Geospatial analysis and visualisation can be used to gain knowledge about land use structure and its changes on different spatial scales, which in turn is key to unlock the potential for sustainable land use development. This editorial provides a frame to a set of papers of the topical collection “Innovative approaches, tools and visualization techniques for analyzing land use structures and dynamics of cities and regions”, which was initiated in conjunction with the 2017 International Land Use Symposium taken place in Dresden, Germany. It first introduces current, urging land use, development and management challenges. Further on, the editorial presents the individual contributions and reflects their affiliation to the themes “Mapping and Monitoring Approaches” and “Planning, Decision Support and Participation”. Although the objectives, methods and underlying data used in the papers of this topical collection greatly vary, as pieces of a puzzle they contribute to a better analysis and understanding of current and future land use structures and dynamics of cities and regions.