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Strategies for Sustainable Urban Development and Urban-Rural Linkages

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Strategies for Sustainable Urban Development and

Urban-Rural Linkages

Online publication date: 2014-03-27

To cite this article: Nilsson, Kjell et al., Strategies for Sustainable Urban Development
and Urban-Rural Linkages, Research briefings, March 2014, European Journal of
Spatial Development.

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1
 Strategies for Sustainable Urban Development and
Urban-Rural Linkages
Kjell Nilsson et al

Authors
Kjell Nilsson1, Thomas Sick Nielsen2, Carmen Aalbers3, Simon Bell4, Baptiste Boitier5,
Jean Pierre Chery6, Christian Fertner 7, Miroslaw Groschowski8, Dagmar Haase9,
Wolfgang Loibl10, Stephan Pauleit 11, Marina Pintar 12, Annette Piorr13, Joe Ravetz14,
Mika Ristimäki15, Mark Rounsevell16, Ivan Tosics17, Judith Westerink18, Ingo Zasada19

Abstract
An important driving force behind urban expansion is the growth of the urban
population. But for Europe, this is not a sufficient explanation. The major trend is that
European cities have become much less compact. Since the mid-1950s European cities
have expanded on average by 78%, whereas the population has grown by only 33%. In
the PLUREL project - an integrated project within the EU’s 6th Research Framework
Programme - more than 100 researchers from 15 countries analysed the impacts of
urban land consumption at a pan-European level and, through six European and one
Chinese case studies, identified how land use conflicts and the pressure towards peri-
urban areas can be strategically managed in different development and regulatory
contexts. To summarise, the following strategies were identified as important steps
towards more sustainable urban-rural futures: (i) better coordination of transport, land
use and open space planning; (ii) urban containment and densification – development of
a green compact city; (iii) preservation of blue and green infrastructure; and (iv)
preservation of agricultural land and the promotion of local production. The need also
remains to strengthen governance at the regional level while at the pan-European level
there is clearly a need for more policy attention to be given to urban-rural linkages.

Keywords: peri-urbanisation, urban sprawl, urban growth management, regional

planning, compact city, green infrastructure

1
Nordregio; corresponding author: [email protected]
2
Department of Transport, Technical University of Denmark
3
Alterra, Wageningen UR, The Netherlands
4
OPENspace Research Centre, Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh
5
ERASME, Ecole Centrale Paris and University of Paris 1
6
CEMAGREF Agricultural and Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Montpellier
7
University of Copenhagen, Department of Geosciences and Nature Management
8
Polish Academy of Science, Warsaw
9
UFZ Helmholtz Zentrum für Umweltforschung, Leipzig
10
Austrian Institute of Technology, Vienna
11
Technische Universität München
12
Department of Agronomy, University of Ljubljana
13
Institute of Socio-Economics, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Müncheberg, Germany
14
Centre for Urban and Regional Ecology, University of Manchester
15
SYKE, Finnish Environment Institute, Helsinki
16
Geography and the Lived Environment Research Institute, University of Edinburgh
17
Metropolitan Research Institute, Bupapest
18
Alterra, Wageningen UR, The Netherlands
19
Institute of Socio-Economics, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Müncheberg, Germany

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Introduction
Peri-urbanisation may become the dominant 21st century challenge for regional and city
planning and design. The peri-urban is a zone of social and economic change and
restructuring, a zone of intensive and sometimes even chaotic development. It is not just
an in-between or edge space at the urban fringe; rather it is a new kind of hot-spot
multi-functional landscape for urban renewal and development.

This paper presents an outline of the policy agenda and research approaches to peri-
urbanisation, addressing a set of peri-urban development trajectories ranging from urban
shrinkage to controlled polycentric growth with some emphasis on urban sprawl. The
results refer to the PLUREL project, one of the largest recent research projects on peri-
urban issues carried out in recent years, which included more than 35 organisations with
over 100 actively involved researchers and stakeholders 20.

The paper begins by outlining the current dynamics, possible future scenarios and the
potential problems arising from peri-urban transition. Following this, urban
development strategies and policy responses are addressed, including integrated
planning approaches, compact cities, green and blue infrastructure, and agriculture/food
supply. A final section discusses these issues in the light of experiences from six
European and one Chinese case study region.

The dynamics of urban expansion and sprawl

One of the most discernible trends when observing the current dynamics of cities and
urban regions is urban sprawl. Urban sprawl can be defined as the low-density
expansion or ‘leapfrog development’ of large urban areas into the surrounding rural
landscape. Other definitions also include the fact that such development is often
accompanied by weak regional land use planning and control (e.g. EEA & JRC 2006,
Reckien & Karecha 2007). From 1990 to 2006 urban areas and associated infrastructure
throughout Europe increased their territory at the rate of approximately 1000 km2 per
year, equivalent to the entire area of the city of Berlin.

