Landscape Spatial Analysis for Natural Capital Enhancement
A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Landscape Ecology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 April 2024) | Viewed by 1739
Special Issue Editor
Interests: ecological indicators; ecosystem services; landscape metrics; biodiversity conservation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Landscape fragmentation caused by urban sprawl leads to profound changes in the landscape matrix, with land loss and altered natural capital flow as the main consequences. In particular, land use/cover change (LUCC), generally induced by human activities, can alter the configuration and composition of landscape elements, ecological processes, and, ultimately, the flow of natural capital. Land-use/land-cover classes can be seen as spatially interacting landscape components that can result in landscape heterogeneity, which is determined by the complexity and variability of a landscape's properties in space and time; therefore, both properties influence how landscape services are provided.
The goal of this Special Issue is to collect papers (original research articles and review papers) to provide insight into assessment methods, landscape metrics, and suitable indicators that can help to differentiate between different management strategies in terms of natural capital enhancement.
The topic of the Special Issue can be used as a proposal for identifying sustainable strategic planning choices to counter the reduction of natural capital flow. The combination of geospatial tools and modeling can be of help in solving research issues such as analyzing LUCC from the perspective of assessing landscape fragmentation or quantifying the spatial relationship between landscape fragmentation and natural capital flow. This will allow for the enhancement of scientific knowledge by promoting multi-temporal landscape spatial analysis (land-use/land-cover maps, land consumption maps, and landscape metrics) and landscape services’ flow assessment, as well as the identification of areas at risk of losing natural capital flow that can support urban and landscape sustainable planning.
This Special Issue will welcome manuscripts that link the following themes:
- Land consumption;
- Landscape metrics;
- Landscape dynamics;
- Landscape patterns;
- Urban sprawl;
- Natural capital flow.
We look forward to receiving your submissions.
Dr. Donatella Valente
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- ecosystem services
- landscape planning
- land use planning
- landscape approach
- natural capital
- GIS technologies
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