Critical Review of Advances in Participatory Spatial Modelling for Sustainable Land-Use Management

Participatory spatial modelling (PSM) is a relevant framework for sustainable land-use management. PSM involves multiple stakeholders and local knowledge to collectively construct a social learning process, which results in a collective model of the phenomena or issues being addressed. Based on a systematic literature review of 66 publications produced between 2014 and 2024, guided by PRISMA protocols, this study examines the trends in PSM research, focusing on spatial quantitative methodologies, stakeholder involvement, and the effects of PSM on decision-making and land-use management. The review shows that nearly 90% of the publications integrated PSM into land-use management and planning processes, particularly through the definition of sustainable land-use management and planning measures and the anticipation through scenario co-creation. However, only 9.09% of the publications adopted a more comprehensive integration strategy involving multiple land-use management and planning procedures. The findings reveal that more complex and collaborative approaches to integrating PSM into land-use management and planning tend to face substantial structural barriers, including the complexity of stakeholder involvement, methodological constraints, and scalability limitations. We argue that efforts to promote territorial governance should neither overlook these barriers nor simplify PSM exercises. Rather, they should recognise that participatory and informed governance depends on the capacity to institutionalise PSM as a tool that supports collaborative spatial decision-making and strengthens land-use management towards territorial resilience. The study also identifies current trends in the application of spatial quantitative modelling methods and techniques and proposes a future research agenda to address the challenges identified.