One important driving force behind urban expansion is, of course, population growth,
mainly caused by migration in the case of Europe. But this is only part of the
explanation. Since the mid-1950s European cities have expanded on average by 78%,
whereas the population has grown only by 33% (EEA & JRC 2006). A clear trend
towards urban expansion is not surprising in regions with a dense and growing
population such as the Randstad in the Netherlands, but even in regions with a declining
population, the urbanised built up area (at least until the economic crisis) continues to
grow, most notably in Spain, Portugal, Italy and eastern Germany or in central Europe,
in Poland and the Czech Republic (Haase et al. 2013a).
20
PLUREL (Peri-urban Land Use Relationships – Strategies and Sustainability Assessment Tools for Urban-Rural Linkages) is an
Integrated Project funded within the 6th Research Framework Programme of the European Union (EC FP6 036921). During its
lifetime, 36 partners from 14 European countries and China have participated in the project. The project began in 2007 and
terminated in March 2011. For further details, see www.plurel.net

3
Figure 1. Urban expansion on the edges of existing agglomerations in the regions of Randstad
(above) and Leipzig-Halle (below). Source: Corine Land Cover Databases 1990 and
2000.

4
The city region of Leipzig-Halle in eastern Germany is a good example of a region that
suffers from the problems of both a shrinking core city and urban sprawl into the peri-
urban (Figure 1; Bauer et al. 2013). A similar trend – that urban areas expand
approximately two times faster than the population – can also be observed in both the
United States and China (Figure 2). Increasing economic welfare and living standards,
together with smaller household sizes but increasing household numbers, are important
drivers behind this development.

Figure 2. Growth rates for urban land use, population and GDP in the EU, the United States and
China. Sources: Zhu et. al 2004; Ministry of Land and Resources P.R.C. 2007; U.S.
Department of Agriculture, 2003; European Environment Agency 2005; and United
Nations databases, 2009, accessed at http://data.un.org/.

How might the future develop? In the PLUREL project, four plausible scenarios for the
future development of urban areas in Europe were created, based on the global scenarios
of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), as presented in the “Special
Report on Emissions Scenarios” (Nakicenovic & Swart 2000, Ravetz & Rounsevell
2008). These PLUREL scenarios were defined in line with two conceptual axes: (i) an
axis plotting global and regional versus local dynamics, and (ii) an axis plotting a focus
on public, social and environmental values versus private enterprise/economic values
(Figure 3). The scenarios were used as the basis for subsequent ‘top-down’ modelling
work at a pan-European level on economic, demographic, environmental and land use
changes, and as a starting point for the exploration of regional ‘bottom-up’ scenarios
within each case study.

5
Figure 3. PLUREL scenario framework and images (Ravetz & Rounsevell 2008).

A1 “Hypertech” describes a future world of rapid economic growth, the rapid spread of
new technologies and declining energy prices.

A2 “Self-reliance” describes a ruralised world, economic development is primarily

regionally-oriented, and per capita economic growth and technological change are
fragmented and slow.

B1 “Peak oil” describes a future resilient society of environmental and social

consciousness – a global approach to sustainable development, and a dramatic increase
in fossil fuel energy prices.

B2 “Fragmentation” describes a world of slow economic growth and a divided society

in terms of age, ethnicity and increased international distrust.

Based on the assumption that the different demographic, economic, technological and
environmental trends entail consequences for growth dynamics and the way growth
occurs spatially, the scenarios show substantial variations in urban development. The
Hypertech scenario is likely to see small towns in polycentric urban regions becoming
even more popular and it may lead to the increased peri-urbanisation of rural areas,
while in Peak Oil; most people attempt to return to larger towns and cities since high
transport costs will limit commuting distances. In Self-Reliance huge sums are spent on
adaptation to climate change and people gravitate towards living in small, self-
supporting communities, while in Fragmentation cities become more dispersed and
segregated as younger migrants inhabit city centres while the older natives escape to the

6
outskirts and to enclaves outside the city. Regardless of which future scenario we
explore however, urban expansion will, according to the model simulations, continue at
a rate of 0.4 – 0.7% per year, which is more than 10 times higher than the development
of any other comparable type of land use, such as agriculture and forestry (Figure 4;
Boitier et al. 2008).

European Built-up area

0.75%

0.70%

0.65%
Annual growth rate (%)

0.60%

0.55%

0.50%

0.45%

0.40%

0.35%

0.30%
08

09

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25
20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20
A1 - "Hyper tech" A2 - "Extreme water" B1 - "Peak oil" B2 - "Fragmentation"
Source: NEMESIS

Figure 4. Development of built-up areas based on the four PLUREL scenarios. The figures are
calculated from the NEMESIS econometric model developed by the Research
Laboratory ERASME in Paris (Boitier et al. 2008).

