and topo–hydrological components, was used as the basis for a classification framework applied to 15 model catchments in the East Kazakhstan Region. The proposed approach provides a functional representation of landscape organization by linking environmental characteristics directly to runoff-generation processes and hydrological activity. The analysis revealed two distinct hydrological domains: a runoff-generating mountain domain (Bukhtarma, Uba, and Ulba), where highly active hydrological landscapes occupy 55.2–63.9% of the catchment area, and a transitional mountain-foothill domain (Narym, Kurchum, and Kalzhyr), where their share decreases to 18.0–25.4%. The highest landscape diversity, with Shannon indices of 1.31–1.53, occurs in the transitional catchments, reflecting the most balanced combination of functional groups. This study demonstrates that hydrological activity is controlled by the combined influences of catchment size, relief differentiation, and the spatial extent of high-mountain environments rather than by elevation alone. The proposed framework has practical applications for watershed management, water resources planning, environmental monitoring, and climate change adaptation, and is particularly valuable for data-sparse mountain regions.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081402

Authors: Fujun Li Xinghao Lu Jiake Shen Yuncai Wang

Visual clutter can affect attention, cognitive load, and environmental evaluation, yet streetscape studies often treat visual complexity as a broad construct without distinguishing visual richness from competition among visual features. Shanghai was selected because its dense, heterogeneous urban fabric and central–peripheral variation make it well suited to city-scale analysis. Using 69,244 street-view images, this study combined computer vision, deep learning, and modeling to quantify edge, color, semantic, and depth clutter and estimate beauty, wealth, liveliness, safety, boredom, and depressiveness. After controlling for built-environment characteristics, 23 of 24 linear associations were significant, although their directions differed. Edge and color clutter were associated with higher positive perceptions and lower negative perceptions. Semantic clutter was positively associated with wealth, liveliness, and safety but negatively associated with beauty; depth clutter was negatively associated with beauty, wealth, and liveliness and positively associated with boredom and depressiveness. Stable inverted U-shaped patterns occurred in only four relationships. Streetscape management in Shanghai should avoid uniformly increasing or reducing visual information. Planning and design may retain architectural detail, vegetation edges, coordinated color variation, and semantic richness while better coordinating facades, signage, street furniture, vehicles, and foreground elements, improving sightline continuity, and reducing obstruction and abrupt spatial discontinuity.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081401

Authors: Reza Banai Navid Enayati Shabkolaei

Urban blight, crime, and litter are subjects of the vast urban studies literature, albeit treated separately when linked to the physical features of built and natural environments. Thus, the discussions of blight, crime, and litter in the literature mask the significance of their relationship vis-a-vis the spatial form of cities. We address this gap in the urban studies literature with a path analytic approach informed by urban morphology, from the Chicago School to New Urbanism, which sheds light on the spatial form of cities as a structural determinant of the interrelated blight, crime, and litter. In a path analysis, we specify the structure and determine the degree and significance of the direct and indirect relationships among blight, crime, and litter endogenously, with the socio-economic–spatial indicators at the block group level exogenously, including land use (mix), density, walkability, income, race, and neighborhood concentrated disadvantage. We augment the block group-level census economic and demographic data with local government land use and institutional documentation of neighborhood conditions, public safety, and 311 calls—incidents of blight, crime, and litter, respectively—for a case study of Memphis, Tennessee. A geographic information system (GIS) aids in the geocoding and aggregation of data at the census block group level approximating neighborhoods. The findings, with standardized weights signifying the relative dominance of blight, crime, and litter, inform and fine-tune planning and public policy targeted to neighborhoods. This study concludes with a discussion of urban revitalization implications.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081400

Authors: Zewen Yuan Qi Zhang Liying Song Xinya Ma

Cultivated land is a basic factor in agricultural production, but it is also subject to increasingly strict resource constraints. Under such conditions, agricultural development needs to rely more on the effective use of capital, labor, and digital technologies on existing farmland rather than on the expansion of land input. This study examines the impact of digital rural construction on agricultural technological choice under land constraints. Using panel data from 28 Chinese provinces from 2011 to 2024, this paper first measures capital–land and labor–land biased technological progress based on a normalized factor-augmenting CES production function, and then constructs a multidimensional index of digital rural construction. The empirical results show that digital rural construction significantly promotes both capital–land and labor–land biased technological progress, with a stronger effect on the capital–land dimension. This indicates that digital rural construction mainly promotes agricultural technological choice through capital-embodied and digitally enabled technologies, while also improving the role of labor in agricultural production and land management. The mechanism analysis shows that the capital–land effect is mainly driven by the price effect, whereas the labor–land effect is mainly driven by the scale effect. Further heterogeneity analysis indicates that the positive effects are more pronounced in eastern China, while the effects in central and western regions are weaker and more differentiated. These findings suggest that digital rural construction reshapes agricultural technological choice by changing how capital and labor are combined with limited land resources. The study provides evidence for promoting agricultural transformation, improving land-use sustainability, and strengthening digital governance in agriculture.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081399

Authors: Kübra Polat Hikmet Günal Murat Birol Miraç Kılıç Mesut Budak

Understanding the environmental fate of microplastics (MPs) in agricultural soils remains a major challenge, particularly under field conditions where soil structure and hydraulic processes jointly regulate particle transport and retention. This study investigated whether hydro-physical soil functioning can explain the distribution and accumulation of MPs in pistachio orchard soils from a semi-arid region of southeastern Türkiye. A total of 42 soil samples were analyzed for MP abundance, size distribution, and morphology, together with key hydro-physical properties including texture, porosity, bulk density, aggregate stability, organic matter content, and soil water retention characteristics. To identify the dominant controls on MP occurrence, explainable machine learning approaches combining Random Forest (RF), Gradient Boosting Decision Trees (GBDT), and SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) analysis were employed. Microplastic abundance differed among management systems. Former landfill or construction sites represented the largest proportion of the total recorded microplastic abundance (40.9%), followed by conventionally managed (25.2%), manure-amended (24.5%), and sewage-sludge-amended orchards (9.4%). Median microplastic abundances were 1433, 667, 4633, and 633 particles kg−1 soil, respectively. Fine-sized MPs constituted the dominant particle fraction and exhibited strong associations with pore-system characteristics, indicating that pore-size compatibility governs their retention and mobility within the soil matrix. Morphology-specific analyses further revealed contrasting relationships between soil hydro-physical properties and individual MP forms, suggesting distinct retention pathways for granules, films, fragments, and fibers. Explainable AI analysis identified organic matter, silt content, bulk density, and water retention characteristics as the most influential predictors of MP occurrence. Among the tested models, RF demonstrated superior predictive robustness and generalization capacity. The findings demonstrate that hydro-physical soil functioning plays a central role in determining microplastic fate in agricultural soils and highlight the value of interpretable machine learning frameworks for uncovering the mechanisms underlying contaminant retention and redistribution. Integrating soil structural indicators with explainable artificial intelligence offers a promising pathway for improving microplastic risk assessment in agroecosystems.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081398

Authors: Wenfeng Fu Yuanqing Zhai Yangshuo Bian Jie Guo Minghao Ou

This study aims to explore the formation mechanism of homestead withdrawal decisions among the agricultural transfer population from the perspective of the rationality cognition of property rights. Based on 1775 valid questionnaires collected from the agricultural transfer population in Hefei, Anhui Province, China, this study constructs a binary Probit model to examine the impacts of the rationality cognition of ownership and the rationality cognition of inheritance on the willingness to withdraw from homesteads with compensation, and employs the stepwise regression method and the KHB decomposition method to test the mediation effect of income expectation on the relationship between the rationality cognition of property rights and the willingness to withdraw from homesteads with compensation. The following results indicate: (1) both the rationality cognition of ownership and the rationality cognition of inheritance exert significant positive effects on withdrawal from homesteads among the agricultural transfer population; (2) the impact of rational property rights exhibits significant heterogeneity across gender, age, share of non-agricultural income, and migration regions; (3) income expectation plays a mediating role in the relationship between the rationality cognition of property rights and the willingness to withdraw from homesteads. In conclusion, we should deepen publicity and education on homestead ownership, and build a market-oriented and diversified compensation mechanism for homestead withdrawal to enhance the rational cognition of homestead property rights and income expectation of ATP (Agricultural transfer population).

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081397

Authors: Luyao Cheng Xiaotian Yang Weiqian Zhang Li Zhang

Urban parks contribute to emotional well-being, yet the relationship among park environments, users’ perceptions, recreational activities, and emotions across seasons remains insufficiently understood. Using Jiefang Park in Wuhan, China, as a case study, this study analyzed 2233 valid questionnaires from four-season field surveys across six surveyed spaces, together with measured spatial environmental data. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to examine the associations and interaction effects of landscape perception, thermal perception, recreational activities, and positive and negative emotions. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to account for respondents nested within 24 space-season units and examine cross-level statistical indirect associations. Emotional responses varied across seasons and among the six surveyed locations. The surveyed lawn space showed the highest positive-emotion and lowest negative-emotion scores, whereas the surveyed fitness activity space had the highest negative-emotion score. The surveyed fitness activity and waterfront spaces displayed smaller seasonal fluctuations. Thermal and visual perceptions were consistently associated with emotional responses in the season-specific models. Measurement invariance was not established, so path coefficients were not formally compared. Spatial environmental characteristics showed significant indirect associations with emotions mainly through perceptual variables, whereas indirect associations through recreational activities were not significant. Vegetation color richness showed favorable indirect associations, while green view, pavement visibility, and fitness facility quantity showed adverse indirect associations at the surveyed locations. These findings suggest that seasonally responsive park design should emphasize perceptual quality, thermal adaptability, and context-sensitive spatial configuration.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081396

Authors: Meilin Yuan Zhaohui Zhang

Understanding ecological resilience (ER) across urban–rural gradients is important for differentiated management in arid metropolitan areas. Using 2 km grid data for 2013, 2018, and 2023, this study delineated travel-time-based urban–rural catchments in the Urumqi Metropolitan Area. The optimal-parameter Geodetector and multiscale geographically weighted regression were used to examine global explanatory patterns and local ER–factor associations, while spatially constrained clustering identified management types. The results showed that (1) mean ER values were 0.49, 0.50, and 0.48, respectively. ER was lower in urban centers and higher in rural areas and hinterlands. Compared with 2013, ER in 2023 was higher in urban centers and peri-urban regions but lower in rural areas and hinterlands. (2) Socioeconomic factors were more prominent in urban centers and peri-urban regions, whereas rural areas exhibited temporally variable natural and socioeconomic patterns. Elevation and soil organic matter were more prominent in hinterlands, and factor interactions were predominantly characterized by bi-factor or nonlinear enhancement. (3) Local ER–factor associations varied in direction, magnitude, and spatial scale. Negative associations with nighttime light intensity, road density, and built-up land proportion were concentrated in more urbanized areas. (4) Overlaying four spatial clusters with four catchment categories produced 16 integrated management types. These units provide a spatial basis for differentiated ecological management and regional planning in the Urumqi Metropolitan Area.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081395

