Landscape—the interface of human-environment interactions—provides a unique lens for studying sustainability dynamics of complex adaptive human-environment systems. During the last decade, this field of research, known as landscape sustainability science (LSS), has been developing into a vibrant research program.

To give a timely introduction of ongoing progress and to inspire critical dialogues within the community, a special issue named as “Sustainability of human-environment systems through the lens of landscape” was organized and published on the flag Journal, Landscape Ecology. The selected 15 papers reflect some of the exciting developments in the theoretical perspectives, methodological toolkits, and applied studies of LSS.

The fifteen papers in this special issue represent a partial sample of the ongoing research progress of LSS. This special issue can hopefully inspire more diverse theoretical perspectives, more advanced methodological approaches, and much broader application scope for further developing LSS into a mature science useful for landscape scientists to contribute to sustainability transitions, said Dr. MAO Dehua, one of the guest editors from IGA.  

In June 3rd, 2019, the 1st Young Scholars Symposium on Sustainability Science with the theme “Geography, Landscape, and Sustainability” was successfully held in IGA, CAS. About 100 researchers from more than 20 institutes or universities attended this symposium.

Special issue link: https://link.springer.com/journal/10980/volumes-and-issues/35-11

Contact:

MAO Dehua

Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

E-mail: maodehua@iga.ac.cn