The 2nd Edition: Land Use Changes and the Corresponding Ecological Risks

Dear Colleagues,

Given the high attention received by the first edition of the Special Issue “Land Use Changes and the Corresponding Ecological Risks”, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH) (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph/special_issues/LUCCER), we would like to continue exploring this topic.

The global population has been increasing dramatically since the 1950s. This huge population pressure not only goes hand in hand with an unprecedented scale of resource consumption but also aggravates the exploitation of the ecological environment. As an important link between human activities and ecosystems, land use mode and intensity are not only important driving factors of global ecological environment changes but also a result of environmental changes, and there is a close interdependent relationship between land use and global environmental changes. At global and regional scales, humans are increasingly realizing that a functional ecological environment is an important basis for the sustainable development of a social economy and for improving human wellbeing. In recent years, numerous studies have focused on land use changes and the corresponding ecological responses, including the identification of regional land use change processes based on remote sensing technology, the discussion of landscape effects on land use changes, and the construction of a series of ecosystem service evaluation models.

However, before the concept of ecological management can be integrated into studies of land use resources, it is necessary to systematically (1) reveal the typical land use change processes, such as the reclamation and abandonment of marginal arable land in ecologically fragile areas; (2) assess ecosystem vulnerability; (3) identify important ecological sources and key ecological corridors; (4) clarify the concept and connotation of land use ecological risks; (5) reveal the quantitative relationship between land use change and ecological risks; and (6) evaluate the ecological responses and potential risks of regional land use changes. Such results can provide a scientific basis for the establishment of adequate policies.

Dr. Wei Song
Prof. Dr. Hualin Xie
Prof. Dr. Xiaoqing Song
Prof. Dr. Yanbo Qu
Guest Editors

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• land use changes
• reclamation and abandonment of cropland
• urban expansion
• ecologically fragile areas
• ecosystem risk
• fragility of ecosystems
• ecological corridor
• ecosystem service
• ecological security