Authors: Yan Liu Tian He Yimeng Wang Zhenyu Guo Yingliang Zhang

Farmland infrastructure investment is essential for agricultural productivity, rural development, and agricultural green transformation. However, empirical evidence on whether and how farmland infrastructure investment promotes agricultural green entrepreneurship remains limited. Exploiting China’s High-Standard Farmland Construction (HSFC) program as a quasi-natural experiment, this study uses provincial panel data from 2003 to 2023 and a continuous difference-in-differences (DID) model to examine its impact on agricultural green entrepreneurship. The results show that HSFC significantly promotes both the entry and stock of agricultural green enterprises. These findings remain robust across a series of robustness tests. Mechanism analysis indicates that the HSFC program promotes agricultural green entrepreneurship through two complementary channels: entrepreneurial empowerment (through improved innovation performance, agricultural mechanization, land transfer, and financial access) and agricultural green transition (through enhanced green innovation, green finance, and reduced pesticide use). Heterogeneity analysis further shows that the positive effects of the HSFC program are more pronounced in regions with higher population density, lower human capital, and lower levels of informatization, as well as in non-main grain-producing areas. These findings highlight the entrepreneurial benefits of farmland infrastructure investment and suggest that, when supported by complementary policies, such investment can help developing countries foster agricultural green entrepreneurship and advance sustainable agricultural development. They also indicate that the environmental benefits of farmland infrastructure may emerge gradually and depend on broader green policy support.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081394

Authors: Paúl Arias-Muñoz Génesis Buitrón-Cachipuendo Santiago Cabrera-García Oscar Rosales-Enríquez Gabriel Chimbo-Yépez

Climate variability and land use/land cover changes (LULCC) can intensify soil erosion. This study evaluated the relative influence of LULCC and climate change on soil water erosion in an Andean watershed in Ecuador. Soil erosion was assessed using the RUSLE model for 1996, 2023, and 2040. Future erosion was predicted for 2040 using projected land use/land cover (LULC) and two climate scenarios under the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways SSP585 (pessimistic) and SSP126 (optimistic). Meanwhile, LULC was projected until 2040 through a Cellular Automata Markov model (CA-Markov). Climate scenarios for 2021–2041 were generated through statistical downscaling of the MPI-ESM-1-2-HR climate model. Results showed that erosion increased by 17.8% from 1996 to 2023; meanwhile, by 2040, it is projected to increase by up to 65.1% under both climate scenarios. A factorial sensitivity analysis revealed that LULCC is the primary driver of erosion, accounting for over 82% of the total variation in erosion, while the contribution of climate change remains secondary. These findings suggest that in tropical mountain zones, loss of vegetation cover has a greater impact on erosion rates than climatic variability, regardless of the climate scenario, confirming that the effect of climate change on soil erosion remains marginal.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081392

Authors: Mengpei Cheng Antonio Fernández Vicente Rui Wang

Accurate greenspace quantification underpins sustainable urban greening management. Remote sensing (RS)-derived green quantity is a core urban planning indicator, yet its capability to reflect actual urban green supply lacks systematic verification, inevitably affecting planning formulation and decision-making. Taking Shanghai as the study area, this study integrates remote sensing and Baidu Street View (BSV data) to compare the two-dimensional planar green coverage derived from satellite imagery with pedestrian-level perceived visual green coverage. The Mask2Former model was adopted for high-precision semantic segmentation of BSV images to extract vegetation, building, sky and hard pavement proportions. Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR), hotspot analysis and transition mapping were applied to identify divergent regions, while the XGBoost-SHAP framework was employed to explore deviation mechanisms. The results reveal distinct spatial pattern differences between the two green quantity datasets. RS-derived green quantity exhibits strip-like agglomeration, whereas BSV-perceived green quantity is more fragmented, with a correlation coefficient of only 0.240. Single RS quantification fails to reflect street-level green supply. Divergent areas are classified into accurate, overestimated and underestimated zones. RS underestimates green quantity in central urban areas and overestimates that in northwest suburbs. BSV-based sky ratio, building ratio, hardscape ratio and Road 1 density are core influencing factors with obvious nonlinear threshold effects. This study clarifies the quantitative deviation patterns and mechanisms between RS and BSV green quantity, providing scientific support for precise urban green planning and sustainable perceived visual green construction. Practically, the dual RS–street view assessment framework proposed in this paper can be embedded into routine urban green infrastructure auditing, help planners distinguish systematically overestimated suburban green belts and underestimated central urban micro-green spaces, and deliver targeted optimization strategies for vertical greening, street tree renovation and pocket park construction under high-quality urban renewal demands.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081393

Authors: Wenxian Guo Xuyang Jiao Yong Niu Hongxiang Wang

Understanding how land change affects water yield is essential for sustainable land management and water security. However, previous studies often rely on a single model or spatial scale, limiting their ability to capture fine-scale land-surface heterogeneity and basin-integrated hydrological processes; consequently, cross-scale consistency in water-yield patterns and drivers remains unresolved. This study developed a dual-spatial-scale framework for the Upper Yangtze River Basin. The Patch-generating Land-Use Simulation (PLUS) model projected land patterns for 2030, the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs Annual Water Yield (InVEST-AWY) model mapped grid-scale water yield, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model simulated sub-basin hydrological responses, and Geodetector identified dominant drivers. Their integration links local land transitions with basin-scale hydrological consequences under consistent scenarios, thereby overcoming the limitations of single-model assessments. Results showed that high water-yield areas were concentrated in the eastern and central basin, while the two scales exhibited similar spatial patterns but locally different magnitudes and trends. Built-up land under urban development was 7.96% greater than under ecological protection. Climatic variability increased runoff by 2115.33 m3/s under ecological protection, while precipitation dominated water-yield variation, with explanatory powers of 0.81 and 0.67 at the grid and sub-basin scales, respectively. These findings advance understanding of scale-dependent responses and support land optimization and watershed planning.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081390

Authors: Yuan Qi Juaneé Cilliers Catherine Gilbert Sumita Ghosh

Established, affluent coastal suburbs combine severe flood exposure with extensive private land ownership, yet little is known about how multi-level planning systems perform when private property rights must be balanced against public flood resilience. We developed a quantitative plan-evaluation framework combining Pradhan et al.’s policy–practice–performance dimensions with the coverage and strength criteria of Hislop et al.’s green-infrastructure tool, and applied it through directed content analysis to ten state and local flood planning instruments governing Woollahra (New South Wales, Australia). Seventeen indicators were scored for coverage (0–3) and strength (0–2) and aggregated using transparent, reproducible weights into effectiveness scores on a 0–100% scale. No instrument reached 50% effectiveness (state 18–33%; local 20–42%). Performance was the weakest dimension at both levels, and the strongest instrument, the Woollahra Local Strategic Planning Statement 2020, reached only 42%. Consideration of private landowners, of innovative and nature-based measures, and of the currency of flood data was consistently weak, while statutory enforceability was confined largely to the Local Environmental Plan. The case exposes a cross-scalar governance gap in which strategic intent is not carried into enforceable, current, and landowner-inclusive practice, and we translate the findings into a framework for action to guide planners, policymakers, and coastal communities facing comparable risks.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081391

Authors: Cristián Alarcón-Ferrari Alessandra Corrado Johanna Bergman Lodin Margarita Cuadra Marcelo Garrido Mario Pullano Kajsa Skinnars

Ensuring local and sustainable food security is gaining an important role in rural development strategies at national and regional scales in Europe. This relies to an important degree upon the implementation of new, or old, agri-environmental policy, namely, policies at the intersection of agriculture and the environment. Yet, the incorporation of agri-environmental policy in rural development strategies at the regional level creates, and often accelerates, contradictions between existing rural development paths and the structural changes needed to achieve both environmental objectives and economically viable agricultural development. Within this context, agroecological transitions are framed as key for transformations of national food systems. However, understanding the prospects and barriers for agroecological transitions and food security at the regional level requires a much deeper understanding of how national and international food policies shape and are shaped by long political economic trajectories of rural development with competing interests. In this paper, we explore these contradictions of rural development in Europe by comparatively analyzing the political nature of potential agroecological transitions in Europe and how these transitions interact with agri-environmental policies and rural development strategies at the regional level.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081389

Authors: Jiayuan Mao Zechen Wang Shiliang Liu

Ecological civilization education has become an important component of environmental education and sustainable development strategies in China. Field-based learning in real ecological environments is essential for helping students understand ecological processes and human–environment relationships. However, limited attention has been paid to whether schools can spatially access ecological learning sites within feasible travel-time ranges, especially in plateau and mountainous regions where transportation constraints are strong. From the perspective of ecosystem service flow, forest parks can be regarded as supply sites of ecological learning services, secondary schools as demand sites, and road networks as the pathways through which such services are transformed into actual educational opportunities. To address this gap, this study evaluates the accessibility of forest-park-based ecological learning resources for secondary schools in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China. Taking 11 national forest parks and 137 secondary schools as research objects, a network-based travel-time model was constructed using road network data, and 1 h, 3 h, and 6 h service areas were generated to assess forest park service capacity and school accessibility. The results show that forest park educational service capacity is highly uneven. Nimu, Jiedexiu, and Caina Forest Parks have the highest service capacity, each covering more than 60 secondary schools within 6 h, while nearly half of the parks show relatively limited coverage. School accessibility also presents a clear core–periphery pattern, with high-accessibility schools concentrated around Lhasa and nearby transport corridors, whereas many schools in western and northern Tibet remain outside the 6 h service range. Based on the accessibility levels, differentiated field education strategies are proposed, including short field observation, one-day field trips, cross-regional fieldwork, and virtual or school-based alternatives. This study provides a spatial analytical framework for understanding the flow of ecological learning services from forest parks to schools and offers evidence for optimizing geography field education and improving equitable access to ecological civilization education in mountainous regions.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081388

Authors: Kateryna Didenko

Post-socialist monotowns and mono-functional urban districts face interrelated economic, spatial, institutional, and identity crises, yet their transformation trajectories vary. Building on the previously developed methodological framework, the study implements its second stage by selecting reference cases and reconstructing transformation trajectories in Central and Eastern Europe. Seven weighted criteria—identity reframing, multi-level governance and actors, cultural vitality, economic diversification, heritage and architectural significance, positive physical transformation, and regional connectivity—were applied to nine purposively selected cases in Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. Scores ranged from 1.40 to 4.05; five cases were retained, comprising a stable four-case core and a weight-sensitive fifth case selected for typological and target-context complementarity. Cross-case analysis identified four overlapping contours: crisis-adaptive, institutional-spatial, heritage-symbolic, and cultural-everyday. Transformation was asynchronous and non-linear: symbolic, institutional, cultural, spatial, and economic changes unfolded in different sequences, while economic diversification remained limited or moderate in most cases. Given theory-informed, author-assigned weights and a regionally bounded, typologically heterogeneous sample, the ranking is a case-selection tool rather than a measure of transformation success. The reconstructed trajectories provide the analytical basis for the subsequent assessment of their transferability to Piatykhatky (Kharkiv, Ukraine).

