Landscape Spatial Analysis for Natural Capital Enhancement

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

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.

• ecosystem services
• landscape planning
• land use planning
• landscape approach
• natural capital
• GIS technologies