Coastal areas are particularly sensitive because they are complex, and related land use conflicts are more intense than those in noncoastal areas. In addition to representing a unique encounter of natural and socioeconomic factors, coastal areas have become paradigms of progressive urbanisation and economic development. Our study of the infrastructural mega project of Patimban Seaport in Indonesia explores the factors driving land use changes and the subsequent land use conflicts emerging from large-scale land transformation in the course of seaport development and mega project governance.

The environment of the urban fringe is complex and frangible. With the acceleration of industrialization and urbanization, the urban fringe has become the primary space for urban expansion, and the intense human activities create a high risk of potentially toxic element (PTE) pollution in the soil. In this study, 138 surface soil samples were collected from a region undergoing rapid urbanization and construction—Weinan, China. Concentrations of As, Pb, Cr, Cu, and Ni (Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry, ICP-MS) and Hg (Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry, AFS) were measured.

Regional land use change and ecological security are important fields and have been popular issues in global change research in recent years. Regional habitat quality is also an important embodiment of the service function and health of ecosystems. Taking Shiyan City of Hubei Province as an example, the spatiotemporal differences in habitat quality in Shiyan City were evaluated using the habitat quality module of the InVEST model and GIS spatial analysis method based on DEM and land use data from 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020.

Since the introduction of the current legal planning system, Polish land policy has failed to manage the designation of developable land. The oversupply of developable land designated in land-use plans and resulting from various weaknesses of auxiliary planning permissions undermines the creation of compact urban settlements. The article argues that, theoretically, the Polish legal framework of developable land designation management conforms with its more effective European counterparts. What makes it not work properly are the detailed regulations and their interpretation.

The study aims to reveal the transition features of agricultural land use in the Groundnut Basin of Senegal from 2009 to 2018, especially the impact of urbanization on agricultural land and the viewpoint of farmland spatiotemporal evolution. Integrated data of time series MCD12Q1 land-use images of 2009, 2012, 2015, and 2018 were used to provide a land transition in agricultural and urban areas through the synergistic methodology. Socio-economic data was also used to serve as a basis for the argument.

In the context of ensuring national food security, high-intensity agricultural production and construction activities have aggravated the conflicts between agricultural and ecological spaces in ecologically fragile areas, which have become one of the most important factors hindering regional sustainable development. This study took Lin’an District, a typical hilly region of southeastern China, as an example.

A precise evaluation of soil quality (SQ) is important for sustainable land use planning. This study was conducted to assess soil quality using multivariate approaches. An assessment of SQ was carried out in an area of Dakhla Oasis using two methods of indicator selection, i.e., total data set (TDS) and minimum data set (MDS), and three soil quality indices (SQIs), i.e., additive quality index (AQI), weighted quality index (WQI), and Nemoro quality index (NQI). Fifty-five soil profiles were dug and samples were collected and analyzed.

One of the 34 themes of the spatial datasets of Directive 2007/2/EC INSPIRE is ‘land use’, rightly described independently of ‘land cover’. Laws in most countries, apart from the Netherlands, do not consider the electronic form of plans as a legally binding document. As far as the elaboration step and the adoption step are concerned, the main land use requirement is related to the datasets that describe existing land use at present and in the past. Surveys and case studies concern Poland and were carried out in two stages, I in 2011–2013 and II in 2017–2019.

Scientific functional zone planning is the key to achieving long-term development goals for cities. The rapid development of remote sensing technology allows for the identification of urban functional zones, which is important since they serve as basic spatial units for urban planning and functioning. The accuracy of three methods—kernel density estimation, term frequency-inverse document frequency, and deep learning—for detecting urban functional zones was investigated using the Gaode points of interest, high-resolution satellite images, and OpenStreetMap.

Cities nowadays are the most significant source of environmental degradation threatening local and global ecosystems. Interestingly, many ancient settlements present excellent lessons and inspiration for addressing our current urban predicaments, given their environmental stewardship. This research explores how the ecologically embedded settlement patterns, building configurations, urban agriculture and home gardening, and water conservation of the Maya-built environment can offer insights about mitigating contemporary urban sustainability challenges.

The government of Benin in 2013 decided upon a centralized land administration, with the purpose of recording the entire national territory in one land administration system to promote durable economic development by increasing legal certainty in real estate transactions. This is a major challenge, given that currently, of the estimated 5 million cadastral parcels, less than 60,000 parcels have a land title and are registered in the national land administration agency’s central database.

The Fit-For-Purpose Land Administration (FFPLA) approach uses flexible techniques under basic regulations, avoiding complicated systems and aiming to fulfill the objective of land tenure security for all. In addition, a land administration system should evolve, starting as a simple system in rural areas and gradually evolving into a more complex system in more populated areas where requirements and quality increase progressively. The system can develop to a precision system.