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081387

Authors: Lan Li Shiyan Huo Jinxi Hua Yandong Li

Traditional villages in river basins preserve rural landscapes through both environmental adaptation and accumulated heritage governance. Taking 173 national-level traditional villages in the Fenhe River Basin as the study objects, this study examines their spatial patterns and the heterogeneity of influencing factors using kernel density estimation, nearest-neighbor analysis, spatial autocorrelation, optimal-parameters-based geographical detector, and multiscale geographically weighted regression. The villages display a significant clustered distribution rather than a random or administratively bounded pattern, forming a belt-like structure along the Fenhe River, its major tributaries, and mountain-basin transition zones, with high-density cores in the Taiyuan and Linfen basins. Among all examined factors, the enrichment of cultural relic protection units shows the strongest explanatory power in the OPGD results, with a q-value of 0.4349. Its MGWR coefficients are also predominantly positive and significant, suggesting that officially recognized heritage resources act as spatial anchors for the persistence and organization of traditional villages. Precipitation, elevation, intangible cultural heritage, per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and historical post-road accessibility further shape village density, but their effects are spatially uneven. These findings suggest that conservation in the Fenhe River Basin should move beyond isolated village repair toward a watershed-scale linear heritage network linking river corridors, historical routes, cultural relic protection units, and cross-county governance.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081386

Authors: Zhibin Li Qingsong He Jiaqiu Song Yukun Jiang

Optimising urban growth patterns (UGPs) and enhancing production-living-ecological (PLE) functions are crucial for achieving sustainable urbanisation. However, systematic comparisons remain limited regarding how PLE functions vary with population size under different urban growth patterns and how their relative performance differs. This gap constrains a comprehensive understanding of urban expansion quality and hinders the place-based optimisation of spatial governance strategies. This study analyses 348,817 newly added built-up patches in mainland China, identifies expansion patterns using the landscape expansion index (LEI), and evaluates their functional performance with urban scaling law and the Scale-Adjusted Metropolitan Indicator (SAMI). The findings can be summarized as follows. (1) Edge expansion dominated China’s urban growth over the past decade (64.88%), while infill accounted for the smallest share (14.17%). (2) Infill expansion achieves the highest efficiencies in production (β = 0.662) and living (β = 0.032) functions but suppresses ecological function (β = −0.003), making it more suitable for areas under strong economic development pressure. Outlying expansion shows the opposite pattern, with a slight positive scaling effect on ecological function (β = 0.009) but the lowest efficiencies in production (β = 0.485) and living (β = 0.019) functions, thus fitting regions with strong environmental constraints. Edge expansion lies between the two, with a neutral ecological effect (β = 0.000), and is suited to areas with moderate development needs that also require ecological stability. (3) The SAMI further confirms that infill expansion performed significantly better than expected in production functions, whereas outlying expansion and edge expansion showed clear advantages in ecological functions. These findings reveal differences across urban growth patterns in the scaling and relative performance of PLE functions, providing empirical evidence for selecting growth patterns according to regional functional needs.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081385

Authors: Limin Yu Ye Yuan Lijie Pu

Land use functions (LUFs) are crucial for achieving China’s low-carbon goals, yet their temporal impacts on carbon emissions (CE) remain insufficiently understood. To overcome the limitations of traditional explicit spatial classifications, this study developed an LUF framework based on three implicit functions: development support, development power, and ecological foundation. A comprehensive indicator system comprising 18 indicators was established to evaluate LUFs in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) from 2005 to 2022. Using continuous time-series data, this study integrated a coupling coordination model, Geographically and Temporally Weighted Regression (GTWR), and Geodetector to examine the interactions among these three functions and their spatiotemporally heterogeneous effects on CE under the influence of multiple socio-ecological factors. The results show that the development support and development power functions show steady upward trends, whereas the ecological foundation function remains stable. The coupling coordination level among the three functions exhibits a spatial pattern characterized by “high in the southeast and low in the northwest,” with the proportions of cities reaching the near disruption and marginally coordinated levels increasing to 41.46% and 17.07%, respectively. Although the development power function remains the primary driver of CE, its positive effect gradually weakens over time. In contrast, both the development support and ecological foundation functions exert significant inhibitory effects on CE. Furthermore, spatial variations in CE are driven by nonlinear interactions between socioeconomic and natural factors, while the dependence of regional CE on urbanization has gradually weakened over time. This study not only elucidates the underlying mechanisms through which LUFs regulate the carbon cycle but also offers a new theoretical framework for land system optimization and targeted carbon emission reduction.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081384

Authors: Andrés Hidalgo Jorge Lenin León Arcos Santiago Ortiz Montero Bolivar Paredes-Beltran

Official cadastral values in Latin American intermediate cities may fail to keep pace with rapidly changing asking-price patterns, weakening the responsiveness of local property-tax bases. This study introduces the Relative Gap Rate (TBR), defined as the proportional divergence between observed vacant-land asking prices and official cadastral values, and applies it to Ambato, Ecuador. A dataset of 182 georeferenced asking-price observations was interpolated across a common cantonal support of 19,231 hexagonal cells. Predictors comprised a hierarchically weighted Urban Vitality Index (UVI), distance to the structural road network, elevation, and traffic-incident count derived from 1787 records. The TBR surface exhibited very strong positive spatial autocorrelation (Moran’s I=0.956, p<0.001), while the discrete asking-price observations were also spatially autocorrelated (Moran’s I=0.282, p<0.001). Lagrange Multiplier diagnostics supported a Spatial Autoregressive specification (pseudo-R2=0.927; ρ=0.885). The Random Forest model achieved a test-set R2 of 0.8319 and an MAE of 5.3252, with UVI accounting for 64.37% of impurity-based feature importance. The median TBR was 6.0, meaning that the median asking price was seven times the corresponding cadastral value; the maximum TBR reached 43.0. Traffic-incident count retained a positive spatial-regression coefficient but contributed only 5.53% of Random Forest importance. The framework provides an adaptable municipal diagnostic for identifying cadastral–asking-price divergence, subject to local validation and city-specific calibration.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081383

Authors: Wanqing Zhang Junlin Huang Binggeng Xie Jian Chen

Against the backdrop of tightening ecological constraints and the accelerating transition toward high-quality development, the coordinated development of technological innovation and the ecological environment has become an important topic in regional sustainability research. Using 111 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2013 to 2023 as the study sample, this study applied principal component analysis and a coupling coordination model to measure the coupling coordination degree between technological innovation and the ecological environment. It further employed the XGBoost-SHAP model to investigate the factors associated with their coordinated development. The results showed that: (1) During the study period, both the comprehensive development level of technological innovation and that of the ecological environment level increased, although a pronounced spatial mismatch existed between them. The former exhibited an east-to-west declining gradient, whereas the latter followed a spatial pattern of the middle reaches > upper reaches > lower reaches. (2) The overall coupling coordination level transitioned from the low coordination stage to the primary coordination stage. Significant regional disparities were observed, with the coupling coordination degree decreasing progressively from east to west. (3) The XGBoost-SHAP results indicated that the urbanization level and fiscal autonomy were important factors associated with the coordinated development of technological innovation and the ecological environment. Furthermore, the marginal contributions of the individual factors exhibited complex nonlinear patterns. These findings enhance the understanding of the coordinated development of technological innovation and the ecological environment and provide empirical evidence for differentiated governance and policy design across the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081382

Authors: Qunli Fang Zao Li Guoqiang Shen

Integrated conservation has become a mainstream principle for protecting traditional village heritage. However, regional-scale conservation research still has notable deficiencies: the heterogeneous quality of traditional villages’ heritage is often overlooked, and systematic exploration of the spatial associations of heritage remains insufficient. Taking Huizhou traditional villages as the research object, this study first identified the spatial agglomeration characteristics of village heritage resources, quantitatively analysed the intensity of heritage spatial association, and revealed the core driving factors of inter-village heritage correlation. The results indicated significant spatial heterogeneity in the heritage value of Huizhou traditional villages. Their heritage distribution exhibited three typical spatial association types—high-high (H-H) clustering, low-high (L-H) clustering, and high-low (H-L) clustering—presenting marked network-based spatial correlation characteristics. This study further clarified the distinct influences of natural, social, and economic factors on heritage spatial association. Among these, social conditions—particularly those reflecting linguistic attributes and accessibility, as measured by the distance to the central city—played a pivotal role in shaping the spatial association of Huizhou’s traditional village heritage. Economic factors contributed only to a limited extent. The research findings provide a scientific basis for formulating targeted policies for the concentrated and contiguous conservation of traditional villages. Additionally, the results can support the collaborative and efficient utilisation of regional heritage resources and facilitate the sustainable inheritance and innovative development of traditional village cultural heritage.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081381

Authors: Rong Tao Sihan Cheng Xujiao Zhang Tianjiao Li

National parks are established to ensure ecological integrity and unified management. However, due to frequent human activities, complex land-tenure arrangements, and limited governance capacity, certain areas within park boundaries are excluded from centralized oversight, resulting in “non-contiguous management spaces.” At present, cross-national evidence on non-contiguous management spaces, particularly in developing countries, is quite limited. This study employs a qualitative comparative research design based on a literature review and policy analysis, taking Tianchuang in China’s Wuyishan National Park and Enclaves in Nigeria’s Gashaka-Gumti National Park as typical cases to compare their concept and characteristics, causes of formation, socio-ecological consequences, and governance models. The results show that: (1) In terms of concept and characteristics, Tianchuang and Enclaves are both land parcels inside park boundaries but outside unified park management. Tianchuang typically appear as numerous small, fragmented patches, whereas Enclaves are more often contiguous village blocks. Livelihoods associated with Tianchuang are more diverse, whereas those in Enclaves are mainly based on farming and herding. (2) In terms of formation, both stem from trade-offs in boundary delimitation to balance conservation and development. Tianchuang reflects an intentionally designed, proactive avoidance within a unified planning framework to mitigate conflicts and facilitate park establishment, whereas Enclaves embody a passive tolerance shaped by limited state capacity and respect for local pastoral livelihoods to prevent social conflict. (3) In terms of socio-ecological consequences, both Tianchuang and Enclaves provide room for local development but may weaken ecological connectivity, increase human—wildlife conflict, and affect community livelihoods and trust. Tianchuang reveals unclear mandates and complex coordination, whereas Enclaves expose regulatory capacity gaps and dependence on local and external actors. (4) In terms of governance models, both adopt a “co-existence” approach. Tianchuang are managed through a top-down, government-led governance model, whereas Enclaves rely on a bottom-up, multi-party deliberative governance model. Based on these findings, this study proposes policy implications for improving the governance of Tianchuang and Enclaves and provides broader insights into the governance of non-contiguous management spaces in developing-country national parks.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081380

