The journal Land (ISSN 2073-445X, SSCI) is currently running a Special Issue entitled "Landscape Architecture Education and Professional Practice and Its Future Challenges in Landscape Design, Planning, Conservation and Management".

Bruno Marques, Andreja Tutundžić, Emilia Weckman and Marina Cervera Alonso de Medina are serving as Guest Editors for this issue. We think you could make an excellent contribution based on your expertise.

The fundamental goal of scholarship in the field of landscape architecture is to enhance the practice of designing, planning, conserving and managing the land. Due to the inherently multifunctional nature of landscapes, both biophysical and cultural, many scholars and practitioners have addressed the importance of multi-, trans- and interdisciplinary approaches to landscape architecture education, research and practice. Such approaches have resulted in new skills, competences, methods, and processes to be articulated, and have led to professional organisations being more involved in accrediting and regulating educational programmes, advancing continuous professional development and training and introducing ethical and moral codes for professional practice. 

Despite major efforts in teaching and research activities that nurture the future of design professions, considerable challenges still confront efforts to reconcile the academic and professional facets. Demands of professional organisations in terms of landscape architectural standards, curriculum development and recognition procedures as well as the changing focus of design pedagogy faced by higher education providers are putting at risk the long-term outcomes of landscape architecture and planning and its fundamental role in promoting social and environmental justice.

This Special Issue invites papers that discuss and present perspectives from both academia and professional practice in landscape architecture which address the synergies between academic programmes and professional organisations. We aim for this Special Issue to critically look at existing system barriers and opportunities afforded by educational standards and assessment of landscape architecture programmes and to explore strategies required to promote a better collaboration between education institutions and professional bodies in terms of landscape design, planning, conservation and management.

For further reading, please follow the link to the Special Issue Website at:https://www.mdpi.com/journal/land/special_issues/Landscape_Architecture_Education

The submission deadline is 31 July 2020. You may send your manuscript now or up until the deadline. Submitted papers should not be under consideration for publication elsewhere. We also encourage authors to send a short abstract or tentative title to the Editorial Office in advance ([email protected]).

Land is fully open access. Open access (unlimited and free access by readers) increases publicity and promotes more frequent citations, as indicated by several studies. Open access is supported by the authors and their institutes. An Article Processing Charge (APC) of CHF 1000 currently applies to all accepted papers. For further details on the submission process, please see the instructions for authors at the journal website. Please note that for papers submitted after 30 June 2020 an APC of 1400 CHF applies.