The pattern of urban growth in Europe was assessed by applying a ‘regional urban
growth model’ (RUG) allocating the urbanisation pressures to every 1 km grid cell in
Europe based on the method utilised by Reginster & Rounsevell (2006). The model
links the proportion of artificial surfaces to the population and gross domestic product
per capita, urban type and country. Most of the development projected by this model
will take place in peri-urban areas; high density peri-urban areas are defined as
“discontinuous built development” areas with an average population density of at least
75 persons per km2 and local centres larger than 10,000 inhabitants, while low density
peri-urban areas are adjacent to high density peri-urban areas and show an average
population density of at least 40 persons per km2 (Loibl & Köstl 2008, Zasada et al.
2013). Such areas are growing four times faster than urban areas, and at a rate which
would double their total area of 48,000 km2 in 30-50 years (Piorr et al. 2011). The
highest share of peri-urban areas in Europe can be found inside the ‘pentagon’
delimiting the area between London – Paris – Hamburg – Munich – Milan, with the
highest concentrations in Greater London and the Benelux countries, but also outside
the pentagon, for instance in large parts of Poland and in the Copenhagen region (Figure
5).

7
Figure 5. Peri-urbanisation in Europe. Share of artificial surface per region (Piorr et al. 2011).

8
The impacts of urban sprawl
The rapid expansion of urban land use has many impacts. In the EC document
“Towards a strategy for the urban environment” (CEC 2004) urban sprawl is recognised
as the most urgent of the current urban planning and design issues. The EU project
SCATTER (2004) divided the effects of urban sprawl into five groups, namely (i)
public and private capital and operating costs, (ii) transportation and travel costs, (iii)
land/natural habitat preservation, (iv) quality of life, and (v) social issues. Sieverts
(2003) identifies three main shortcomings of the peri-urban or Zwischenstadt areas
namely that they are inefficient in transportation terms, short on aesthetic appeal, and
fragmented in political and administrative terms. Nuissl et al. (2009) argue that urban
land consumption is usually detrimental to the environment in various ways. Its impact
reduces the ability of nature to fulfil human requirements and thus impairs the provision
of ecosystem services.

As part of PLUREL and for the whole of Europe on NUTS2/3 level, future land use
changes as identified by the RUG model were simulated with regression models for
different indicators for agricultural production, habitats and ecological diversity, and
recreation – so called response functions (Zasada et al. 2010). The PLUREL project
identified the most important negative impacts as:

• Consumption of land, loss of highly productive agricultural land

• Destruction of biotopes and habitats with fragmentation of landscape
structure and decline of ecosystem services
• Less open space, longer distances to attractive recreational areas
• Increased dependency on private car use, traffic congestion, longer
commuting times and distances, climate change emissions, noise and air
pollution

The results indicate that the consumption of agricultural land will continue in all parts
of Europe (Figure 6). In large parts of Scandinavia, the UK, Central Europe, and the
Mediterranean coastal areas, but also in parts of Romania, more than 5% of the current
agricultural area will be converted to sealed surfaces (Piorr et al. 2011).

Amongst the areas of major agricultural importance, the Netherlands, Belgium and the
Mediterranean coast of France are likely to suffer the greatest loss of agricultural land,
while in northern Germany, Poland and Hungary the degree of land consumption occurs
in a more scattered pattern. In addition, the high productivity soils connected with
intensive use and larger farm structure will be affected as well as areas with lower
economic performance and a high proportion of part-time farming (Piorr et al. 2011).

9
Figure 6. Consumption of agricultural land in Europe 2000-2025 (N.B. in northern Scandinavia
the loss of agricultural land is mainly caused by afforestation and not peri-
urbanisation). Source: Zasada, Piorr, Berges (ZALF) 2010

Effective Mesh Size is an indicator that quantifies landscape continuity, indicating the
probability of two organisms finding each other in a landscape fragmented by
infrastructure and human settlements (Figure 7; Jaeger 2000). Landscape fragmentation
is likely to be concentrated in central Western Europe, where only small patches of open
landscapes remain (Zasada et al. 2010). With increasing wealth, changing lifestyle and
consumption patterns, urban growth is likely to continue, especially in the convergence
regions of Southern and Central Eastern Europe and in the Iberian Peninsula. However,
the full consequences of the economic crisis upon Europe’s economic geography and
urban growth patterns still remain to be seen, such that some of these trends may not
occur exactly as suggested by the models due to slower rates of change.