Authors: Yuxiao Jiang Liping Zou Qisheng Yan Jie Chen Bin He Haosen Yang

Metropolitan fringe areas are transitional spaces where urban expansion, industrial relocation, residential spillover, transport infrastructure, and ecological recreation jointly reshape land-use functions. However, urban vitality research has mainly focused on central urban areas, leaving limited evidence on how activity intensity is organized in metropolitan fringe spaces. Taking the Chengdu Metropolitan Area, China, as a case, this study delineates metropolitan fringe areas using POI kernel density analysis and density–distance relationships, calibrated with impervious-surface and remote-sensing evidence, measures village-level relative activity intensity using Baidu heatmap data, and examines nonlinear associations between built-environment variables and urban vitality using LightGBM and SHAP. The results show that vitality across the delineated fringe does not form a uniform core–periphery gradient. Instead, high-vitality units are clustered around industrial parks, residential spillover zones, transport corridors, public-service nodes, and ecological recreation spaces. Population density, nighttime light, gross domestic product, building density, and commercial POI density are the main predictors in both weekday and weekend models. Several variables show nonlinear and saturation-like associations rather than simple linear effects. These findings suggest that higher predicted fringe vitality is more likely to occur where population concentration, development intensity, service provision, transport linkage, and socioeconomic activity coexist, rather than where densification occurs alone. The study extends urban vitality research to metropolitan fringe areas and provides evidence for differentiated land-use planning in urban-rural transition zones.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081379

Authors: Zhenfang He Zuhan Zhang Zhaosheng Wang Shuo Li Qingchun Guo Xinping Luo

The Yellow River Basin (YRB), a core ecological–economic corridor in China, plays a critical role in meeting climate, land, and water-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To capture the dynamic evolution of Eco-environmental Quality (EEQ), this study developed a process-oriented space-time cube framework based on the Remote Sensing Ecological Index (RSEI) using MODIS data from 2000 to 2021 on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. By integrating Emerging Hotspot Analysis (EHSA) with the RSEI cube, we identified and tracked 17 EEQ hotspot–coldspot evolution types and revealed their spatial clustering, temporal persistence, and cumulative transition effects. The driving mechanisms were further investigated through a comprehensive analytical framework combining Geodetector (GD), Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), and Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR). Results show that: (1) the RSEI-based space–time cube effectively detects co-evolving hotspot–coldspot trajectories and uncovers fine-grained spatiotemporal instability across the basin; (2) dynamic hotspot types, including diminishing, oscillating, and sporadic patterns, occupy a larger proportion of the basin than persistent hotspots, indicating widespread ecological fluctuation; (3) hotspot transition analysis reveals that only 4.94% of the 17.04% emerging hotspots became stable from 2000 to 2010, to 2011 to 2021, while the majority remained transitional or reverted to coldspots, reflecting fragile early-stage ecological recovery; and (4) Fractional vegetation cover (FVC) exhibited the highest explanatory power for EEQ hotspot–coldspot transition dynamics, followed by topography and temperature, whereas anthropogenic factors exerted their influence primarily through interactions with natural factors. These findings provide a robust scientific basis for precision ecological restoration, risk identification in fragile ecological zones, and adaptive sustainable management of large river basins under complex environmental pressures.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081378

Authors: Guangyuan Ao Zhongfa Zhou Qianxia Li Yuzhu Qian Lai Wei

Karst hillslope land systems are characterized by strong microtopographic heterogeneity, exposed rock–soil patches, and management-related disturbance, resulting in pronounced fine-scale variation in ecological responses. This study investigated three contrasting karst hillslopes within the Guanling–Zhenfeng Huajiang Rocky Desertification Comprehensive Control Demonstration Area in Guizhou Province, China, designated as High, Medium, and Natural sites according to their observed land cover and management characteristics, using UAV multispectral imagery and LiDAR-derived DEM data. A terrain–ecology coupling strength indicator (TECSI) framework was developed to assess the spatially transferable predictability of ecological response patterns by terrain variables. At the 5 m block scale, FVC, OSAVI, NDRE750, rock–soil exposure index (REI), and GLCM contrast were linked with LiDAR-derived microtopographic predictors using generalized additive models, residual Moran’s I, random cross-validation, and spatial block cross-validation. FVC, OSAVI, NDRE750, and GLCM contrast differed significantly among the three sites (p < 0.001), whereas REI mainly reflected patchy non-vegetated rock–soil substrate exposure within hillslopes. Across the 15 site–indicator models, deviance explained ranged from 5.5% to 35.8%. Under 25 m spatial block cross-validation, integrated TECSI ranked Medium (0.143) > High (0.086) > Natural (0.036), and this ranking remained stable across sensitivity analyses. Steep-slope units at or above 25° in the High and Medium sites were associated with poorer vegetation condition and increased substrate exposure. TECSI provides a reproducible spatial validation framework for identifying terrain-sensitive ecological response units and supporting fine-scale monitoring, soil–water conservation screening, and vulnerable land unit management in karst hillslopes.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081377

Authors: Jéssica Nívea Magalhães Rodrigues Rafael Marques Pereira Leal Aline Renée Coscione Vanessa Matos Gomes Dener Márcio da Silva Oliveira

Soil contamination by potentially toxic elements (PTEs) from fertilizers represents a major issue threatening agricultural sustainability and global food security. This work conducted a bibliometric analysis and a meta-analysis on the occurrence of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Zn, Ni, Co, Mn, Hg, and Fe in fertilizers and their implications for soil biota through risk assessment. The database used was Web of Science, and R software version 4.3.2 (bibliometrix and metafor packages) was utilized to perform bibliometric analyses (1116 documents) and meta-analysis with a five-year filter (548 articles). A total of 45 articles met all the inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis. The risk assessment was based on a quotient risk approach, considering high and low fertilizer application rates, as well as the average and maximum reported metal concentrations. Legal limits were surpassed for Cd in phosphate rock; for Cd, Cu, Cr, and Zn in manure; and for Cd and As in compost. Overall, organic sources presented a higher risk than mineral ones, with major risks related to mid- to long-term applications. These findings highlight the urgent need for strict regulation of contaminants in fertilizers and technical legislation grounded on ecotoxicological data to preserve soil quality and promote agricultural sustainability.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081376

Authors: Tiantian Cheng Jinqi Yang Yu Guo Guijun Zhang

Global food security remains under severe strain, and the conversion of cultivated land to non-grain uses poses a significant threat to the stability of food production capacity. Driven by mineral development and urbanization, the risk of non-grain conversion in resource-based counties has increased. This study selected Qian’an City as the study area to accurately identify the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of non-grain production at the county scale. GF-1 satellite (China Centre for Resources Satellite Data and Application, Beijing, China) imagery from 2016, 2020, and 2024 was employed, integrated with a vegetation index, multi-scale segmentation, and a decision tree model. Non-grain conversion rate measurement, spatial trend surface analysis, and kernel density estimation were then applied for analysis. The results were as follows. (1) The high-precision identification system for the non-grain conversion of cultivated land accurately distinguished grain crops from non-grain land uses, achieving an overall accuracy of over 91%. (2) The process of non-grain conversion of cultivated land in Qian’an City showed significant stage characteristics. The non-grain conversion area first increased and then decreased, with the non-grain rate fluctuating from 49.38 to 53.48% before declining to 46.62%. (3) The driving mechanism exhibited a phased evolution: from natural economy-led, to policy-driven strong intervention, and finally to market location-led. In 2016, the terrain undulation (q = 0.63) and GDP (q = 0.551) were dominant. In 2020, the proportion of ecological protection red line area (q = 0.539) took the lead. By 2024, GDP (q = 0.66) and the distance from the main road (q = 0.544) were dominant. This reflected the coupling effect of market and location within the policy baseline and interpreted the dynamic evolution of cultivated land use management. The spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of non-grain conversion for cultivated land were quantitatively revealed. The findings provide a scientific basis and decision support for regional cultivated land protection, food security, and optimal allocation of land resources.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081375

Authors: Chenxian Sun Kunlun Chen Jinhua Cheng Chen Gu Yaqi Wu

Green total factor productivity (GTFP) is an important indicator for assessing urban green development under resource and environmental constraints. Using panel data from 110 prefecture-level cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2007 to 2023, this study examines changes in urban green total factor productivity. A super-efficiency slack-based measure model that includes undesirable outputs is adopted to measure GTFP, while the Malmquist–Luenberger index is used to decompose its dynamic changes. Spatial variation is then analyzed through trend surface analysis, center-of-gravity migration analysis, spatial pattern analysis, and the geographical detector model. The results indicate that GTFP in the Yangtze River Economic Belt improved on the whole, but its growth did not follow a smooth upward path. Among the decomposed effects, technological progress (TC) was the main source of improvement. Clear spatial differences were also observed. Cities in the middle and lower reaches generally had higher GTFP levels than those in the upper reaches, although this gap became less marked over time. The center of gravity of GTFP stayed mainly in the middle reaches and shifted gradually toward the northeast. The driving factors behind spatial differentiation were not constant. In the early stage, energy intensity and economic development level had stronger effects, whereas technological innovation, human capital, and industrial structure upgrading became more influential in the later stage. These findings provide empirical support for differentiated green development policies and coordinated regional governance in the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081374

Authors: Wenqin Wang Lijuan Jing Yuzhe Wu

Against the background of rapid urbanization and rural population decline, the revitalization of idle rural homesteads in China faces institutional constraints arising from collective ownership, membership-based qualification rights, and restrictions on market-oriented transfer. Existing studies have mainly focused on homestead circulation and exit mechanisms, while the role of long-term leasing in stabilizing rural land use expectations remains insufficiently explored. This study examines whether long-term leasing represents institutional innovation or legal avoidance through a comparative analysis of the “Shared Village” project in Gaoling District, Xi’an, and the “Xiangyue Huating” project in Shanghai. The study indicates that the Gaoling model employs flexible contractual arrangements and village-level coordination to adapt fragmented rural resources to market demand, yet its renewal-dependent operation leads to persistent legal uncertainty. In contrast, the Shanghai model adopts a collective coordination pathway. Through platform-based development and collective participation, it enhances resource integration and investment capacity, while requiring robust institutional mechanisms to curb excessive capital involvement and guarantee equitable benefit distribution. The results show the following: (1) Long-term leasing primarily functions as a mechanism for stabilizing use-right expectations rather than transferring ownership rights. (2) Different governance pathways generate different forms of use-right stability. (3) Collective intermediary governance plays a critical role in coordinating rights, supervising land use, and balancing stakeholder interests. (4) Long-term leasing constitutes institutional innovation only when it maintains collective ownership, protects farmers’ rights, and operates within established institutional boundaries.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081373

Authors: Marco Focacci Isabella De Meo Alessandro Paletto Francesca Ugolini Fabio Salbitano

