# Topics and Trends in Most Cited Land Use and Ecosystem Services Papers, Class of 2026

*Canonical URL: https://pri.pepkio.com/top-papers/land-use-and-ecosystem-services/2026*

## What topics and trends defined most-cited Land Use and Ecosystem Services research in the Class of 2026?

The Class of 2026 in Land Use and Ecosystem Services is dominated by remote sensing and urban heat island mitigation. While traditional urbanization studies have seen a decline, there is a marked shift toward advanced machine learning techniques, geospatial mapping, and thermal environment interventions.

## At a glance

| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Field | Land Use and Ecosystem Services |
| Cohort label | Class of 2026 (2024 publications) |
| Papers analyzed | 12,996 |
| Papers ranked | 20 |
| Top topics in ranked papers | Remote sensing, Urban heat island (UHI), Land surface temperature |
| Publication window | Jan 1, 2024 – Dec 31, 2024 |
| Eligibility | Research articles; reviews excluded |
| Citation window | 18 months post-publication |
| 18m citation range | 77–168 |
| Data source | OpenAlex · Retrieved September 2026 |
| License | CC BY 4.0 |

## Rankings

| Rank | Title | Authors | Corresponding authors | Affiliation | Journal | 18m citations | DOI |
| ---: | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---: | --- |
| 1 | GLC_FCS30D: the first global 30 m land-cover dynamics monitoring product with a fine classification system for the period from 1985 to 2022 generated using dense-time-series Landsat imagery and the continuous change-detection method | Xiao Zhang, Tingting Zhao, Xu Hong, Wendi Liu, Jinqing Wang, Xidong Chen, Liangyun Liu | Liangyun Liu | International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals, China | Earth system science data | 168 | 10.5194/essd-16-1353-2024 |
| 2 | Green spaces provide substantial but unequal urban cooling globally | Yuxiang Li, Jens-Christian Svenning, Weiqi Zhou, Kai Zhu, Jesse F Abrams, Timothy M Lenton, William J Ripple, Zhaowu Yu, Shuqing N Teng, Robert R Dunn, Chi Xu | Shuqing N. Teng, Robert R. Dunn, Chi Xu | Nanjing University, China | Nature Communications | 153 | 10.1038/s41467-024-51355-0 |
| 3 | Global trends and scenarios for terrestrial biodiversity and ecosystem services from 1900 to 2050 | Henrique M Pereira, Inês S Martins, Isabel M D Rosa, HyeJin Kim, Paul Leadley, Alexander Popp, Detlef P van Vuuren, George Hurtt, Luise Quoss, Almut Arneth, Daniele Baisero, Michel Bakkenes, Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer, Louise Chini, Moreno Di Marco, Simon Ferrier, Shinichiro Fujimori, Carlos A Guerra, Michael Harfoot, Thomas D Harwood, Tomoko Hasegawa, Vanessa Haverd, Petr Havlík, Stefanie Hellweg, Jelle P Hilbers, Samantha L L Hill, Akiko Hirata, Andrew J Hoskins, Florian Humpenöder, Jan H Janse, Walter Jetz, Justin A Johnson, Andreas Krause, David Leclère, Tetsuya Matsui, Johan R Meijer, Cory Merow, Michael Obersteiner, Haruka Ohashi, Adriana De Palma, Benjamin Poulter, Andy Purvis, Benjamin Quesada, Carlo Rondinini, Aafke M Schipper, Josef Settele, Richard Sharp, Elke Stehfest, Bernardo B N Strassburg, Kiyoshi Takahashi, Lauren Talluto, Wilfried Thuiller, Nicolas Titeux, Piero Visconti, Christopher Ware, Florian Wolf, Rob Alkemade | Henrique M. Pereira | German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Germany | Science | 150 | 10.1126/science.adn3441 |
| 4 | 3D-GloBFP: the first global three-dimensional building footprint dataset | Yangzi Che, Xuecao Li, Xiaoping Liu, Yuhao Wang, Weilin Liao, Xianwei Zheng, Xucai Zhang, Xiaocong Xu, Shi Qian, Jiajun Zhu, Honghui Zhang, Hua Yuan, Yongjiu Dai | Xiaoping Liu | China Agricultural University, China | Earth system science data | 146 | 10.5194/essd-16-5357-2024 |
| 5 | Deep learning for urban land use category classification: A review and experimental assessment | Ziming Li, Бин Чэн, Shengbiao Wu, Mo Su, Jing M. Chen, Bing Xu | Бин Чэн, Bing Xu | The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong | Remote Sensing of Environment | 128 | 10.1016/j.rse.2024.114290 |
| 6 | Optimizing urban green space configurations for enhanced heat island mitigation: A geographically weighted machine learning approach | Yue Zhang, Jingtian Ge, Siyuan Wang, Cong Dong | Cong Dong | Beijing Forestry University, China | Sustainable Cities and Society | 102 | 10.1016/j.scs.2024.106087 |