10
Figure 7. Landscape fragmentation in Europe 2000-2025. Source: Zasada, Piorr, Berges (ZALF)
2010

A similar pattern of decline has been projected for the Green Background Index (GBI),
representing the availability of ecologically sensitive areas such as pasture and other
semi-natural biotopes, agricultural mosaics, forests, wetlands and inland waters, which
are valuable as habitats and for outdoor recreation (Figure 8; Zasada et al. 2010). Here
the peri-urban areas of metropolitan regions, like London and Warsaw, but also
intensive agricultural regions, such as the Paris basin or parts of northern Germany and
Denmark face serious reductions in terms of the GBI. This could have serious
implications for species abundance and biodiversity as well as for people’s health and
well-being, since society today is faced with the increasing incidence of various forms
of poor health related to modern lifestyles. Natural outdoors and green space such as
forests, parks, trees and gardens provide opportunities to enhance public health (Nilsson
et al. 2011). When more people have to travel longer distances between their homes and
green areas for outdoor recreation and exercise, the recreational use of these areas will
decrease, which may have a critical effect on people’s health and well-being. The
availability of green areas for recreation also depends on their ownership and on the
ease of accessibility, which is expected to be reduced in peri-urban areas.

11
Figure 8. Recreational capacity in Europe 2000-2025. Source: Zasada, Piorr, Berges (ZALF)
2010

The ultimate goal of the transportation system is good general accessibility – to land
uses, services, goods, people, workplaces, all distributed in a multifunctional landscape.
The highest levels of accessibility and thus little travel time are usually achieved in
densely built areas where workplaces, shops, services and activity centres are in close
proximity and the transportation infrastructure (road network, public transport) is most
developed. Urban sprawl and low-density peri-urbanisation leads to longer commuting
distances, to less accessibility by public transport requiring more use of private cars,
which tends to exclude poor and car-less people, as well as promoting less healthy
lifestyles and increasing land consumption (Frumkin et al. 2004, Helminen et al. 2009).
One should also expect higher emissions of particulate matter and CO2, while NOX
emissions from road transport are expected to decline despite an increase in traffic, due
to an increased take up of catalytic converters (Loibl et al. 2010). Despite lower
emissions per vehicle, the impact of traffic congestion may generate additional costs
due to the time and fuel wasted (Levy et al. 2010). Further, transport-related noise has a
highly negative impact on human health in both core cities and peri-urban areas.

Peri-urbanisation does however also have some positive effects. One of the main
reasons, especially for young families, for moving from urban to peri-urban areas is the
availability of (semi)detached houses with a private garden, fresh air, clean water, green
surroundings and a safe environment for children to grow up (Zasada et al. 2011). The

12
development of fast and affordable communication technologies provides a ubiquitous
environment for long distance working, virtually connected with the employing
companies located in urban cores. With improved public transport systems people tend
to accept longer distances between the home and the workplace.

All these aspects plus decreasing real estate prices combined with the growing distance
to urban cores allow – depending on the preferred lifestyle – families to live in detached
houses in a green environment. Life in peri-urban and rural communities provides the
inhabitants with further opportunities for more environmentally friendly lifestyles, e.g.
by growing vegetables, buying meat from local farmers, composting organic wastes,
etc. At the same time newcomers can bring new spirit, youth and liveliness to declining
villages. By adapting to demands for healthy food, recreational services and attractive
landscapes, agriculture can take advantage of its peri-urban location to increase its
competitiveness (Zasada 2011).

Strategies for growth management

Development in peri-urban areas causes conflicts between urban, agricultural and
nature-based values. It also challenges the distinctions between urban and rural areas as
they are usually applied in policy and regulatory terms. The six European and one
Chinese PLUREL case study regions represent excellent showcase examples of how
these conflicts and the pressures in respect of peri-urban areas can be strategically
managed in different development and regulatory contexts (Nilsson et al. 2013).

The six European case studies reflect the variability of the geographic, economic and
social conditions prevailing in Europe but are also characterised by having different
cultures of governance. Population trends differ markedly in the case study regions,
ranging from growing monocentric or polycentric areas (e.g. Warsaw and Haaglanden)
to regions with ongoing population decline, resulting in different rural-urban
development patterns (Leipzig). They include, in economic terms, strongly performing
regions (Haaglanden and Montpellier), regions characterised by economic regeneration
(Manchester and Leipzig) and those characterised by a transition economy (Warsaw and
Koper). Geographically, they cover transects from west to east for central (Manchester –
Haaglanden – Leipzig – Warsaw) and southern Europe (Montpellier – Koper). Finally, a
Chinese reference study (Hangzhou) was chosen in order to explore the relevance of the
results to the very rapidly urbanising areas in Asia.

In the PLUREL project the assessment of growth patterns at the European level was
supplemented by more detailed modelling at the case study level developed in
cooperation with partners from the regions involved. The modelling approach at the
case study level involves an adaption of the general scenarios to the context of the
individual case study region where important and plausible aspects of the future as well
as planning responses within the scenario storylines were elaborated in dialogue
between researchers, local stakeholders and planners. The modelling was carried out

13
with MOLAND, a cellular automata model which simulates urban development as a
growth process, where the location of each grid cell, the suitability of the land and
zoning regulations, as well as the status of neighbouring cells determine the probability
of land use change. Regional storylines were elaborated for modelling scenarios of land
use change in the case study regions up to 2025.

