Journal of Land Use Science

The world is faced with multiple and overlapping crises, including the climate crises, the recent COVID-19 pandemic, and food supply disruptions and high rates of inflation following the Russian war on Ukraine. These crises challenge the livelihoods of urban and rural households around the world.

Individual land-use decisions are complex processes embedded in global and regional economic and environmental conditions and mediated by institutions. So far, we know little about how such crises affect land-use decisions and their underlying drivers.

Current crises profoundly affect households across the globe, this has been exemplified with ongoing research on the COVID-19 shock and extreme weather events triggered by the climate crises. These effects on households also impact on their land-use decision-making. Agriculture is a key driver of land-use and land-cover changes, and a main source of deforestation Especially in the tropics, where farmland is expanding into wetlands and forests, and where smallholders are active land-use decision-makers whose actions constantly modify the vegetation and land cover in their surroundings. It is thus crucial to understand how current crises impact on land-use decisions.

We welcome any submissions, that deal with the interlinkages between crises and land-use decision making. In particular, we welcome contributions that cover the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crises and extreme weather events, and food supply disruptions – or more historic insights into crises that allow us to understand the underlying drivers of how crises affect land-use decisions. Ideally, contributions cover both urban and rural areas from across the Globe, including examples from both the Global North and the Global South. Contributions may be predominantly conceptual or empirical or review the literature. We welcome research articles, debates paper, and registered reports.

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Kerstin Nolte is researcher at the Thuenen-Institute of Rural Economics and Adjunct Professor at the Leibniz University Hannover. Her research focuses on rural development, the socio-economics of land-use change and sustainable consumption with a regional focus on Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. In particular, she is interested in the intersection of crises and human decisions.

ORCiD; Webpage

 

Kacana Sipangule’s research focuses on economic development of rural poor households as well as on research transparency and integrity in Africa.

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Niels Wendt is a researcher at the Institute of Economic and Cultural Geography, Leibniz University Hannover. His research focuses on rural livelihoods as well as entrepreneurship. He is especially interested in the determinants of decision making when exposed to stressors and/or changing conditions.

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