Dear Colleagues,

Unsustainable land use, such as the cultivation of marginal lands, over-grazing of grasslands, over-use of chemicals, and over-exploitation of groundwater, is recognized as the main cause of land degradation and ecosystem deterioration. To alleviate the adverse impacts of this, a series of agrotechnical measures, policies, and eco-rehabilitation programs have been adopted, and thus have promoted the sustainable transformation of land use during recent decades. Many studies have addressed this issue and identified their effects, particularly their contribution to ecological restoration and agricultural sustainability. However, there is still a need to characterize sustainable land use change and to further clarify their consequences in a wider context, including their impacts on food production and ecosystems services, by integrated analyses or modeling using long-term data series from field observation, remote sensing, and statistics, servicing the improvement and development of land use policies, and the refinement and adoption of sustainable land use to achieve ecological and food security.

This Special Issue on the topic of “Sustainable Land Use Change” invites new works that address the identification, dynamics and consequences of sustainable land use change. Specific subjects are focused on identifying the amplitude and rate of land use changes aimed to improve the ecological security and agricultural sustainability, and their effects on ecological restoration, soil and water conservation, ecosystems service, and net primary plant productivity, as well as their impacts on crop and animal production.

Prof. Dr. Changhe LU
Prof. Dr. Wenjiao Shi
Guest Editors

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• sustainable transformation of land use
• ecological protection policy
• conversion of marginal cropland and grazing land
• cropping system restructuring
• ecological/land restoration
• ecosystems service
• crop and animal production impact