This study aimed at developing a procedural approach to introduce agroforestry in urban planning and to provide governance orientation. The proposed approach focused on understanding: (i) the key stakeholders that can promote agroforestry; (ii) their orientations towards the integration of agroforestry in urban planning documents; and (iii) the most suitable urban planning documents in which agroforestry-sound norms can be incorporated. The approach was tested in the town of Sesto Fiorentino, in Central Italy. A total of 170 stakeholders among municipal officials, schoolteachers, farmers, gardeners, citizens frequenting city parks, associations, and researchers were identified and involved in a questionnaire-based survey. The results showed that respondents opted for gradually introducing agroforestry in the green infrastructure. Educational food forests and alley cropping were preferred as the most suitable agroforestry elements in urban and peri-urban contexts. The municipality was considered a pivotal actor for introducing agroforestry, also involving associations and citizens in a multistakeholder perspective. Decision makers introduced agroforestry in city technical implementation standards, equating it to urban forestry. However, no mention was made in the city development plan as urban planners were reluctant to incorporate agroforestry at the strategic level. Associations may facilitate municipalities in this sense and assist in implementing agroforestry-sound norms.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081372

Authors: Carlos Rio Carvalho João Torres Miguel Bugalho Susana Dias Filipe Catry Ana Quintela Inês Chaby João Rocha Margarida Tomé Mina Norouzirad Maria Teresa Cândido Silva Nuno Rico Rui Santos

The increasing integration of ecosystem services (ES) into environmental and agricultural policies creates the need for operational approaches linking ecosystem service assessment with territorial planning and incentive design. This study develops a functional–territorial typology of ES provision for mainland Portugal based on the assessment of 26 ecosystem services derived from the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES v5.2) across 278 municipalities. Territorial clusters were identified using provisioning and regulating ES, while cultural ES were subsequently incorporated into functional bundles and territorial–functional analyses. The analysis identified three functional ES bundles and six territorial socio-ecological regimes representing distinct patterns of ES provision. Functional bundle identification proved highly robust, with 92.3% of ES retaining the same bundle assignment across alternative correlation thresholds. A sensitivity analysis including cultural ES confirmed the stability of the main territorial regimes. Between 70% and 86% of municipalities remained within the same territorial group, while most reclassifications occurred near the boundaries between neighbouring regimes, indicating local refinements rather than changes in the overall territorial organization. Cross-analysis showed that territorial regimes differ systematically in ES configurations, baseline conditions, and patterns of synergies and trade-offs, indicating that additionality is inherently territorial and cannot be adequately interpreted using uniform baselines. Building on these findings, we propose a framework of territorially differentiated Ecosystem Service Provision Units (UPSE) incorporating variations in ES configurations and additionality potential across socio-ecological contexts. The framework provides a methodological basis for more context-sensitive ES incentives, restoration strategies, and environmental policy instruments.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081371

Authors: Yiting Chen Jing Zhao Ni Wang Zhanbin Li Jingyi Liu

Rapid urbanization reshapes landscape structure and threatens ecosystem services, yet operational ecological benchmarks for environmental impact assessment remain limited. Focusing on China’s Guanzhong region, this study examines how landscape fragmentation influences the ecosystem service value (ESV) and identifies critical threshold points for planning and management, using land-use data from 1990 to 2020 combined with spatial and statistical analyses. The results show that urban expansion substantially increased landscape fragmentation, with patch density rising by 109%, and contagion declining by 83.7%. Although the total ESV showed partial recovery over the study period, the landscape pattern mediated approximately 62% of the total effect of land-use change on ESV, constituting the dominant transmission pathway. Three actionable thresholds were identified: patch density of 1.2 patches·km−2, the largest patch index of 18%, and contagion of 15%. Beyond these breakpoints, ESV loss accelerates sharply, with the most pronounced rate increase reaching 355.6%. These findings provide region-specific reference values to support environmental impact assessment, ecological zoning, and land-use regulation in rapidly urbanizing areas.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081370

Authors: Alba Gómez-Galeano Daniel Paredes

Understanding long-term changes in agricultural landscapes is essential for assessing the sustainability of land-use systems and guiding agro-environmental policy. This study analyzes three decades of landscape simplification and natural habitat complexity (1990–2018) across three spatial scales—Europe, Spain, and Extremadura—using CORINE Land Cover data and generalized additive models (GAMs). Four agricultural systems were examined: total agriculture, vineyards, olive groves, and rice fields. For each year and region, 1000 randomly selected 1 km buffers were used to quantify the proportions of focal crops and natural habitat as indicators of landscape simplification and complexity, respectively. Results showed that landscape simplification was widespread and statistically significant across most agricultural systems, particularly in Spanish vineyards (p = 3.02 × 10−5) and rice fields (p = 3.74 × 10−5). Temporal analyses indicated declining simplification trends in Europe and Spain (approximately −1.5%), whereas Extremadura exhibited increasing simplification (+1.5%) and a decline in landscape complexity after 2006. Landscape complexity showed fewer significant trends, with Europe and Spain displaying slight increases over time, whereas Extremadura shifted from initial complexity gains to a decline after 2006, indicating pressures from irrigation expansion and crop intensification. Overall, the results reveal marked spatial differences in agricultural landscape trajectories, demonstrating how intensification processes depend on crop type, regional context, and policy frameworks. This multi-scale analysis provides a quantitative basis for designing land-use policies that preserve ecological connectivity, promote diversification, and strengthen the long-term sustainability of agricultural landscapes.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081369

Authors: Seung-Jun Lee Jisung Kim In-Seok Heo Hong-Sik Yun

Post-disaster recovery is increasingly understood not as a simple return to pre-event conditions but as a dynamic reorganization of land systems, in which land cover and land use change (LCLUC) provides an operational signature of recovery trajectories. However, most existing assessments reduce recovery to a single dimension—typically vegetation greenness—which can conflate systems that differ fundamentally in their response behavior. This study develops a multi-index Recovery Resilience Index for Land Systems (RRI-LS) within Google Earth Engine and applies it to the catastrophic liquefaction zone of the 2018 Mw 7.5 Palu earthquake (Central Sulawesi, Indonesia). Combining Sentinel-2 spectral indices (NDVI, NDBI, BSI), Dynamic World land-cover labels, and a hybrid Top-of-Atmosphere/Surface-Reflectance baseline to overcome the sparse pre-event archive, we quantify three resilience dimensions—resistance, recovery, and stability—and classify recovery into qualitatively distinct pathways. The hybrid baseline is quantitatively validated: after removing a small systematic offset, the residual discrepancy between TOA- and SR-derived indices is 2.4–4.9 times smaller than the measured disturbance signal. Site-level analysis of the three principal liquefaction hotspots (Balaroa, Petobo, Jono-Oge) and a 1 km grid expansion (n = 962 cells) reveal that disturbance-affected areas did not converge on a single outcome but diverged into bounce-back, transformational, reconstructed (non-vegetated), and degraded pathways; a basin-wide re-run at 250 m (n = 14,157 cells) reproduced the same pathway hierarchy, confirming robustness to grid resolution. Initial disturbance intensity was a poor predictor of long-term recovery (R2 = 0.07, p < 0.001), underscoring that recovery is multidimensional and not reducible to a single shock variable. The emergence of a reconstructed, non-vegetated pathway—where bare-soil disturbance is resolved through built surfaces rather than re-greening—demonstrates that vegetation metrics alone are insufficient in human-dominated landscapes. The framework supports a land-system perspective in which recovery is conceptualized as the establishment of new functional equilibria.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081368

Authors: Fatima Hanan Abdul Majid Muhannad Mohammed Alfehaid Asad Ali Hammad Ahmad Arooj Manzoor Syeda Hira Fatima

Rapid urbanization along transportation corridors is a key driver of land transformation and landscape homogenization in developing mega-cities. This study analyzes land use and land cover (LULC) change within a 5 km buffer, from Gulberg to T-Chowk, along the Islamabad Expressway, Pakistan, from 2010 to 2024, using multi-temporal Landsat imagery (2010, 2015, 2020, 2024) and landscape metrics. Built-up area increased by 190.8% (51.02 to 148.34 km2) between 2010 and 2024. The expansion is accompanied by sharp declines in vegetation (−36.0%; 89.17 to 57.06 km2), barren land (−93.8%; 63.88 to 3.94 km2), and water bodies (−64.2%; 8.20 to 2.93 km2). All class-area estimates were derived from the R landscapemetricspipeline and independently verified against visual inspection of the classified rasters, confirming correct class labelling throughout. Landscape structure shifted towards homogenization, with Shannon’s Diversity Index decreasing from 1.19 to 0.74, Patch Density from 74.39 to 21.08 patches per 100 ha, and Edge Density from 219.65 to 99.78 m/ha. LULC maps achieved an accuracy greater than 96% (κ>0.96) for each classification year, and metric estimates showed cross-platform agreement between R and FRAGSTATS within ±5%. A distance-zone analysis across four successive 1.25 km bands from the Expressway showed that this expansion was pervasive rather than confined to the roadside, with the urban share of classified land rising by 43.6–47.7 percentage points in every band. A complementary 300 m × 300 m fishnet-grid multivariable logistic regression (n=2162 cells classified as non-urban in 2010) identified proximity to existing 2010 built-up land and location within a formal housing scheme as the strongest independent correlates of conversion to urban land (AOR = 1.88 for housing-scheme proximity; 95% CI: 1.38–2.56), with acceptable model discrimination (AUC = 0.739). These findings indicate rapid corridor-scale consolidation associated with infrastructure-led growth, reducing landscape heterogeneity and potentially weakening ecological resilience. Unlike previous city-scale studies in the Islamabad–Rawalpindi region, this study adopts a transportation-corridor perspective, combining descriptive landscape ecology with spatially explicit statistical modelling to quantify both the pattern and the spatial drivers of infrastructure-led land transformation. The study underscores the necessity for integrated, corridor-scale land-use governance—including transit-oriented development and landscape-metric-based ecological zoning—to balance urban expansion with ecosystem sustainability.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081367

Authors: Javier Bravo-García Juan Mariano Camarillo-Naranjo Francisco José Blanco-Velázquez María Anaya-Romero

Reliable quantification of soil organic carbon (SOC) change is essential for evaluating long-term restoration trajectories and constraining the potential contribution of restored soils to atmospheric CO2 mitigation. However, long-term SOC monitoring based exclusively on field measurements is often limited by data scarcity, spatial heterogeneity and the high cost of repeated sampling. This study assesses the potential of combining field observations, remote sensing-derived proxies and process-based modelling to simulate SOC dynamics in the Guadiamar Green Corridor, Seville, Spain, a restored area affected by the 1998 Aznalcóllar mining spill. SOC dynamics were simulated using the RothC model under a set of boundary condition scenarios, in which field-measured or locally observed input variables were progressively replaced by alternative data sources. The reference scenario was based mainly on field SOC and clay measurements and local meteorological records, while the remaining scenarios tested the use of NDVI-derived carbon inputs, satellite-derived and reanalysis-based climate variables, and SoilGrids-derived estimates of SOC and clay content. The simulations were evaluated against field observations collected over the restoration period. Overall, RothC reproduced the general direction of the surface-layer SOC decline observed in the monitoring plots, although most scenarios did not fully capture the magnitude of SOC loss measured in the field. Differences among boundary conditions highlighted the sensitivity of RothC to specific input variables, particularly initial SOC, clay content and evapotranspiration. Scenarios based on alternative soil datasets showed that global soil products can provide useful information where field data are limited, but their performance depends strongly on their agreement with local soil conditions. Similarly, the replacement of local climatic data with remote sensing or reanalysis products affected model outputs, especially when evapotranspiration was substituted. These results indicate that satellite-derived products, climate reanalysis and open-access environmental datasets can complement field measurements in SOC modelling, particularly in data-scarce restoration contexts. However, their use requires careful validation, as model accuracy depends on the variable being replaced, the quality of the proxy dataset and the calibration of RothC to plot-specific conditions.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081365