The assessment of sustainability relies on a wide set of sustainability indicators as well

as a detailed response function approach based e.g. on changes in land use along the
rural-urban continuum (Haase et al. 2013b). The consequences of peri-urbanisation can
only be fully explored and/or understood in cooperation with practitioners and
stakeholders from the urban regions who can compare sustainability indicators with
desired outcomes and subsequently revise their strategies to aim for desired outcomes in
a future that is uncertain but may be approached by means of assessing the scenarios.

The following sub-sections present examples of possible strategies for managing peri-
urban development as identified in the case study regions. The strategies were studied
based on a joint analytical and assessment approach of governance and spatial planning
in the regions, including the described scenario (annex 1; Aalbers & Van Dijk 2008).
The following four main land use issues were used as criteria for the assessment of the
strategies:

• to reduce the pressure on housing in urban fringe;

• to strengthen agriculture in the urban fringe;
• to sustainably integrate tourism and recreation with regional development;
• to preserve high value nature areas in the urban fringe.

1. Territorial cohesion
The Regional Structure Plan of the Hague Region and the Scheme of Territorial
Coherence of Montpellier Agglomération are examples of modern advanced strategies
for the better coordination of transport and land use planning. The Regional Structure
Plan of the Hague Region presents the region’s main strategies in terms of strengthening
the relationship between spatial planning and traffic/transportation, coordinating
sectoral ambitions and goals and forming the basis for long-term politically endorsed
agreements between the participating municipalities (Westerink & Aalbers 2013). In the
Scheme of Territorial Coherence of Montpellier Agglomeration (SCOT: Schéma de
Cohérence Territoriale), which concerns a highly attractive region, there is clearly a
level of political willingness to develop the region through a sustainable dispersion of
green open landscape and urban development based on quality of life and attractiveness
measures as well as on the protection of agriculture and green space in the urban fringe
(Buyck et al. 2008).

A key issue here is that urban regions are usually split up into many local municipalities
with a certain degree of planning autonomy, while integrated territorial policy

14
approaches above the local level are required to steer urban development in the interests
of the wider region. In most European countries however the formal governmental
power and the ability to control and coordinate the entire urban region, with respect to
spatial development, remains limited.

Good governance, i.e. the sphere of public debate, partnerships, interaction and dialogue
between citizens, organisations and local governments, is a precondition for achieving
sustainable development (Evans et al. 2005). As examples of successful governance
attempts to set an overall strategy for protecting agriculture and green space in the urban
fringe the Regional Structure Plan of the Hague Region and the Scheme of Territorial
Cohesion of Montpellier Agglomération have already been mentioned. In contrast to
these schemes the situation in Warsaw is characterised by intense pressure on high-
value nature and agricultural areas due to high economic and population growth rates
and uncontrolled peri-urbanisation both in the area directly surrounding the city
(Warsaw Metropolitan Area) and in the wider Mazovian region. The attempts by the
regional authorities to exercise a measure of control over this, as identified in existing
strategies and plans, has not yet provided a sufficient bases for sustainable development
to take hold. The policies are focused on specific problems, mainly of an economic
nature, with the local interests dimension taking precedence over overall coordination
and cooperation with neighbouring communities (Groschowski et al. 2013). It is not
only planning and environmental policies that are contributing to urban sprawl here,
financial and sectoral policies are also having a negative impact.

Coordination of the separate priorities of 72 independent municipalities in the Warsaw

Metropolitan Area is of course considerably more difficult than the 9 of the Hague
Region, but, on the other hand, the Hague Region is part of larger agglomerations in the
province of South Holland and the Randstad while Montpellier has succeeded, thanks to
the SCOT planning approach, in bringing together the ambitions of some 31
municipalities in a strategy designed to promote a more equally distributed
development.

2. Urban containment and densification – the development of a green compact city

Urban containment, managed through a distinct boundary zone between urban and rural
land use, is a common strategy for urban growth management and for attaining
sustainable development focusing on efficient land use and the preservation of rural
functions like ecosystem services. Strong planning legislation (government) as well as
an open dialogue with different stakeholder groups (governance) are key factors in the
success of such an approach. The Green Belt Policy of the UK and the Green Heart in
the Netherlands are both policies that have proven to be successful in quantitative terms,
but we can also find negative consequences as for instance can be observed in the
Greater Manchester Area (Ravetz 2008, Westerink et al. 2013). A certain proportion of
the development, which would have taken place in the Green Belt of Manchester, is
merely pushed further out, leapfrogging the belt itself, and leading to a greater impact

15
on the countryside and longer travel distances for commuters. This problem may
become more acute as people are increasingly prepared to accept longer commuting
distances witnessed by the growth in tele-working as noted previously (Ravetz 2008).

