Spatial land use conflicts (SLUCs) are a critical issue worldwide due to the scarcity of land resources and diversified human demand. Despite many time-series studies of SLUCs, comprehensive research on SLUCs and their driving factors over a long period remain limited. This study was conducted in the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration, Guangdong Province, China. We constructed a landscape ecological risk assessment model to calculate annual SLUC values and analyze their spatiotemporal distribution over 30 years.

Land degradation and desertification (LDD) has gained worldwide policy attention due to decline in land quality and the resultant economic burden accrued upon a vast population reliant on land-based natural capital. In India, the impacts are becoming apparent as 24 out of 29 states have been experiencing LDD since the early 2000s.

Land degradation is a major risk to the sustainability and functioning of socioecological systems (SES), especially in arid/semiarid regions. By understanding a system and its interlinkages, the socioecological approach offers an innovative way to explore degradation. This is achieved through a synergistic analytical approach to improve the ability of identifying and understanding systems, predicting their behaviour, and modifying them to achieve the desired effects.