Authors: Ana Cornelia Badea Gheorghe Badea

Blockchain technology is very often presented as a promising solution for modernizing property registration, due to its characteristics of immutability, auditability, and traceability. However, the evolution of research in recent years shows that the initial technological enthusiasm has been followed by a more critical phase, in which the focus has shifted from abstract promises to the concrete conditions of legal, institutional, and operational integration. This article pursues two main objectives: (i) to present the current state of research regarding the use of blockchain in property registration systems and (ii) to identify the suitability of implementing such an infrastructure in Romania, by reference to the legal framework governing real estate registration, data protection requirements, and the current stage of digitalization of the National Agency of Cadastre and Land Registration (ANCPI). The study is qualitative, interdisciplinary, and evaluative in nature and is based on a set of sources such as scientific literature, institutional reports, case studies, and official normative sources. The analysis shows that international literature is dominated by prototypes and architectural models, while real-world implementations remain limited and, in all relevant cases, rely on permissioned and hybrid models, rather than fully decentralized public ledgers. For Romania, the article shows that the main barriers are not strictly technical, but legal–institutional: the legal recognition of distributed entries, the relationship with the function of the land book, the role of ANCPI, and compliance with GDPR. The conclusion of the research is that blockchain may be useful for cadastral records in Romania only within a complementary, phased, and institutionally controlled architecture, rather than as an immediate replacement for the current cadastral registration system.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081366

Authors: Muna Shah Anthony R. Cummings

Plant species associated with provisioning ecosystem services of most tropical regions have been shaped by many indigenous peoples’ subsistence livelihood practices. In recent times, the recognition of the commercial value of plant species found within indigenous peoples’ landscapes for commercial logging and the consequent harvesting of such plants means that the subsistence ecosystem services indigenous peoples value and derive from their forests may face increasing competition. Currently, there is a lack of mechanisms and tools that may allow for the plant uses of indigenous peoples and the economic value of plants from a commercial logging perspective to be compared within the same spatial realm. In response to this need, we embarked on the development of potential spatial plant-use allocation scenarios by assessing how certain landscape conditions, shaped by traditional and timber harvesting activities, may influence the presence and spatial distribution of indigenous peoples’ subsistence association of plants and commercial logging ecosystem services relative to one another. Data on the two types of ecosystem services and landscape conditions in the form of physical environment variables were obtained for twelve indigenous village study areas in the Rupununi, Southern Guyana. For each area, the relative log risk ratios of subsistence values to logging values were computed and regressed against six physical environment variables—village presence, distance to village, distance to road, distance to water, elevation, and slope—to examine if and how landscape conditions may favor the presence of one ecosystem service over the other. The estimates were then used to map the relative differences in the spatial distributions of subsistence and commercial logging services in each area. We found, given the history of indigenous peoples’ presence in the area, that mean relative log risk ratios for the village areas were generally positive, indicating an inclination towards the presence of subsistence services. However, the maps revealed that while some areas within a given village were indeed more favorable for the presence of subsistence ecosystem services, other areas within the same village were inclined towards the presence of logging ecosystem services, raising the potential for conflict between subsistence and logging utility within these villages. Similar spatial analyses can be explored to guide policymakers in developing land-use strategies that allocate forest lands between competing users by identifying areas with resources that are best suited for indigenous peoples’ subsistence needs and for commercial harvesting operations, especially so indigenous peoples themselves explore logging as a means of diversifying their livelihood options.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081364

Authors: Lucia Bortolini Anna Costa

Urban Heat Island (UHI) effects are increasingly affecting Mediterranean coastal cities, where climate change, urbanization, and seasonal tourism intensify thermal stress and environmental vulnerability. In this context, climate-oriented planning and green infrastructure are recognized as key strategies for urban adaptation. This study investigates the spatiotemporal evolution of Land Surface Temperature (LST) and vegetation cover in the coastal municipality of Lignano Sabbiadoro (northeastern Italy) through the analysis of Landsat imagery acquired between 1984 and 2023. Summer LST and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) maps were derived from June–August observations and used to assess long-term thermal dynamics, vegetation patterns, and Urban Heat Island development. Meteorological data indicate a significant increase in mean annual air temperature, with a warming trend of approximately 0.57 °C per decade between 1984 and 2023. Correspondingly, Landsat-derived LST maps reveal a marked intensification of summer surface temperatures, with mean summer LST increasing from 32.16 °C in 1984–1993 to a peak of 35.91 °C in 2004–2013, followed by a slight decrease to 35.77 °C during 2014–2023. During the same period, the proportion of municipal surfaces characterized by temperatures above 35 °C increased from 10.7% to more than 60%, while cooler areas (<30 °C) declined from 17.7% to 2.3%. The comparison between LST and NDVI patterns revealed a persistent inverse relationship between vegetation cover and surface temperature, with coastal pinewoods, green spaces, and water bodies consistently exhibiting lower thermal values than densely urbanized sectors. A key methodological contribution of the study is the operational integration of satellite-derived thermal remote sensing into the Green Plan of Lignano Sabbiadoro. LST mapping was used to identify priority areas for climate adaptation measures, including ecological corridors, wooded landscape connections, urban green corridors, and depaving interventions. The results demonstrate how multi-temporal thermal analysis can support evidence-based planning by linking climate assessment with the spatial prioritization and design of green infrastructure strategies. The proposed workflow provides a transferable framework for integrating remote sensing into climate-informed planning processes in Mediterranean coastal cities and other urban contexts increasingly exposed to heat-related risks.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081363

Authors: Mei He Hui Huang Yahui Zhang Mahmud Ashraf Zhenhua Xiong Chunyu Pan Jiacheng Zhang Xiaoqi Hu Yu’an Hu Guangyu Wang

Bamboo-based engineered products have attracted increasing attention because of their renewable origin and long-term carbon storage potential. However, conventional life cycle assessment (LCA) mainly evaluates greenhouse gas emissions and cannot quantify how efficiently biomass-derived carbon is retained during manufacturing. Therefore, this study proposes carbon transfer efficiency (CTE) as a complementary indicator for assessing retained biogenic carbon in bamboo-based engineered products. Based on plant-scale manufacturing data from a representative bamboo scrimber factory in China, CTE was quantified together with the cradle-to-gate carbon footprint. Carbon loss distribution among manufacturing stages and sensitivity to key process parameters were further analyzed. Results showed that 65–78% of the initial biogenic carbon was retained in the final product. Unit separation and secondary machining accounted for more than 70% of total carbon loss, whereas adhesive application and hot pressing dominated greenhouse gas emissions but caused little direct carbon loss. Material-loss-related parameters exhibited substantially greater influence on CTE than energy-related parameters. These findings demonstrate that carbon retention efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions characterize different dimensions of environmental performance. Integrating CTE with LCA provides a more comprehensive framework for evaluating carbon storage and low-carbon manufacturing of bamboo-based engineered products.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081362

Authors: Chinmay Nischal Jagriti Gupta Shri Krishna Mishra Shahnawaz Mir Ankita Gupta Saurabh Singh Ram Avtar Fahdah Falah Ben Hasher Mukesh Kumar Gupta Mohamed Zhran

India’s solar photovoltaic expansion requires planning tools that can identify broad zones where new ground-mounted projects may merit detailed feasibility assessment. This study develops a GeoAI screening framework that combines cleaned solar-plant reference points, open remote-sensing predictors, machine-learning models, a tabular PyTorch deep-learning model, exclusion masking, spatial validation, external inventory checks, and explainable AI. Using 2848 cleaned utility-scale solar reference points and a 17,088-sample presence-background training matrix on a 0.05-degree grid, the workflow estimated relative solar-development suitability across India. The final four-member ensemble achieved ROC-AUC = 0.834, PR-AUC = 0.591, and F1 = 0.513 under spatial holdout validation; grouped spatial cross-validation produced mean ROC-AUC = 0.776 ± 0.082, PR-AUC = 0.505 ± 0.130, and F1 = 0.406 ± 0.102. After exclusion masking, the ensemble identified 145,391 km2 of High or Very High suitability land, including 26,798 km2 in the Very High class. Under the baseline 2.0 ha MW−1 land-use assumption, developing 1–10% of the High/Very High screening area corresponded to approximately 73–727 GW of upper-bound planning-scale technical capacity. Independent World Resources Institute (WRI) and Global Energy Monitor (GEM) overlays indicated moderate spatial consistency, with 30.0–48.3% of external records falling in High or Very High classes. Sensitivity testing showed that probability cutoff, cropland treatment, and land-use assumptions strongly affect mapped extent and capacity scenarios, whereas reasonable slope-threshold changes had limited national effect. The results should therefore be interpreted as a reproducible screening and policy-prioritization surface, not as a parcel-level feasibility map.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081361

Authors: Arunachalam Manimozhian Pius Jjagwe Abhilash K. Chandel

Cotton boll opening is an important late-season indicator for maturity assessment, defoliation timing, and harvest planning, but field-level monitoring remains challenging because visible lint progression varies spatially and temporally. This study evaluates whether UAV-derived cotton visible lint percentage, aggregated at the Sentinel-2 10 m grid scale, can be estimated using Sentinel-2 spectral bands, vegetation indices (VIs), and accumulated growing degree days (AGDD) as phenological predictors. UAV multispectral imagery was used to derive visible lint percentage through red-band thresholding and segmentation within canopy masks. The UAV-derived visible lint information was summarized within fixed Sentinel-2 10 m grid cells to generate satellite-compatible response labels. Four supervised regression models, eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), Random Forest (RF), k-Nearest Neighbors (kNN), and Neural Network/Multilayer Perceptron (NNET/MLP), were evaluated using raw and transformed target formulations. Raw visible lint percentage produced relatively high explanatory power for tree-based models, with R2 values of 0.73 for both XGBoost and RF. However, the target distribution was strongly right-skewed and dominated by low visible lint values, with a mean PCTOPEN of 4.05%Open, motivating the evaluation of target transformations to reduce target skewness while assessing their impact on predictive performance. On the original PCTOPEN scale, the raw target produced RMSE = 4.38%Open points, MAE = 2.31%Open points, and MedianAE = 0.68%Open points. The square-root transformation provided the strongest overall predictive performance, maintaining R2 = 0.73 and RMSE = 4.38%Open points while reducing MAE to 2.14%Open points and MedianAE to 0.41%Open points. Stronger transformations further reduced the typical prediction errors, with MedianAE = 0.35, 0.33, and 0.31%Open points for the cube-root, fourth-root, and fifth-root transformations, respectively. However, these improvements were accompanied by progressively lower R2 values (0.72, 0.71, and 0.69) and higher RMSE values (4.48, 4.58, and 4.68%Open points), indicating that stronger transformations reduced typical prediction errors at the expense of overall predictive performance. These results indicate that UAV-derived visible lint percentage can be linked with Sentinel-2 observations for satellite-scale regression modeling, but prediction uncertainty remains influenced by target skewness, mixed 10 m pixels, canopy obstruction, and limited UAV acquisition density. Additional UAV–Sentinel-2-aligned acquisitions, supporting multi-field observations, and broader validation across fields, seasons, cultivars, and production environments are needed to improve robustness and support operational cotton boll-opening tracking applications.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081360

