United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in Land-Use Systems from Resource-Nexus Perspectives

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Water, Energy, Land and Food (WELF) Nexus".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 27 February 2025 | Viewed by 2307

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Interests: spatiotemporal simulation for the potential and benefit of renewable energy resources; remote sensing applications for resources and the environment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Interests: overall optimization for the Production–living–ecological (PLE) space; remote sensing applications for resources and environment; spatio-temporal simulation for the potential and benefit of renewable energy resources
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Interests: land use classification and evolvement based on the Production–living–ecological (PLE) Perspective; resource utilization and its environmental impact; water-energy nexus
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent decades, the demand for natural resources has been rapidly growing, causing serious impacts, risks, and threats to humans on different scales. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) address the more serious problems. Therefore, it is necessary to manage nature resources in a more sustainable manner, considering an integrated approach to the interdependencies of resource use to achieve the SDGs. In future, scientific concerns should include the interrelationships between resources, their synergistic trade-off mechanisms with the Sustainable Development Goals, and modeling approaches to the SDGs from a policy perspective.

This Special Issue (SI) focuses on discussing how to address the issue of land-resource misallocation hindering regional sustainable development from a resource-nexus perspective. We will discuss the ability of a nexus approach to assess critical interlinkages across natural resources (water, energy, food, materials, and land), along their value chains, and to enable sustainable resource-use pathways, particularly with respect to the SDGs concerning food (SDG 2), water (SDG 6), energy (SDG 7), cities (SDG 11), and production and consumption (SDG 12). This provides an opportunity for scholars around the world, including environmental scientists, geographers, ecologists, and natural resource scientists, to share their multidisciplinary knowledge. We encourage submissions on the integration of natural-resource coupling into land-use transformation research, and land-use transformation regulation strategies from the perspective of the water–energy–food–materials–ecological nexus. This not only helps to further improve theoretical land-use transformation systems, but also provides a new research perspective for land-system optimization and regional sustainable development.

This Special Issue will welcome manuscripts that link the following themes:

  1. Sustainable utilization of land resources;
  2. Coupled simulation of resource systems;
  3. Utilization of water, soil, and energy resources under the SDGs;
  4. The constraining relationship between the misallocation of land resources and sustainable development;
  5. Contribution of the reutilization of abandoned land resources to the SDGs;
  6. Land-use optimization for sustainable development.

We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.

Dr. Jingying Fu
Prof. Dr. Dong Jiang
Dr. Gang Lin
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • SDGs
  • resource coupling
  • resource policy
  • water-energy-food-materials-land nexus
  • sustainable development

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 5604 KiB  
Article
Coupling Relationships and Driving Mechanisms of Water–Energy–Food in China from the Perspective of Supply and Demand Security
by Qin Zhang, Jing Shao, Jianmin Qiao, Qian Cao and Haimeng Liu
Land 2024, 13(10), 1637; https://doi.org/10.3390/land13101637 - 8 Oct 2024
Viewed by 744
Abstract
The rapid increase in population and economy, coupled with accelerated urbanization, is placing immense pressure on the water–energy–food (WEF) system. In this context, the water–energy–food nexus framework has emerged, recognizing the interdependencies and interactions among water, energy, and food systems, with the aim [...] Read more.
The rapid increase in population and economy, coupled with accelerated urbanization, is placing immense pressure on the water–energy–food (WEF) system. In this context, the water–energy–food nexus framework has emerged, recognizing the interdependencies and interactions among water, energy, and food systems, with the aim of optimizing resource management through cross-sectoral collaboration to promote sustainable development. Understanding the spatio-temporal differentiation patterns of the WEF nexus and elucidating the driving mechanisms behind changes in their coupling relationships is essential. This knowledge is crucial for ensuring the security of each subsystem and enhancing the overall sustainability of interconnected systems through coordinated efforts. To address these challenges, this study first established evaluation indicators for water, energy, and food security to quantify their levels and spatio-temporal dynamics. Subsequently, the degrees of coupling coordination within the WEF nexus were calculated. Finally, the WEF nexus’s spatial correlations were analyzed by using a spatial autocorrelation model. Spatial econometric models then identified key factors affecting its coordination. The results revealed significant spatial heterogeneity in water, energy, and food security across mainland China’s provinces. From 2002 to 2022, water security improved substantially in 87% of the provinces, while energy security began to improve in the eastern regions following a phase of high consumption. Food security saw significant enhancements, particularly in Inner Mongolia and the northeastern provinces. The overall coupling coordination of the WEF nexus improved across 30 provinces, progressing toward primary coordination. However, Henan and Anhui provinces experienced fluctuations in WEF nexus coordination. Spatial correlation analysis showed upward trends and increased clustering in WEF nexus coordination. Factors such as economic development and population positively influenced coordination, while economic agglomeration, education, and effective irrigation area had negative effects. This study elucidates the complex interconnections and key influencing factors within the WEF nexus, providing a reference framework and practical recommendations for equitable resource management. Full article
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21 pages, 4912 KiB  
Article
Modelling Multi-Scenario Ecological Network Patterns and Dynamic Spatial Conservation Priorities in Mining Areas
by Wanqiu Zhang, Zeru Jiang, Huayang Dai, Gang Lin, Kun Liu, Ruiwen Yan and Yuanhao Zhu
Land 2024, 13(7), 1065; https://doi.org/10.3390/land13071065 - 16 Jul 2024
Viewed by 1058
Abstract
Mining activities have significantly altered the land use patterns of mining areas, exacerbated the degree of landscape fragmentation, and thereby led to the loss of biodiversity. Ecological networks have been recognized as an essential component for enhancing habitat connectivity and protecting biodiversity. However, [...] Read more.
Mining activities have significantly altered the land use patterns of mining areas, exacerbated the degree of landscape fragmentation, and thereby led to the loss of biodiversity. Ecological networks have been recognized as an essential component for enhancing habitat connectivity and protecting biodiversity. However, existing studies lack dynamic analysis at the landscape scale under multiple future scenarios for mining areas, which is adverse to the identification of ecological conservation regions. This study used the MOP-PLUS (multi-objective optimization problem and patch-level land use simulation) model to simulate the land use patterns in the balance of ecology and economy (EEB) scenario and ecological development priority (EDP) scenario for the Shendong coal base. Then, climate change and land use patterns were integrated into ecosystem models to analyze the dynamic changes in the ecological networks. Finally, the conservation priorities were constructed, and dynamic conservation hotspots were identified using landscape mapping methods. The following results were obtained: (1) From 2000 to 2020, large grassland areas were replaced by mining areas, while cultivated land was replenished. By 2030, the forest and grassland areas (967.00 km2, 8989.70 km2) will reach their peaks and the coal mine area (356.15 km2) will reach its nadir in the EDP scenario. (2) The fragmentation of ecological sources intensified (MPS decreased from 19.81 km2 to 18.68 km2) and ecological connectivity declined (in particular, α decreased by 6.58%) from 2000 to 2020. In 2030, the connectivity in the EDP scenario will increase, while the connectivity in the EEB scenario will be close to that of 2020. (3) The central and southeastern parts of the Shendong coal base have higher conservation priorities, which urgently need to be strengthened. This study offers guidance on addressing the challenges of habitat and biodiversity conservation in mining areas. Full article
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