Smart urban densification, structured into a pattern of multifunctional neighbourhoods

is another common strategy for avoiding urban sprawl. The EC Thematic Strategy on
the Urban Environment (CEC 2006) recommends more compact settlements in addition
to better coordination between urban transport and land use planning. This has been
taken seriously by the Hague Region where the aim is that 80% of all urban
development should take place within the existing urban fabric. However, quality of life
in the city can be a limiting factor for urban densification. For example, densification at
the cost of reducing the area of parks and other public open spaces might be a good
strategy at the regional level but may have serious negative consequences at the local
level. Therefore, in the Regional Structure Plan of The Hague Region, multiple
functions and high quality public space, as well as integrated polycentric development,
e.g. limited sprawl in an organised way, are identified as useful strategies to maintain
quality of life in dense areas (Westerink & Aalbers 2013, Westerink et al. 2013).

The issue of urban density vs. green space is an example of the potential conflict
between climate change mitigation and adaptation concerns (Carter 2008). If increasing
density, in order to reduce energy by lowering travel demand and heating requirements,
leads to the loss of green space, one consequence will be the loss of a vital adaptation
resource. For example, an increasing number of heavy rainstorms could cause more
frequent problems with flooding, which presents a higher risk where there is insufficient
permeable open space areas providing water infiltration. Also, if average temperatures
change in the future the Urban Heat Island effect is likely to exacerbate more frequent
temperature extremes in urban environments. The results of model simulations for the
city of Manchester suggest that a 10% green space increase in residential areas would
compensate for even the worst case temperature scenario by 2080 (Gill et al. 2007).

A critical discussion of the view promoted by European Commission policy on urban

planning and sustainability is thus essential (Porter & De Roo 2007). To prevent
residents from leaving compact cities in search of better living environments in the
urban fringe new concepts have to be developed to make the compact city more
attractive. The concept of a green metropolis by the seaside in The Hague and a variety
of urban renewal and social regeneration projects in Leipzig are examples of such
ambitions. In Leipzig, due to outmigration and suburbanisation, there are a variety of
vacant buildings and brownfield sites available for use, so the urban core can be
described as perforated rather than compact. The main strategy is to counter
suburbanisation processes by the enhancement of the city and improving quality of life
in order to retain residents in the city centre (Sinn et al. 2008, Westerink et al. 2013).

16
3. Preservation of blue and green infrastructure
Another strategy for peri-urban development is to develop green and blue corridors
suitable for energy-saving means of transport such as walking and cycling, for
biodiversity and for human health and well-being. The Green Ring of Leipzig,
involving 13 municipalities in a spatial, environmental and recreational strategy (Bauer
et al. 2013), and the Red Rose Forest covering the 6 western districts of Greater
Manchester are examples of this approach. The Red Rose Forest, one of a national set of
community forests created in the early 1990s, forms, together with the adjacent Mersey
Forest and the Pennine Edge Forest, an extended network of community woodland,
often established on former mining spoil and landfill sites, where much of the previous
contamination and dereliction has been greened and made safe and usable (Ravetz &
Warhurst 2013).

Occasionally the peri-urban zone contains areas of specific natural value which, thanks
to their localisation, give the urban population easy access to areas of high natural
quality. One such example here is the Skocjanski Zatok Nature Reserve – the largest
brackish wetland in Slovenia in the urban fringe of Koper. The key attribute of the
nature reserve is its rich flora and fauna including a number of endangered species. The
area was severely damaged in the 1980s, when the local authorities planned to fill the
lagoon in order to develop the area as an industrial and commercial zone. In 1993, the
NGO BirdLife Slovenia initiated a public campaign to protect the area, and after five
years of persistent work the area was officially designated as a nature reserve by the
Slovenian government. BirdLife Slovenia has obtained a license to manage the area,
which is now open to the public enabling them to observe birds and other wildlife
(Pintar et al. 2008).

The Xixi Wetland area, situated northwest of the West Lake District in Hangzhou, used
to be a plain with a large blue network of ponds and rivers. The area, known for its
beauty and rich ecology, was dominated by farmland and fishing with only few
dispersed settlements. Despite the proximity to central Hangzhou hardly any
urbanisation took place before 1990, but in 1996 Jiangcun Village was incorporated in
the West Lake District of Hangzhou and a large-scale urbanisation process began. In
less than ten years, the area had become one of the largest residential districts in
Hangzhou, while the wetland area had decreased from 60 to 10 km2. At the same time,
the city authorities experienced growing demand for new recreational areas due to the
expansion of the city westwards. They reacted promptly and in November 2001 they
passed the planning programme for Xixi Wetland Cultural and Ecological Tourism Area
and in 2004 the Xixi Wetland Reserve Master Plan was approved. The long-term
importance of the Xixi National Wetland Park project for the restoration of natural areas
and as a tourist attraction in the Hangzhou region thus cannot be overstated. Conversely,
from a European governance perspective, it is almost inconceivable that an area of this

17
size – the core protection area has a size of 10.08 km2, would be restored in such a
radical way by removing entire settlements and in such a short time (Spiekermann et al.
2013).