Authors: Di Pang Guoqiang Shen Jie Wang Lepeng Huang Qiyang Zheng Huan Zhang

This study develops a scale-aware and reproducible framework for examining the local clustering intensity of 612 recognized traditional villages in southern Zhejiang, China. Equal-weight Gaussian leave-one-out kernel density estimation (LOO-KDE; h = 21.01 km) excluded each focal village’s direct self-contribution, while explicitly acknowledging shared-neighbour dependence among the derived outcomes. Village-scale models used the same X1–X12 predictor set after correlation and variance-inflation screening; county socioeconomic indicators were analyzed separately for the 27 represented county-level units. A Random Forest selected from 144 prespecified candidates achieved an out-of-bag R2 of 0.353 and a county-grouped pooled R2 of 0.115. Repeated spatial holdouts yielded weak transferability: mean R2 was −0.081 for coordinate K-means and 0.082 for shifted 50 km grids without buffers, and became negative for both designs with one- or two-bandwidth buffers. SHAP ranked elevation, topographic relief, and village household count as the leading village-scale predictive contributors. OLS explained 30.5% of outcome variance, whereas SLM and SEM results depended strongly on whether structural/filtered fits or covariate-only predictions were evaluated. GWR and MGWR reached R2 = 0.9743 and 0.9984, and residual Moran’s I remained significant for all models except MGWR (I = 0.002, p = 0.429). At the county scale, rural disposable income and tertiary-industry output were negatively correlated with mean LOO-KDE, but multivariable HC3 estimates were imprecise and ecologically interpreted. The results identify associations with the clustering of recognized villages, not causes of individual-village heritage persistence.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081359

Authors: Miaomiao Hu Fei Li Qingwu Yan

Achieving synergistic governance between carbon emissions and ecosystem service value (ESV) in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) remains a significant challenge. Existing studies often rely on a single administrative scale and rarely extend spatial clustering results toward governance-oriented zoning frameworks that support differentiated management. To bridge these gaps, we developed a multi-scale remote sensing framework by integrating the China Land Cover Dataset (CLCD), NPP/VIIRS nighttime light (NTL) imagery, and energy consumption statistics to examine carbon emissions and ESV across the YRB at both county and grid scales. We estimated land-use carbon emissions by integrating emission coefficients with NTL modeling, while ESV was quantified via the equivalent factor method. By coupling dynamic carbon–ESV trends with their spatial association patterns (derived from bivariate LISA), we established a dual-dimensional Trend–Pattern framework for synergistic governance. Our findings reveal a pronounced asymmetry in regional development: while carbon emissions surged from 235 to 1033 million tons, ESV grew by a marginal 0.13% annually. Although carbon emissions and ESV are significantly negatively correlated (p < 0.001), this relationship diverges across scales—weakening at the county level but intensifying at the grid level. Notably, grid-scale analysis identified a contraction of over 56% in “Low carbon–High ESV” synergistic clusters in the upper reaches. This critical signal of declining carbon–ecological synergy was completely obscured by the averaging effect inherent in county-level assessments. Capitalizing on these scale-dependent insights, we delineated seven distinct governance zones, including Trend Control and Ecological Conservation Zones, thereby transitioning from mere spatial description to decision support for zoning-based governance. This study highlights the potential limitations of relying solely on single-tier administrative evaluations and offers a robust, multi-scale decision-support tool for carbon–ecological governance in the YRB.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081358

Authors: Mingyang Deng Qiao Hu Jiating Li Xuan Zhou Jingjing Zhang Hongting Dong Shaorui Dong Hongzhe Zhu Mengjie Hou Yu Kang

Global environmental change has shifted disaster risk from being predominantly natural hazard-dominated to increasingly socially driven. While the Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI) is widely used to quantify these dynamics, its construction remains hindered by uncertainty in weighting algorithms and spatial aggregation schemes. This study assesses SoVI in Taiwan across three harmonized study years (2015, 2020, and 2025) by bridging data innovation, spatial representation, and methodological synthesis. To offer fine-scale spatial representation, we integrate gridded nighttime light, urban built-up volume, and population density to shift vulnerability assessments from conventional administrative borders to functional, data-driven Human Agglomeration Zones (HAZs). Furthermore, we examined algorithmic uncertainty by comparing the variance-driven Principal Component Analysis (PCA) against the Entropy Weight Method (EWM). We found that integrating gridded socioeconomic data can effectively identify small contiguous HAZ patches that were commonly omitted by administrative divisions. The results also reveal a twofold pattern of vulnerability. PCA produced comparatively stable rankings and repeatedly identified south-central counties as high-vulnerability areas, whereas EWM generated more concentrated weights and a stronger reordering of vulnerability patterns in 2025 as the weight assigned to population density increased sharply. Ultimately, by proposing a synthesized multi-method framework, a comprehensive SoVI was established to mitigate algorithmic bias, providing policymakers with a multidimensional tool that aligns long-term structural investments with short-term dynamic monitoring.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081357

Authors: Gonzalo Valdés González Mohammad Eskandari Sani Sahar Sofalgar Amir Karbassi Yazdi

Housing financialization has transformed residential property from a basic social necessity into a speculative asset, intensifying socio-spatial inequalities in the Global South. In Iran, a bank-dominated financial regime and high spatial inequality severely restrict access to housing finance, particularly for low-income households and climate-induced migrants in mid-sized cities. While the spatial consequences of financialization have been extensively studied in major metropolises, neighborhood-scale exclusion mechanisms in secondary cities remain significantly understudied. This study addresses this gap by employing a hybrid methodology that integrates the Bayesian Best–Worst Method (BWM) with Geographic Information Systems (GISs) and Fuzzy Overlay analysis to quantify and spatially visualize barriers to housing finance in Birjand, Iran. Eleven indicators were weighted through probabilistic expert elicitation (n = 10) using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling, with excellent convergence confirmed by Gelman–Rubin diagnostics (R-hat ≈ 1.00). Results identify land use as the dominant barrier (posterior mean = 0.256; 95% CrI [0.244, 0.270]), followed by homeownership rate and education level (≈0.132 each). Spatial modeling reveals a pronounced north–south monetary–spatial divide: southern districts concentrate financial services and formal tenure, while northern peripheries, predominantly inhabited by low-income and climate-migrant populations, constitute financial deserts. These findings demonstrate that spatial barriers to housing finance are structurally embedded in land-use classification and asset-based gatekeeping. The study offers a replicable probabilistic–spatial framework for diagnosing financial exclusion in Global South mid-sized cities and provides evidence-based guidance for spatially targeted policy interventions aligned with SDGs 1, 10, and 11.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081356

Authors: Fatma Al Bulushi Ahmad Adeel Iman Al Ofi Ercan Agirbas Muhammad Mashhood Arif

Vernacular settlements retain tangible fabric and intangible knowledge that can support climate-responsive conservation, adaptive reuse, and urban regeneration, yet these dimensions are often assessed separately. This study applies a values-based conservation framework to examine how heritage significance is expressed through settlement morphology, material systems, environmental performance, community knowledge, and continuing use in two historic settlements and one contemporary neighbourhood in Oman. Heritage significance is interpreted through six interconnected domains: historical-continuity, architectural-spatial, environmental, material-technical, social-cultural, and functional-economic value. A comparative mixed-method case-study design combined field observation, photographic documentation, urban and architectural morphological analysis, semi-structured interviews, and building-performance simulation. The findings show that the historic settlements achieved greater built intensity through attached buildings, shared walls, limited setbacks, shaded routes, mixed functions, and layered public–private organization. Interview evidence associated these characteristics with privacy, shared-resource management, traditional construction knowledge, social continuity, adaptive reuse, and continued occupation. Simulation results indicated substantially lower cooling-energy demand in the representative vernacular dwellings, whereas the contemporary villas achieved higher daylight levels and thermal conditions closer to neutrality under mechanical cooling. The study concludes that vernacular heritage should neither be conserved as static physical fabric nor reproduced literally. Interventions related to tourism, infrastructure, accessibility, privacy, commercial reuse, and residential continuity should be negotiated among stakeholders.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081355

Authors: Nur Faziera Yaakub Mohd Hasmadi Ismail Azita Ahmad Zawawi

Urbanization profoundly influences social, economic, and environmental systems, imposing a comprehensive understanding of spatial and temporal land use and land cover (LULC) transformations. This study aims to quantify the LULC changes from 2014 to 2023 in Penang Island, Malaysia, using SPOT 6 and SPOT 7 satellite imagery with a 1.5 m spatial resolution. After preprocessing and transforming data, five LULC classes—namely built-up, forest, water bodies, agriculture and horticulture, and barren land—were classified. The Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier achieved accuracies of 90.8% in 2014, 91% in 2019, and 94.2% in 2023, with kappa coefficients of 0.85, 0.84, and 0.9, respectively. Analysis at the district level revealed that built-up area decreased by 4.53 km2, forest expanded by 10.32 km2, water bodies grew by 0.26 km2, agriculture and horticulture increased by 8.47 km2, and barren land declined by 11.84 km2. Interestingly, the decline in built-up areas presents a paradox to the conventional narrative of urban growth, which typically anticipates an increase in developed land over time. This counterintuitive trend invites further inquiry into factors that may have driven such a reversal in urbanization patterns. Nevertheless, the findings align with SDG 11 and the NPP, which advocate for sustainable and resilient urban development.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081354

Authors: Zheng Zhao Siyu Yuan Weiwei Yuan Yanbin Wang Jinyu Shen

Urban parks provide key ecosystem services and support everyday recreation, but their multifunctional use often creates mismatches between planned functions and diverse public demands. Taking Chaoyang Park in Beijing as the study area, this study applied Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGISs) to map landscape values and identify recreation conflicts. Boundary-based and inductive social landscape metrics were used to analyze the spatial patterns of six landscape values: aesthetic value, ecological value, recreational value, cultural value, healing value and economic value. Kernel density analysis was further used to identify recreation conflict hotspots and examine their spatial association with landscape value agglomeration. The results show that the landscape values in Chaoyang Park are characterized by multi-value agglomeration in core areas and functional differentiation in peripheral areas. Aesthetic value, recreational value and ecological value are the dominant value types, and their spatial distribution is highly consistent with the planning orientations of functional areas. Recreation conflicts are mainly manifested as activity disturbances and space contention, and are jointly associated with overlapping spatial functions, divergent activity characteristics and unbalanced facility allocation. This study demonstrates that PPGISs can support refined management and recreation conflict regulation in large urban parks, providing evidence for public participation planning and sustainable management of urban green spaces in high-density cities.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081353

