FARMER DECISION-MAKING ON AGRI-ENVIRONMENTAL SCHEMES: AN AGENT-
BASED MODELLING APPROACH TO EVALUATE DIFFERENT POLICY DESIGNS

Meike Will¹ · Chunhui Li² · Nastasija Grujić³ · Jiaqi Ge² · Guy Ziv² · Birgit Müller¹

¹Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research · ²University of Leeds · ³BioSense Institute

Model-based analyses can effectively contribute to investigating leverage points for sustainability transformations in agriculture. They allow for a systematic assessment of policies under changing environmental, economic, or institutional conditions and can be used to evaluate the efficiency of different policy designs. For analyzing agricultural systems, agent-based modeling is particularly useful as it allows to represent behavior of individual farmers – the crucial actors at the landscape level.

We use this approach in the context of farmers' decision making on the adoption of agri-environmental schemes (AES). AES are voluntary programs offered as part of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy to provide incentives for environmentally friendly farming practices. However, farmers' interest in participation has remained lower than expected. Various studies across Europe highlight a broad range of economic, ecological and social factors that play a role in the decision to adopt AES. To systematically test the impact of different policy designs on the adoption rate among farmers and the resulting spatial allocation of AES, we designed an agent-based model where decisions of individual farmers on four selected schemes are explicitly included.

In the model, farmer behavior is empirically based on data from interviews conducted in five geographically and culturally diverse case studies across Europe. In particular, we consider the observed heterogeneity of farmers, for example in terms of which schemes are chosen based on fit with existing farming practices. In addition, we rely on the results of a discrete choice experiment to quantify farmers' preferences for specific features of AES contracts. Taking the Mulde River basin in Germany as an example, we use the agent-based model to critically evaluate agricultural policies and analyze how they should be designed to achieve the desired impact. These results will feed into biophysical analyses to quantify the environmental impacts of AES adoption. In addition, the insights should be transferred from specific case studies to other EU regions to provide stakeholders with an effective tool for assessing the impact of future policies.

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# Novel perspectives on traditional agricultural features, structures and practices promoting landscape sustainability

## Symposium organisers

Cristina Quintas Soriano (University of Almeria), María García-Martín (Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research), Mario Torralba (University of Kassel / University of Göttingen), Tobias Plieninger (University of Göttingen)

## Summary

This session will centre on local agricultural practices and structures that, despite their limited extension, have disproportionate importance in the promotion of landscape sustainability. Typically, these features and structures are associated with multifunctional agricultural landscapes and are supported by rich local-ecological knowledge. The context-specific nature of these agricultural features and practices makes them difficult for integration in planning policies, while the scholar literature is rather fragmented. As such, this session will welcome innovative approaches for mapping, valuing or assessing the importance of these practices and structures by applying biophysical, socio-cultural or inter- and transdisciplinary approaches.

## Description

Over long periods of time, the tight interactions between society and their surrounding agricultural landscapes have often resulted in a series of locally adapted structures and practices, which contributed to support local livelihoods in a sustainable way. Some examples of these landscape structures would be agricultural terraces, dry-stone walls, hedgerows, and irrigation channels. Some examples of practices would be tree haymaking and transhumance.

Typically, these landscape features are associated with multifunctional agricultural landscapes and are supported by rich local ecological knowledge. Despite their limited extension, they often have an important role in the conservation of biodiversity and for the promotion of environmental and socio-cultural values.

These practices and structures are particularly vulnerable to current drivers of change. Their disappearance, often associated with processes of land use abandonment or intensification, is accompanied with hard-to-reverse erosion of the values associated with these agricultural landscapes. The context-specific nature of these landscape features makes them difficult for integration in landscape planning policies, while their presence in scholar literature is rather fragmented. This poses serious challenges for their management and preservation. In this session, we will welcome contributions focused on mapping, evaluating and valuing these landscape structures and practices. Our interest ranges from place-based studies focused on a specific landscape to large-scale mapping assessments applying biophysical or socio-cultural approaches.

We will welcome studies that:

* Evaluate practices and/or structures that contribute to landscape sustainability focused on agroecosystems.

* Develop biophysical or socio-cultural approaches to value practices or structures.