| 7 | Effects of patterns of urban green-blue landscape on carbon sequestration using XGBoost-SHAP model | Yangyang Yuan, Wei Guo, Siqi Tang, Jiaqi Zhang | Yangyang Yuan | Jiangsu Provincial Urban and Rural Digital Technology Engineering Center, China | Journal of Cleaner Production | 100 | 10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.143640 |
| 8 | Mitigating urban heat island through neighboring rural land cover | Miao Yang, Chen Ren, Haorui Wang, Junqi Wang, Zhuangbo Feng, Prashant Kumar, Fariborz Haghighat, Shi‐Jie Cao | Shi‐Jie Cao | Southeast University, China | Nature Cities | 99 | 10.1038/s44284-024-00091-z |
| 9 | Revealing the impact of urban spatial morphology on land surface temperature in plain and plateau cities using explainable machine learning | Zi Wang, Rui Zhou, Jin Rui, Yang Yu | Yang Yu | Southwest Jiaotong University, China | Sustainable Cities and Society | 99 | 10.1016/j.scs.2024.106046 |
| 10 | Evaluating Eco-Efficiency as a metric for sustainable urban Growth: A comparative study of provincial capital cities in China | T. Xu, Muhammad Umair, Weijin Cheng, Yegana Hakimova, Gang Mang | T. Xu | Unknown Institution, Unknown | Ecological Indicators | 98 | 10.1016/j.ecolind.2024.112959 |
| 11 | Biodiversity loss reduces global terrestrial carbon storage | Sarah R Weiskopf, Forest Isbell, Maria Isabel Arce-Plata, Moreno Di Marco, Mike Harfoot, Justin Johnson, Susannah B Lerman, Brian W Miller, Toni Lyn Morelli, Akira S Mori, Ensheng Weng, Simon Ferrier | Sarah R. Weiskopf | U.S. Geological Survey, United States | Nature Communications | 95 | 10.1038/s41467-024-47872-7 |
| 12 | Vertical canopy structure dominates cooling and thermal comfort of urban pocket parks during hot summer days | Siqi Zhou, Zhaowu Yu, Weiqiang Ma, Xihan Yao, Jun-Qi Xiong, Wenjuan Ma, Shu-Yao Xiang, Yuan Qi, Ying-Ying Hao, Dong-Fan Xu, Benyao Wang, Bin Zhao | Zhaowu Yu, Bin Zhao | Fudan University, China | Landscape and Urban Planning | 91 | 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2024.105242 |
| 13 | Mixed effectiveness of global protected areas in resisting habitat loss | Guangdong Li, Chuanglin Fang, James E M Watson, Siao Sun, Wei Qi, Zhenbo Wang, Jianguo Liu | Chuanglin Fang, Jianguo Liu | Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China | Nature Communications | 89 | 10.1038/s41467-024-52693-9 |
| 14 | Carbon storage through China’s planted forest expansion | Kai Cheng, Haitao Yang, Shengli Tao, Yanjun Su, Hongcan Guan, Yu Ren, Tianyu Hu, Wenkai Li, Guangcai Xu, Mengxi Chen, Xiancheng Lu, Zekun Yang, Yanhong Tang, Keping Ma, Jingyun Fang, Qinghua Guo | Qinghua Guo | Peking University, China | Nature Communications | 88 | 10.1038/s41467-024-48546-0 |
| 15 | Machine Learning for Urban Heat Island (UHI) Analysis: Predicting Land Surface Temperature (LST) in Urban Environments | Ghazaleh Tanoori, Alì Soltani, Atoosa Modiri | Ghazaleh Tanoori | Islamic Azad University, Iran | Urban Climate | 85 | 10.1016/j.uclim.2024.101962 |
| 16 | Conflation of reforestation with restoration is widespread | Catherine L Parr, Mariska Te Beest, Nicola Stevens | Catherine L Parr | University of Liverpool, United Kingdom | Science | 84 | 10.1126/science.adj0899 |
| 17 | Multi-temporal image analysis of wetland dynamics using machine learning algorithms | Rana Waqar Aslam, Iram Naz, Hong Shu, Jianguo Yan, Abdul Quddoos, Aqil Tariq, J Brian Davis, Adel M Al-Saif, Walid Soufan | Rana Waqar Aslam | Wuhan University, China | Journal of Environmental Management | 83 | 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.123123 |
| 18 | Machine learning in modelling the urban thermal field variance index and assessing the impacts of urban land expansion on seasonal thermal environment | Maomao Zhang, Shukui Tan, Cheng Zhang, Enqing Chen | Maomao Zhang, Shukui Tan | Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China | Sustainable Cities and Society | 82 | 10.1016/j.scs.2024.105345 |
| 19 | Global urban structural growth shows a profound shift from spreading out to building up | Steve Frolking, Richa Mahtta, Tom Milliman, Thomas Esch, Karen C. Seto | Steve Frolking | University of New Hampshire, United States | Nature Cities | 80 | 10.1038/s44284-024-00100-1 |
| 20 | Monitoring landuse change in Uchhali and Khabeki wetland lakes, Pakistan using remote sensing data | Rana Waqar Aslam, Hong Shu, Aqil Tariq, Iram Naz, Muhammad Nasar Ahmad, Abdul Quddoos, Kanwal Javid, Farhan Mustafa, Hafsa Aeman | Rana Waqar Aslam | Wuhan University, China | Gondwana Research | 77 | 10.1016/j.gr.2023.12.015 |