4. Preservation of agricultural land and the promotion of local production

In the pre-industrial age shorter cycles existed in the flow of resources between towns
and the surrounding countryside. In a more sustainable future for urban-rural
relationships recycling and circular resource flows need to be re-established in water
and waste management, food and energy production and in the supply of raw materials
etc. Strategies will also be required to enable agriculture to cope with the peri-urban
conditions and to serve the demands of the nearby urban society (Zasada 2011). The
PLUREL case studies present examples of how this goal can be achieved by means of
various methods to support local food production. High land prices not only in the urban
but increasingly also in the peri-urban zone are however a major obstacle here.

The Koper strategy to protect the best agricultural soils appears to be the most advanced
sectoral strategy of all those studied. Historically, agriculture was one of the most
important activities in the Koper region; today however it has lost much of its economic
importance. A major problem contributing to the decline in the importance of
agriculture here is the pattern of small and increasingly poor land parcels and combined
with the ageing farmer population. Another threat is urban sprawl. However, analyses
show that good opportunities remain for the further development of agriculture in the
region, mostly in connection with tourism and recreation, but also in the provision of
food for local consumption. Therefore, spatial planning measure which include a new
approach to the classification of agricultural land are currently under development, an
approach which includes targeting soil characteristics, exposure rates to sun and
irrigation, creating opportunities to promote economically and environmentally sound
production, and isolation from pollution sources (Pintar et al. 2013).

Montpellier Agglomération also has an active policy for the protection of agricultural
land use in the urban fringe. Besides land use zoning, land price regulation and the
stimulation of shorter product chains from farmer to consumer, an agri-park has been
developed in the North Lez area. The agri-park concept relies on multifunctional land
use where recreational and other social functions are integrated with the agricultural
production process and farming is used as a cost-efficient way of protecting and
maintaining open spaces in the urban fringe (Jarrige et al. 2013).

Another ambitious local initiative was found in the market town of Todmorden, 20 km
north of Manchester. Here the aim was to make the town self-sufficient in food by 2018.
The initiative, named Incredible Edible Todmorden, has a true bottom-up perspective,
encouraging public and private bodies; small-scale gardening and agriculture are
stimulated through the supply of potential land, removing legal constraints, and
supporting local action (see http://incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk/ for details).

18
The need to make financial compensation available to farmers who provide ecosystem
services in peri-urban areas is seen as an important component of this approach. In The
Hague Region farmers are rewarded for improving the landscape, by providing so-
called “Green and Blue Services” (Westerink & Aalbers 2013). The Green Blue Service
strategy provides an alternative to land purchase by the government for the development
of natural and recreational areas, since the farmers combine food production with
improved biodiversity, landscape amenity and public footpaths on their land. The
strategy contributes not only to maintaining agriculture but also to biodiversity,
recreation and tourism. There is clearly interest here, both from farmers and the
authorities, to develop the model further as well as to maintain the green funds, but the
strategy needs complementary measures, such as land banking to make a real difference
in containing urban sprawl (Westerink & Aalbers 2013). The freezing of land use status
for 15 years combined with support to farming businesses as implemented in the
territorial coherence scheme supported by Montpellier Agglomération are good
examples of such land control measures.

Discussion and future perspectives

Batty (2008) argues that cities mainly grow from the bottom up, where economic and
transportation behaviours are the key elements, while spatial planning and urban design
play a sub-ordinate role. In the PLUREL case studies, we have seen several successful
bottom-up initiatives for the urban rural interface, e.g. the preservation of Skocjanski
Zatok Nature Reserve in Koper and the Incredible Edible movement in Todmorden. We
have also found a number of exemplary models for good governance such as the
Regional Structure Plan of The Hague Region and the Scheme of Territorial Coherence
of Montpellier Agglomération. These examples show the need for strong government in
the shape of legislation, the size of its jurisdiction area in relation to the size of the
urban agglomeration and an efficient spatial planning system. In this sense the regional
authority and the perspective of the rural-urban region are the most strategic levels, but
the need also remains for EU-level initiatives at the pan-European level, such as an
urban-rural development framework directive or a community initiative. In their
absence we can expect the gaps between different parts of Europe – north/south,
east/west, rich/poor and, last but not least, urban/rural – to grow even wider, making a
more sustainable and inclusive Europe ever harder to envisage.