* Use place-based case studies or large-scale assessments.

The aim of the session is to connect researchers working on similar topics but different landscapes; to promote the exchange of methods and approaches, and to identify ideas and strategies to promote these landscape structures and practices.
# LAND SHARING INITIATIVE – INTEGRATED APPROACH AND FRAMEWORK

Iztok Erjavec · Klemen Risto Bizjak

NGO

We will present integral approach which was developed by Trans4m movement and is addressing all themes of symposia and relevant issues in landscape ecology. There will be framework presentation of trans disciplinary tools and perspectives of this holistic approach based on our work on eco-social innovations through intergenerational cooperation for preservation and restoration of landscapes. This will provide landscape ecologists insight how to link past, present and future to face global challenges and how to develop their own integral approach appropriate to their field of interest and research. This model further serves to address imbalances within specific fields, such as research development, nature protection, enterprises and economics.

A key aspect will be a presentation of work on eco-social innovations, discussing an insight on how to develop research approaches for sustainable landscapes and societies of the future. The purpose is through preserving nature enabling new sustainable development opportunities for the inhabitants. Two overarching questions of our work are: is nature an obstacle or motor for new sustainable development opportunities in landscapes? and can we preserve nature and help inhabitants improve their economic and social status? A conclusion is that if we want to restore traditional cultural landscapes we need to reintroduce traditional agricultural practices! This implies also that preservation of knowledge of traditional multipurpose is needed, and as researchers we must be able to give this knowledge academic value and incorporate it in our research.

These eco-social innovations approach evolved from a basic idea to connect elderly farmers from rural areas with people from urban areas, that were facing economic and social challenges for cooperative food growing, sharing of harvest and resources. The concept has been named WISE – Work Integration Social Cooperative. A final key aspect of this approach is that consumers are converted into investors – through buying of products and services from WISE they invest into nature preservation and development of social enterprise sector for alleviation of social and environmental problems.

Ideas is that eco-social innovations can contribute to the achievement of a range of mutual benefits: preservation and restoration of traditional cultural landscapes; restoration of traditional multipurpose organic farming; cultivation of abandoned and derelict land; intergenerational transfer of knowledge; higher self-sufficiency with organic food; new business opportunities for development in rural areas; improvement of economic and social status of participants; reintegration of people facing social and economic challenges into society; learning new skills through work, food growing and marketing; reducing costs of society for nature protection and social contributions; empower participants for employment and management of cooperative.

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PROMOTING MULTI-STAKEHOLDER PARTICIPATORY CONSERVATION ON AGRICULTURAL HERITAGE LANDSCAPES: A CRITICAL REVIEW OF ACTION RESEARCH FROM SHEXIAN DRYAND STONE TERRACED SYSTEM

Tianyu Guo

University of Göttingen

Participatory approach is frequently used in landscape conservation practices. As for agricultural heritage landscapes, due to its farming characteristics, it is always a complicated and comprehensive topic to make a balance between livelihood needs and conservation practices. The concept Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems initiative have been carried out 20 years and it became a regular programme of FAO since 2015, a large amount of conservation actions has been implemented in the designation and proposed sites. However, there is a huge gap to review the actions taken place in one site to provide a systematic conservation strategy and promote the participatory method. The purpose of our study is to do a critical review about the participatory actions in Shexian Dryland Stone Terraced System and reveal the participatory mechanism under the context of multi-stakeholder conservation.

We employed a qualitative method by combining text analysis and narrative analysis. We collected action records, project reports, annual reports from local government and other written documents since 2015 from the participants. Then we ran first-turn text analysis to build action chronology and interview framework. Later we did online interviews with the key actors mainly about their motivation to participate, contribution, self-assessment and perspectives to the actions, and suggestions to the future action planning. Afterwards, we ran the narrative analysis with the second-turn text analysis to identify the role of different stakeholders into research team, local government, local association, local farmers and NGOs. We found (1) the participatory actions could be categorized into outside research investigation, community renaissance and capacity building of local people and local culture output three type, (2) how the stakeholders play their role in each type, and (3) the gap to implement effective actions for each type. We also found (1) the conservation and development of agricultural heritage systems as one optional top-down policy at county level, the final subject of implementation, has obvious limitation to motivate local government to put effort into, (2) the bottom-up actions as the main body to carry out the conservation practices still have a long way to motivate most local farmers to participate in, and (3) local knowledge conservation became a key discourse to initiate co-actions and it brought natural rationality to mobilize community members to keep farming. We discussed making a balance between top-down policy and bottom-up initiatives is the last mile to realize the maximum efficiency of current participatory action on the conservation of agricultural heritage landscape.
# ABANDONMENT AND INTENSIFICATION — CURRENT THREATS TO THE RELIC AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPE FEATURES AND STRUCTURES IN THE SUDETES MTS., SW POLAND