Authors: Minseop Lee Twoone Yoon

Public pedestrian pathways have been widely adopted in planned cities to improve walkability and strengthen connections between residential areas and public spaces. However, existing studies have largely focused on management issues and post-occupancy privatization, with limited attention given to how these pathways evolve throughout the planning and development process. This study investigates the evolution of public pedestrian pathways in Sejong City, Korea, a state-led planned city developed through a phased planning system. Based on district unit plans, design competition guidelines, detailed design documents, as-built drawings, aerial imagery, and field verification of implemented conditions, the study analyzes the changing planning objectives, spatial characteristics, and functional roles of public pedestrian pathways across five planning generations. The results reveal three major trends. First, public pedestrian pathways evolved from lot-level circulation routes into integral components of neighborhood- and city-scale pedestrian networks linking parks, green corridors, schools, and community facilities. Second, planning approaches were continuously refined through district unit planning, housing design competitions, and implementation experience, leading to increasingly integrated and strategic spatial configurations. Third, the growing integration of public pedestrian pathways with community facilities, public open spaces, and green infrastructure transformed them from simple movement corridors into semi-public infrastructure intended to support social interaction and everyday community life. The findings suggest that public pedestrian pathways function not merely as circulation facilities but as planning mechanisms that enhance urban openness, connectivity, publicness, and community integration. The study demonstrates how public pedestrian pathways can evolve into semi-public infrastructure through the cumulative refinement of planning across successive planning generations and provides planning implications for future pedestrian-oriented urban development.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081352

Authors: Georgios Xekalakis Gigliola D’Angelo Mattia Leone Giulio Zuccaro Marija Vurnek Denis Havlik

Climate-resilient land-use planning increasingly requires methods that can translate heterogeneous climate-risk knowledge into actionable territorial recommendations. This study develops the Hazard–Sector Translation Framework, a planning-oriented method for linking regional hazard pathways with affected territorial systems, land-use domains, recommendation families, planning instruments, and resilience functions. The framework was developed through a qualitative cross-regional synthesis of five Southern European regions: Sicily, Costa del Sol, Osijek-Baranja County, Central Greece, and the Troodos Mountain Range. The analysis identifies how diverse hazard pathways, including heat, drought, water scarcity, pluvial flooding, wildfire, hail, frost risk, and tourism climate-suitability pressures, become actionable through recurring land-use domains. Results show that heterogeneous regional risks converge around five main land-use resilience domains: buildings, agriculture, blue-green infrastructure, transportation, and protected-area conservation, while governance and capacity are treated separately as cross-cutting implementation conditions. The operational matrix demonstrates how region-specific hazard pathways can be converted into traceable recommendation structures without reducing local complexity. The framework does not replace detailed hazard modeling or climate-risk assessment; rather, it provides an intermediate methodological bridge between climate-risk evidence and land-use planning action. The approach is transferable to other regions seeking to organize stakeholder-derived needs and adaptation recommendations into coherent, sector-specific planning responses.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081351

Authors: Madhushree Sekher Menokhono Bill Pritchard Shraddha Vikas Balbir Singh Aulakh

Across the Global South, heightened contestation over rural land has placed land administration at the centre of policy debates, particularly where mismatches between official land records and lived realities generate disputes, exclusion, and limited access to welfare and compensation. In India, these challenges are shaped by colonial cadastral legacies, fragmented institutional arrangements, and rapidly changing rural and peri-urban landscapes. While digitization of land records is widely promoted as a solution to improve transparency and efficiency, reforms implemented without meaningful community participation risk reproducing existing inequalities in more rigid and legally entrenched forms. This article examines the limits of digitization-led land reforms in India and explores how decentralized and community-engaged governance approaches can strengthen land administration. Focusing on two case-study regions in Western India—Talasari and Chiplun in Maharashtra—the study draws on qualitative field research conducted between December 2024 and October 2025, including Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), institutional process-mapping, and analysis of land administration procedures across multiple departments. The combination of field-based evidence and process-mapping enables a grounded analysis of institutional coordination, governance bottlenecks, and the relationship between formal land records and customary tenure practices. The findings show that digitization without community-engaged implementation processes often reproduces inaccuracies and governance gaps rather than resolving longstanding structural problems. Outdated cadastral records, fragmented institutional arrangements, and weak coordination between departments continue to intensify exclusions, tenure insecurity, and administrative fragmentation. The article therefore argues that strengthening land governance requires hybrid and decentralized approaches that integrate statutory and customary systems through co-governance and community participation. These findings have important policy implications for ongoing reforms such as the Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme (DILRMP) and the Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas (SVAMITVA), highlighting the need to align digitization initiatives with local tenure realities, participatory governance, and stronger institutional coordination.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081350

Authors: Salah A. M. Al-Gamal István Valánszki

Compound crises of heritage cities in the global south led to the destruction of both physical and intangible assets, as well as the processes and relationships that sustain them; nevertheless, while there is more awareness regarding the importance of intangible heritage, regeneration approaches after the crisis period still focus on tangible losses, while the intangible cultural aspects are often overlooked in planning, especially under conditions of restricted field access. This paper proposes a remote-first CESSOP diagnostic model (CSDM), integrating CES and SOP in four decision-focused products: Crisis Pressure Profile (CPP), Biocultural Asset Map (BAM), CESSOP Vulnerability Matrix (CSVM), and modeling and Action Typology and Priority Pathways (ATPP), rather than adopting an existing framework. The Cultural Ecosystem Services and Sense of Place Diagnostic Model (CESSOP Diagnostic Model). The CSDM is new; it is a theoretically constructed, theoretically grounded, crisis-sensitive diagnostic methodology designed for heritage cities under conditions of data scarcity and restricted field access. This approach includes aspects of document research, open-source data, environmental morphological intelligence, social networks and remote participation inputs, supported with embedded confidence rating. The methodology is illustrated by a study of old Sana’a, Yemen, and it is applied in cases when there are few opportunities for direct observation.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081349

Authors: Genrong Cao Rong Liao Di Cao

With the fundamental establishment of China’s territorial spatial planning system featuring the integration of multiple plans, transitioning from static blueprint-centric regulation to dynamic implementation governance against rising uncertainties stands as a core challenge in advancing spatial governance modernization. The current patch-based management suffers from excessive rigidity and insufficient adaptability amid the evolving complexity of territorial systems. To tackle this issue, this paper develops a holistic framework for the hierarchical adaptive dynamic management of territorial space based on Complex Adaptive System (CAS) theory. Drawing on the CAS perspective, this study proposes a Five-in-One evaluation criterion as the value benchmark for spatial adjustment, constructs a five-tier hierarchical governance logic aligned with China’s administrative system, and designs differentiated regulatory strategies based on stable and change-prone spatial zoning. This research provides a new paradigm that combines theoretical depth and practical operability to boost the scientificity and implementation effectiveness of territorial spatial planning and helps facilitate the transformation of the territorial spatial governance system toward greater resilience and adaptability.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081348

Authors: Jyoti Shukla Piyush Tiwari

Land management is at the center of some of the most pressing challenges in contemporary urban development, including urban expansion, infrastructure-led transformation, transition from agricultural economy, environmental governance, and climate-sensitive resource management [...]

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081347

Authors: Wenkui Wang Jingyuan Luo Liyi Feng Tao Luo

Urban surface water networks are closely associated with the urban land surface thermal environment, but the spatial non-stationarity of their relationships with land surface temperature (LST) remains insufficiently understood. This study examined relationships between water network indicators and LST in Fuzhou. Following scale-sensitivity analysis to select the analytical grid scale, this study used global correlation and regression analyses to identify key indicators and applied multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) to examine spatial non-stationarity in their relationships with LST. Based on the selected 150 m grid scale, the results showed the following: (1) Water coverage ratio (WCR), water body shape index (SI), and water network density (D) were retained as key explanatory variables, with WCR showing the strongest negative association with LST. (2) The relationships between water network indicators and LST showed spatial non-stationarity. WCR showed the most stable negative local association with LST, especially in built-up areas with higher background heat loads, whereas the local associations of SI and D were more context-dependent. These findings suggest that thermal-environment-oriented planning for urban surface water networks should prioritize water coverage while considering water network structure, water body morphology, the surrounding built environment and land cover conditions. These associations can inform spatially differentiated planning of urban surface water networks in comparable subtropical coastal cities.

Land doi: 10.3390/land15081346

Authors: Alex M. Lechner Zahra Khairunnisa Kadek Wara Urwasi Eka Permanasari Alyas Widita Gitasanti Djais Lillian Yee Kiaw Wang Risty Khoirunisa Suci Lestari Yuana Ade Firmansyah Tanvi Maheshwari Aliudin Athirah Bakhtiar Bayu Anggorojati Brendan Josey Chow Ming Fai Diego Ramirez-Lovering Dwinanti R. Marthanty Dyah Pitaloka Eni Nuraeni Fairul Edros Shaikh Ferry Dwi Cahyadi Gabriela Fernando Ika Idris Jefri Deliandri Jo Lindsay Mad Rudi M. Raihan Nur Azmi Moh. Sofyan Budiarto Muhlisin Muhlisin Muhamad Risqi U. Saputra Poh Phaik Eong Ririn Irnawati Susilawati Susilawati Udi Samanhudi Yaser Gamil Perrine Hamel Stephen Cairns

Banten Province, Indonesia, is a critical yet overlooked frontier of urbanisation. Despite being one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-urbanising regions, its secondary cities, towns and peri-urban hinterlands remain marginal in urban studies and sustainability science. This neglect is consequential. Future urban growth will increasingly concentrate in such settlements, yet debates on urbanisation in Indonesia and Southeast Asia remain focused on metropolitan regions such as Jakarta, one of the world’s largest urban areas. This paper addresses this gap by combining a cross-sector participatory horizon scan with a responsive development pathway for under-resourced territories. Thirty-four participants from academia, government and professional associations co-produced insights into Banten’s urban trajectories, triangulated with literature and secondary data. To our knowledge, this study draws on the first expert workshop on Banten’s urbanisation of this scale, cross-sectoral reach and disciplinary breadth, spanning six domains: economic development, physical infrastructure, social development, cultural heritage, environment and biodiversity, and disaster vulnerability. The deliberations also identified nine cross-cutting issues—including governance deficits, environmental injustice and climate risk—that underpin territorial inequality. From these findings, the paper synthesises a responsive development pathway that supports coordinated planning and governance across Banten’s urbanising settlements and offers a transferable model for negotiating extended urbanisation in rapidly urbanising Global South regions.