The ability of the public authorities to resist the push by market actors to create ever
more urban sprawl depends on two things; the strength of either the administrative or
governance-based planning instruments and the governmental level at which land use
decisions are taken. The more decentralised the system and laissez-faire the policy, the
weaker is the steering potential in favour of the wider urban agglomeration. However,
land use change also depends on other kinds of dynamics such as economic and taxation
systems, transport, housing and other sectoral policies. A comparison of the case study
regions’ potential ability to control peri-urban development highlights the existence of

19
significant differences between them in this respect (Tosics & Gertheis 2010). The
Hague Region has the greatest potential to control urban development, if it were not for
its limited jurisdiction area in relation to the far bigger size of the functional urban
region, followed by Manchester and Montpellier, while city regions in former
Communist countries such as Warsaw and Koper have changed from a centralised
planning system during the Communist era to a more liberal regime where the market
has a much stronger role. We have also identified the need for an integration of spatial
planning and territorial cohesion policies with financial and taxation mechanisms,
which often create direct or indirect incentives for urban sprawl. To counterbalance this,
more tools should be given to the public sector to capture values more efficiently.

Table 1. Strength of the public sector to control urban development (Tosics & Gertheis 2010).

More recently however, the tendency has been for power to flow in the opposite
direction - towards more decentralised growth management and deregulation. In
countries such as France, the Netherlands and the UK the regional level has been
weakened when it comes to control of spatial development. In all six European case
studies, the urban area increased from 2000 to 2006 - even in Leipzig-Halle, which
during this period experienced a considerable decline in its population, although the
consumption of urban land per new inhabitant was very different. Manchester and
Montpellier became denser, while the Hague Region, Warsaw, Leipzig and Koper used
more urban land per inhabitant in 2006 than in 2000. Remarkably, the Hague Region,
despite being estimated to have the greatest potential to control urban growth,
experienced the second largest additional urban area per new inhabitant, 786 square
metres, which was exceeded only by Warsaw with 904 square metres (Fertner 2012). In
2000, The Hague Region had the lowest urban area per inhabitant of the regions

20
compared, though the large planned urban expansions of The Hague were realised
during this period.

Better balanced, sustainably developed urban growth and shrinkage requires more
policy attention be given to urban-rural linkages at the regional level, although there is
also a clear need here for a new agenda in respect of EU policies and funds linked to
spatial development. When it comes to policy-making, the time has come to challenge
the historic distinction between urban and rural issues. Instead, what is required is a
more holistic, territorially-oriented perspective designed to shape future EU agricultural
and structural policies. Integrated urban-rural development should be accepted as a
general requirement and made a condition for any EU support from the Structural and
Cohesion Funds or indeed from the Common Agricultural Policy.

Research has an important role to play in supporting sustainable urban-rural

relationships. In the context of the current research effort a number of important
knowledge gaps have been identified. First of all, the type and the effects of the various
decision-making mechanisms currently in use need more attention. Uncertainty clearly
remains as to how effective different kinds of steering mechanisms, e.g. planning
legislation, taxation rules, housing policies, multi-level governance etc., are when it
comes to land use management and land use change. Secondly, our knowledge in
respect of the efficiency of different transport systems in relation to the shape and
morphology of urban structures – compact or dispersed, mono- or polycentric –
remains, at best, inconclusive. Thirdly, the vision of the Green Compact City needs the
support of a better knowledge base when it comes to achieving a better balance between
urban densification and the preservation of green infrastructure at various scale levels.
Forestry and agriculture will have a new and important role to play in the future
urbanised society. Research should therefore generate knowledge that will improve the
planning and management of natural and planted forests as well as how better to
integrate local food production into urban settings. And finally, ecosystem functions and
services provided by the green and blue infrastructure, and their potential for adaptation
to climate change, is a topic that needs to be further developed. An important way to
bridge these knowledge gaps is to develop better methods in respect of regional
landscape planning which integrate scales and disciplines and bridge cultural
differences between communities, businesses, policy and science. PLUREL offers a rich
knowledge base to help bring these issues further, including experience of conducting
relevant research in collaboration with stakeholders, something which is necessary for
research to make an impact in terms of promoting sustainability (see www.plurel.net for
further information).

21
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 Annex 1. Overview of main strategies implemented by the case study regions

Leipzig Haaglanden Montpellier Manchester Warsaw Koper Hangzhou

1. Better Regional Schema de Warsaw Binjiang

coordination of Structure Plan Coherence Metropolitan Development –
transport and Territoriale of Area Spatial combined
land use - network Montpellier Development housing with an
planning governance Agglomeration Plan effective
transport
network

2. Urban A variety of Green Heart Density Green Belt

containment and “Innerstadt” Strategy - 80% Building Policy
densification - projects “infill policy” Strategy
green compact
cities

3. Nature Green Ring of Green and blue Green Skocjanski Xixi National
conservation Leipzig – services infrastructure – Zatok Nature Wetland Park
and Community Reserve
development of Saxon Green Forestry
a green and blue Corridors
infrastructure

4. Preservation Green and blue Agri-parks – Incredible Koper strategy

of agricultural services farming as a Edible - for the
land and local natural way to Todmorden protection of
production manage urban- agricultural land
rural limits

26

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