## Topic trends

### What Topics Define the Class of 2026?

The Class of 2026 for Land Use and Ecosystem Services is heavily focused on geospatial analytics, with 'Remote sensing', 'Urban heat island (UHI)', and 'Land surface temperature' emerging as the most dominant themes. The prominent use of satellite imagery enables nuanced spatiotemporal analysis of environmental changes. This trend suggests a broader transition from theoretical models to large-scale, data-driven observations, giving researchers new tools to evaluate human impacts on delicate ecosystems.

*Leading research themes*

### How Did Topics Shift from the Class of 2025 to the Class of 2026?

Analysis of cohort shifts reveals a clear move toward applied mitigation and predictive models. 'Urban heat mitigation' and 'LST prediction' represent the most significant risers, highlighting an urgent focus on developing actionable interventions for global warming. Conversely, general themes like 'Urbanization' and basic 'Agricultural land conversion' have decreased in relative prominence. This indicates that the research field is advancing beyond simply documenting land use change toward exploring specific, technology-assisted sustainability and resilience strategies.

*How topics shifted year over year*

## Cite this ranking

```
Pepkio Research Index (PRI). Topics and Trends in Most Cited Land Use and Ecosystem Services Papers, Class of 2026. https://pri.pepkio.com/top-papers/land-use-and-ecosystem-services/2026. Accessed 2026-10-29.

Zheng Su, Tinsley Li, Thematic Shifts in Early-High-Impact Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics Research: A Bibliometric and Semantic Analysis. bioRxiv 2026.07.04.736459; doi: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.07.04.736459
```