Agnieszka Latocha-Wites

University of Wrocław

The land use and land cover in the Sudetes Mountains has been substantially changed in the last 100 years due to diverse political and socio-economic factors. First, there was a trend of a long-term depopulation and abandonment of settlements and agricultural areas, followed by the secondary succession of vegetation. Recently, there is a new trend to develop new, mostly recreational, housing and tourist infrastructure. Additionally, the EU agri-environmental schemes – which Poland joined in 2004 – contribute to new transformations of land use as well. All these processes affect the historical structures and features of the traditional agricultural landscapes. There are numerous agricultural terraces, old field roads and hollow ways (road gullies), as well as many dry-stone walls and stone heaps which can still be identified in the landscape. Although they are relic features related to former agricultural land use, they represent a high value of the traditional, historic cultural landscape. However, these features and structures are usually not appreciated in the current planning and development policies and their protection or promotion is very weak, if any.

The study aims to present the spatial distribution of these relic landscape features and structures related to former agriculture in the depopulated areas, to present their morphometric characteristics and to discuss their state of preservation in the modern landscape. Furthermore, the current threats to these structures will be discussed, such as overgrowing, lack of accessibility due to dense forest cover, removal by people for various purposes, destruction due to new investments, etc. In the final part the reflections of the potential possibilities to protect and promote these features will be presented with potential recommendations for further landscape planning. The methods used in the research included: analysis of cartographic sources and orthophotomaps from different time periods, field surveys and morphometric analysis, and LiDAR data analysis.

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# ASSESSMENT OF HEROIC TERRACED LANDSCAPES IN AOSTA VALLEY (ITALY) USING A HOLISTIC APPROACH

Enrico Pomatto · Paola Gullino · Marco Devecchi · Federica Larcher

University of Turin

The “Art of dry-stone walling, knowledge and techniques” was recognized in 2018 in eight European Countries as UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage to be preserved. Terraced landscapes are often characterized by vineyards that are managed in different ways, strictly connected with sites’ characteristics and history. For these contexts it is recognized the attribute ‘heroic viticulture’ because their management requires a very big efforts, principally due to their poor attitude for the mechanization. This is the first reason of the abandonment processes that threaten their integrity. The loss of historical landscapes and the increasing of hydrogeological risks are the primary consequences of these dynamics. International scientific community is at the forefront of the terraced landscape’ study with the aim of their safeguard, also trough research projects that regard different contexts. It is the case of the project called InTerraced_net (EU Interreg funding, 2018), that involves nine cross-border territories between Switzerland and Italy, including the Aosta Valley (North-West Italy). It is about the littlest Italian Region, extending over 3260 km² where about 124,500 people are living in. Terraces are mainly used for vine growing.

The aim of the research was to assess Valle d’Aosta terraced landscapes using a holistic approach, involving researchers and professionals coming from different disciplines: agronomic, botanical, pedological and anthropological sciences. Three terraced sample areas, representative of different agriculture conditions in the region, were identified. Terraces’ construction types and landscape’s landmarks were studied. A field form was used for analysing land uses, agronomic aspects, construction types and state of conservation. Direct interviews with local farmers were performed. A bottom-up approach was also used administering to winegrowers an online questionnaire. Perceptive analyses were performed during different seasons with field inspections and with cartographic elaborations using QGIS 3.16.2 Hannover.

