Urban Land Systems: An Ecosystems Perspective
A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2017) | Viewed by 154806
Special Issue Editors
Interests: land use dynamics and potential impacts around increased foreign ownership of farmland in Australia; the coca/cocaine trade as a driver of land use dynamics in humid tropical forests; analysis of landscape fragmentation patterns in tropical and sub-tropical landscapes
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: land cover change; commons; urbanization; conservation biology; remote sensing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: land-use/land-cover change; landscape fragmentation; urban dynamics; ecosystem services; remote sensing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
We live in an urbanising world. Since 2008, more than half of humanity has lived in cities, both large and small, and old and new. We also live in a world that is becoming even more urbanised—by the middle of the 21st century the UN estimates 70% of people with be city dwellers.
In the context of land systems science, contemporary urbanisation is a set of land use change processes and the various contemporary cityscapes are the resulting land systems. Urbanisation statistics and trends are well known to researchers and policy makers. It is also generally understood that urban ecosystems are essential for well-functioning and liveable cities and to protect the public health of urban populations. For example, urban green spaces may filter air, remove pollution, reduce noise, reduce temperatures, and improve stormwater infiltration. Moreover, urban ecosystems can provide food.
In this Special Issue we will take some thought provoking and meaningful directions from the milieu of land science. These directions will be not only allow the land community to reflect on urbanisation but also allow urban scholars, planners, and policy makers access to the work by land scientists on contemporary cities in a single volume of Land.
Specifically the Special Issue encourages original full-length research contributions as well as shorter communications from researchers and practitioners on:
- the application of ecological concepts to understand urban form and urbanisation processes,
- the application of ecological concepts in urban planning,
- integrating ecology into urban settings to obtain better biodiversity, environmental and human well-being outcomes,
- integrating concepts from agricultural and human ecologies into the urban
We ‘define’ ecological concepts very broadly; both to mean ecological sensu stricto and environmental more broadly. Concepts might include, but are also not restricted:
- ecosystem services: mapping, valuation and trade-off analysis
- green infrastructure: identification, classification and quantification of urban green spaces, green walls and rooftops
- enhancing biodiversity in the city
- the role of urban ecosystems in urban heat mitigation
- urban ecological and environmental challenges, such as pollution, disease epidemics, flooding and drought
- farming and food production in the city, including concepts from agricultural ecology.
We encourage contributions that cover the full range of contemporary cities – from megacities and complex metropolitan areas to small- to medium-size urban areas; from all world regions; from inland to coastal, and from old, established and rapidly developing cities.
The special arises from a session convened by the editors at the GLP 3rd Open Science Meeting in Beijing, October 2016, This call for papers will expand the scope of papers presented at that meeting.
Please submit a 200-word synopsis of your planned paper to [email protected] by 31 January, 2017, for comments by the Guest Editors. Full papers will be required by 30 June, 2017.
Prof. Harini Nagendra
Prof. Dr. Andrew Millington
Dr. Monika Kopecka
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.
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