Transformation pathways towards sustainable urban development by the inclusion of peri-urban farmland in green infrastructure strategies

Abstract

Urbanization and agricultural land use are two of the main drivers of global changes with effects on ecosystem functions and human wellbeing. Green infrastructure is a new and promising approach in spatial planning contributing to sustainable urban development, but rarely considers spatial and functional potentials of utilizable agricultural land as an integral part. This doctoral thesis addresses this gap and investigates how peri-urban farmland can promote green infrastructure and sustainable urban development. The results contribute to the conceptual understanding of urban green infrastructures as a strategic spatial planning approach that incorporates inner-urban utilizable agricultural land and the agriculturally dominated landscape at the outer urban fringe. Four strategies are introduced for spatial planning with the contribution to a strategically planned multifunctional network. Finally, this thesis sheds light on the opportunities that arise from the integration of peri-urban farmland in the green infrastructure concept to support transformation towards a more sustainable urban development. This work concludes that the linkage of peri-urban farmland with the green infrastructure concept is a promising action field for the development of new pathways for urban transformation towards sustainable urban development. Along with these outcomes, attention is drawn to limitations that remain to be addressed by future research.