Results showed that in Aosta Valley there are two main terraces’ typologies: the first one, more common, is made by dry stone walls, very tall in the southern part of the region and short in the northern. While the medium part of the valley is characterized by ridge terraces. Also, the vine’s breeding techniques are influenced by the context: the low pergola, espalier and high pergola are present respectively in the northern, central and southern part of the Aosta Valley. Probably due to a favorable climate, in central and southern part of the valley there are some landscape dynamics related with the introduction of olive trees. It brings a landscape change but also obstructs the abandonment processes. The research proposed an innovative and multidisciplinary approach internationally replicable for terraced landscapes’ research, useful for future planning addresses.

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THE ROLE OF BIOCULTURAL VALUES AND PRACTICES IN LANDSCAPE
CONSERVATION AND LOCAL WELL-BEING

Cristina Quintas-Soriano¹ · Mario Torralba²,³ · María García-Martín⁴ · Tobias Plieninger²,³

¹University of Almería · ²University of Kassel · ³University of Göttingen · ⁴Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research

Every landscape on Earth is influenced to some degree by people, and in turn, societies and cultures are shaped by landscapes. Biocultural diversity is the notion that biological and cultural diversity are dependent on each other, and that biological diversity is managed, conserved, and created by different cultural groups. Agricultural landscapes are visibly shaped by human practices, and in these areas, the relationship between nature and culture runs deep, where everyday practices and traditions have coevolved with the environment over millennia. This is especially true in Mediterranean agricultural landscapes where the traditional management of the land has endured over millennia. However, these landscapes depend on human interventions and currently are threatened by their abandonment, driving by migration to more urban areas, intensification processes, or aging of the population, having a direct impact on the human well-being of local communities.

In this study, we explore biocultural practices that support human well-being in Las Hurdes, Spain. To this end, we carry out a face-to-face survey across the local population to evaluate biocultural practices and their linkages to human well-being and the nature contributions that supply to local communities. We discuss that traditional agricultural practices act as biocultural refugia in a world of decreasing local knowledge and that different biocultural values confer diversity and enhance social-ecological resilience in those mountain agroecosystems.

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CREATIVE PRACTICE METHODOLOGIES FOR UNDERSTANDING APICULTURAL PRACTICES IN DELTA LANDSCAPES

Maggie Roe¹ · Niki Black¹ · Cat Button¹ · Emilie Cremin²

¹Newcastle University · ²University of Glasgow

Relationships between bees, humans and landscapes can be traced back at least 10,000 years (Nayik et al., 2014). Socio-cultural practices linked to apiculture have evolved and are reflected in the forms and relationships embedded and evident in many landscapes including the customs and traditions related to honey-gathering. The most valuable service provided by bees is pollination which is vital for the sustenance of biodiversity and agricultural production (Oldroyd, Nanork, 2009). Changing economic demands, climate change and agricultural practices (e.g. use of pesticides and fertilisers) are increasingly impacting bee behaviour and survival, and therefore on the livelihoods of both bee-keepers and honey-gatherers.

Living Deltas is an interdisciplinary research hub led by Newcastle University which includes 55 co-investigators and 60 early career researchers focusing on the sustainability of contemporary delta livelihoods and landscapes. This paper reports on the development of a research approach based on an innovative collaboration with artists in the Ganges/Meghna delta region of the Sundarbans forest that spans the Bangladesh-India boundary. Through examining changes to traditional cultural practices associated with apiculture (bee keeping and honey gathering), and possible drivers of these changes, we are seeking to understand how this might impact on the sustainability of delta landscapes and their inhabitants. We are also interested in how artists can interpret and communicate the rituals, spiritual and belief practices and superstitions which characterise and indicate the intricate or immersive relationships between people, non-human species (including bees) and natural processes in these landscapes.

Artist-led collection and production of visual representations and co-creative workshops are key components of this work. The small, remote communities rely for their livelihoods on multiple agricultural and hunter-gather activities, taking advantage of the resources of multifunctional landscapes and apicultural practices play a significant role. Livelihoods are economically precarious and vulnerable to considerable dangers including extreme climate events and attack by species such as tigers and crocodiles.

The aim of the paper is to provide initial findings from the collaboration, explain the challenges encountered during this ongoing collaborative and creative process, and to reflect on the opportunities that such interdisciplinary working raises particularly addressing issues of ‘data’, academic cultures and the characteristics of creative practice for participatory working. We also reflect on how a focus on bees has provided considerable opportunities for interdisciplinary working across the Living Deltas Hub.

Nayik et al. (2014). *Honey: its history and religious significance: a review*. Universal Journal of Pharmacy, 03(01): 5-8.
Oldroyd B.P., Nanork P. (2008). *Conservation of Asian honey bees*. Apidologie, 40: 296-312.

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TRADITIONAL SYLVOPASTORAL SYSTEMS BETWEEN SUSTAINABILITY AND MULTIFUNCTIONALITY: THE SABANA DE MORRO IN EL SALVADOR AND THE PASTURES WITH CAROB TREES IN ITALY

Antonio Santoro¹ · Francesco Piras¹ · Ever Alexis Martinez Aguilar²

¹University of Florence · ²University of El Salvador

Traditional agro-silvo-pastoral systems represent multifunctional systems that can contribute to the preservation of both environmental and cultural values. Thanks to their multifunctional role, they can support small farmers, contribute to hydrogeological risk reduction, preservation of soil, agrobiodiversity, cultural landscapes and traditional knowledge, as well as being examples of mitigation and adaptation towards climate change and of sustainable rural development. The growing interest on their multifunctional role and the opportunities for the sustainable development of rural areas, have contributed to the establishment of a FAO programme called GIAHS (Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems), whose aim is not only the identification and preservation of agricultural systems of global importance, but also to apply dynamic conservation principles to promote sustainable development with direct and indirect benefits for local communities.

The research focused on two traditional silvopastoral systems in different continents, but with common features: sabana de morro in El Salvador and pastures with carob trees in Sicily, Italy. Both sites are characterized by traditional cattle breeding on wooded pastures and by a network of linear features (hedges or drystone walls) acting as property divisions and as ecological corridors. The study deeply analysed the landscape structure, with particular attention to land uses, scattered trees and linear features, through the creation of specific maps and the calculation of spatial indexes, in order to provide data for the preservation and valorisation of these systems as a whole, and to monitor changes over time. Results showed that linear features made of different materials but both resulting from local farmers' knowledge, can play a similar ecological and social function, acting as divisions between one pasture and another, as delimitations of property boundaries and creating important microhabitats and a network of ecological corridors. Moreover, both systems proved to be based on strong interactions between trees, cattle and farmers. Scattered trees on pastures provide fruits used to integrate the diet of grazing cattle and shade for the animals in hot climates, while cattle contribute by spreading the seeds that also take advantage of the manure. The result is the preservation of traditional practices and of ecological corridors, therefore of cultural landscapes that support local farmers' livelihood.

The preservation of cultural landscapes cannot be detached from a deep understanding of the multifunctional role of the various features, such as scattered trees, terraces, dry-stone walls, channels. The applied methodology, based on a detailed assessment of land uses and of punctual and linear features, allowed to identify peculiarities and vulnerabilities, in order to properly monitor, manage and plan the future of traditional agro-silvo-pastoral systems.

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INFLUENCE OF LANDSCAPE AGRICULTURAL FEATURES, FIELD STRUCTURE, AND FARM TOPOGRAPHY ON THE IMPORTANCE OF ECOLOGICAL FOCUS AREAS FOR FARMLAND SUSTAINABILITY

Viviana Alarcón Segura¹ · Stephanie Roilo¹ · Anne Paulus² · Michael Beckmann² · Anna Cord¹

¹Dresden University of Technology · ²Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research

Ecological Focus Areas (EFA) were introduced into the European Common Agricultural Policy in 2013 as greening measures to help improve the ecological conditions of agricultural land. Since their introduction, EFAs have been criticized for lacking regulations to ensure their allocation to ecologically relevant areas. Structured surveys suggest that farmers tend to decide where to designate EFA elements on their farms based on economic or administrative constraints rather than ecological considerations. While interview data can help to understand socio-economic drivers of EFA allocation, high-resolution spatially explicit data can reveal an additional set of factors influencing EFA decisions. For example, climate, topography, and farm structure may play a crucial role in limiting the options available for farmers to manage their land and must be considered when analyzing farmers' decision-making.

We combined spatially explicit field-level data on land use, environmental, and farm structural variables of the Mulde region (Saxony, Germany) from two consecutive years (2018 and 2019) to identify critical factors driving EFA allocation. We tested the hypothesis that (1) non-productive EFA, such as fallow land, field edges, or buffer strips, are allocated in less favorable fields (e.g., higher slopes, lower soil fertility), (2) productive EFA (i.e., legumes) are assigned to fields with average or favorable conditions for crop production, and (3) landscape features already present on the farm boundaries (e.g., field trees, wetlands, field borders, and stone walls) determine which type of EFA elements are chosen and their allocation.

We found that the percentage of landscape features on a farm played a crucial role in EFA allocation. Farms with a higher percentage of these elements tended to fulfill EFA requirements by allocating additional non-productive rather than productive EFA options. Field shape and size also influenced the allocation of productive and non-productive EFA in opposite ways. Productive EFAs were allocated more often on large and compact fields, while non-productive options and landscape features remained in smaller, linear-shaped fields that were less suitable for crop production. Fields with low soil fertility, low soil moisture, higher risk of erosion, and higher elevations were more frequently chosen for non-productive EFA options. Productive options were mostly allocated in fields with higher-quality soil conditions.

Our study shows that traditional agricultural features, farm topology, and structure (factors that humans do not easily modify) are crucial in determining the ecological success of green policies. We contribute to understanding how future agricultural policies can use spatial perspectives to improve ecological outcomes and demonstrate how the analysis of the current EFA allocation from a spatial perspective could help design outcome-oriented eco schemes for the forthcoming green policies.

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# Defining a safe operating space for the future development of European agricultural landscapes

## Symposium organisers

Felix Herzog (Agroscope), Sonja Kay (Agroscope), Florian Danzinger (University of Vienna), Peter Zander (Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research), Johannes Schuler (Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research), Thomas Wrbka (University of Vienna), Kalev Sepp (University of Tartu)

## Summary

European agricultural landscapes are changing, often with significant environmental costs for ecosystem services (ESs) and for biodiversity. To protect these and improve the adaptive capacity of the agro-ecological system to changing land use, region-specific ecological infrastructures need to be identified and (policy) instruments must be put in place to maintain them. The symposium seeks contributions on how a safe operating space for the future development of agricultural landscapes can be identified. This will include production perspectives, their ecological impacts, and barriers to implementing biodiversity and ESs protection policies.

## Description

The management of biodiversity and ecosystem services (ESs) in agricultural landscapes must take into account agricultural land use, landscape structures and relevant stakeholders. Agricultural activities affect the environment and continuously adapt to e.g. economic incentives, scientific and technological developments, socio-political frameworks, climate change, etc. The relative importance of those drivers varies regionally. Because maintaining biodiversity in agricultural landscapes is essential to sustaining their functionality and adaptive capacity, a landscape-scale view of the agricultural system is needed to safeguard ecological infrastructure, associated farmland biodiversity, and its functions (ESs) under current and future drivers.

To address those questions, the European research project SALBES (Scenarios for Agricultural Landscapes' Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) applies the planetary boundary framework to define a safe operating space. It is tested as a guideline for policy making to steer the development of agricultural landscapes, and as a theory and concept, based on integrated, stakeholder guided, evidence-based analyses. The approach is tested in four European case study areas. We hypothesize that the integration of three components is essential to safeguard the functionality of biodiversity and ESs in agricultural landscapes: The green landscape infrastructure, adaptive management, and multi-actor approaches.

Against this background, this session provides a platform for presenting similar approaches and other scenario building and modelling tools that tackle these issues at the landscape level. We invite presentations focussing on environmental policy making and management principles for agricultural landscapes.

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CO-DESIGNING ECOLOGICALLY AND ECONOMICALLY EFFICIENT MEASURES FOR
CONSERVING FARMLAND BIODIVERSITY AT LANDSCAPE LEVEL

Anna Cord<fnref n="1" /> · Lisanne Hölting<fnref n="1" /> · Jan Engler<fnref n="1" /> · Nina Hagemann<fnref n="1" /> · Björn Andres<fnref n="1" /> · Frank Wätzold² · Astrid Sturm² · Maria Lee Kernecker³ · Stefanie Bülow⁴ · Kerstin Emonds<fnref n="5" />

European agricultural landscapes are changing and farmland biodiversity is rapidly declining. In order to maintain biodiversity and the ecosystem services that depend on it, we need measures that efficiently promote biodiversity and increase landscape diversity and that are economically viable and accepted by the relevant stakeholders. The presentation will outline the conceptual design as well as first results of the transdisciplinary project ECO²SCAPE (Co-design of ecologically and economically efficient policy instruments and measures for conserving biodiversity and ecosystem services in cultural landscapes). The ECO²SCAPE research approach combines sociological, ecological and economic valuation concepts as well as political science analyses: factors influencing the societal valuation of biodiversity and ecosystem services are investigated using interviews, ethnographic methods and empirical sociological research; new techniques of eco-acoustic monitoring of farmland birds in combination with machine learning methods are tested and developed; models for estimating the ecological effects of conservation measures in farmland are further developed and linked with cost estimates to develop ecological-economic models at the landscape level; innovative payment approaches (especially results-based and cooperative payment models) are developed; policy instruments are analysed for their potential to integrate the developed measures.

The results are incorporated into recommendations for an innovative policy mix as well as spatially-
explicit ecological-economic optimisations, which are used, among other things, for the development
of a software-based planning tool for the local landscape management association. The study region
is part of the catchment area of the Vereinigte Mulde in northern Saxony (Germany). The region is
characterised by intensive but also diverse land use, contains designated biologically unique
protected areas and is representative of many cultural landscapes in Germany. The transferability
and relevance of the project results is investigated in three selected German biosphere reserves and
ensured by an external advisory board consisting of representatives from different scientific
disciplines and interest groups. Overall, the project aims to advance the latest knowledge on
effective biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes. This includes a landscape-level
approach, co-design, community involvement and acceptance, and financial and social incentives for
the implementation of conservation measures.

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<footnote n="1">¹Dresden University of Technology · ²Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg · ³Leibniz</footnote>

<footnote>Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research · ⁴Landscape Conservation Association Northwest Saxony e.V. ·</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵National Natural Landscapes e.V.</footnote>
AGRICULTURAL LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT FOR SPATIALLY EXPLICIT BIODIVERSITY
MODELLING

Noëlle Klein<sup>1,2</sup> · Felix Herzog<sup>1</sup> · Adrienne Grêt-Regamey<sup>2</sup> · Philippe Jeanneret<sup>1</sup> · Maarten van Strien<sup>2</sup> · Sonja Kay<sup>1</sup>
<sup>1</sup>Agroscope · <sup>2</sup>ETH Zürich

An increasing human population and food demand called for a more efficient agricultural production and intensified agricultural practices. Mechanised farming depends on larger fields and uniformity, leading to increased landscape homogeneity resulting in biodiversity loss. The halt of this loss has been postulated in international (Sustainable development goal 15) and national policy targets (biodiversity strategies) and is of major importance for the functioning of farmland ecosystems and provisioning of services. Thus, biodiversity-friendly management is promoted through European agricultural policies. A major restriction to these policies is the limited knowledge on their actual efficiency to foster biodiversity. Models can be useful tools to evaluate the impact of (agricultural) management and to predict long-term effects on biodiversity. While there is increasing knowledge on the effects of small-scale agricultural practices especially on particular species, it remains challenging to assess biodiversity as an entity. Functioning comprehensive indicators could be extremely useful for agricultural policies, but it remains difficult to apply them in a spatially explicit manner, especially for mobile species.

In this study, two mobile species groups (birds and butterflies) have been monitored in two contrasting agricultural landscapes in Switzerland. Detailed agricultural management (patch level) and structural variables (landscape level) have been associated with species richness and abundance, highlighting the role of extensive structures, and the importance to consider spatial variables in biodiversity models. In addition, we generated biodiversity predictions by applying the Swiss Agricultural Life Cycle Assessment for biodiversity (SALCA-BD), a non-spatially explicit model evaluating the impact of land use and cover on biodiversity. By comparing these predictions to the observed species richness, we investigated the model performance, focussing on the spatial parameters that improve model predictions.

Our results highlight the importance of including spatial variables into modelling approaches to improve biodiversity predictions, illustrated through the example of an LCA biodiversity model. Improving biodiversity models is of high importance for local prioritization of land-use management options such as an efficient placement of semi-natural habitats. The models should support developing sophisticated future land-use policies that favour productive agriculture through ecologically sustainable management of agricultural landscapes.

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PARTICIPATORY SCENARIO DESIGN FOR ECOSYSTEM SERVICES AND BIODIVERSITY
MODELLING AT LANDSCAPE LEVEL

Martin Schönhart¹ · Monika Suškevičs² · Katrin Karner¹ · Claudia Bethwell³ · Florian
Danzinger⁴ · Michael Glemnitz³ · Felix Herzog⁵ · Sonja Kay⁵ · Takamasa Nishizawa³ · Johannes
Schuler³ · Ulrich Stachow³ · Christine Umstätter⁵ · Thomas Wrbka⁴ · Peter Zander³

¹University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna · ²Estonian University of Life Sciences · ³Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research · ⁴University of Vienna · ⁵Agroscope

Ecosystem service and biodiversity modelling at landscape level pose a number of scientific and planning challenges. Analyses of the effects of alternative states of bio-physical or socio-economic framework conditions require assumptions on exogenous model input parameters. In a modelling context, scenarios are bundles of consistently defined qualitative and quantitative parameters possibly complemented with storylines. Consequently, scenarios determine model outcomes. They are a powerful tool for stakeholder interaction, model results communication, and landscape planning. Hence, stakeholder participation in scenario design processes may improve the robustness of results, increase their acceptability among stakeholders and supports dissemination of results.

Scenarios are a core component of the international ERA-NET BiodivERsA project SALBES (Scenarios for Agricultural Landscapes' Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services; https://salbes.eu). They include four main components, i.e. the climate, the socio-economic framework conditions of land use, potentially available land use management practices, and local biodiversity actions that may impact land users' choice of practices. A unique feature of SALBES is its use of the Shared Socio-economic Pathways for European agriculture and food systems (Eur-Agri-SSPs; https://eur-agri-ssps.boku.ac.at). Since the Eur-Agri-SSPs are based on the global SSPs, SALBES can consistently embed its landscape level scenario analysis into global climate change research efforts. The SALBES scenarios encompass a near (2030), mid-range (2050) and distant (2080) future perspective to support today's landscape planning actions (e.g. CAP reform) and the development of long-term visions for sustainable landscape development. Near future scenarios are developed to support policy adaptations and land use management to improve biodiversity in the short run. Distant future scenarios are developed to capture future trends in climate and socio-economic characteristics in order to gain insights that allow counteractions or adaptations in long term management of agricultural land use and related policies. Future framework conditions define a safe operating space and what it shall protect. Ex-ante analysis reveals actions and timelines to establish such safe operating spaces e.g. by safeguarding green infrastructure and adapting agricultural management.

SALBES scenario design is based on a shared protocol. It encompasses several feedback loops between scientists and stakeholders including three regional workshops in each of the four case studies. We present preliminary results from this process with a specific focus on the nested scenario structure, methodological procedures for participation, the potential value and limitations of the scenarios in ecosystem service and biodiversity modelling, and the theoretical foundations to identify a safe operating space at landscape level in participatory scenario contexts.
THRESHOLDS FOR SUSTAINABLE SOIL MANAGEMENT BASED ON ECOSYSTEM SERVICES

Bastian Steinhoff-Knopp<sup>1,2</sup> · Benjamin Burkhard<sup>1,3</sup>

<sup>1</sup>Leibniz University Hannover · <sup>2</sup>Thünen Institute · <sup>3</sup>Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research

Sustainable soil management is key to maintaining the functionality and biodiversity of agricultural landscapes and their ecosystem services (ES). Soils – and with them whole landscapes – across Europe are under pressure. Soil erosion remains the major threat to agricultural soils, whose long-term functionality and ability to provide multiple ES can only be ensured through sustainable soil management guided by appropriate soil protection policies.

A remaining problem in soil protection is the definition and justification of effective thresholds for soil threats at which farmers are required to initiate soil protection measures (like adapted management, change from crop to grassland farming). For soil erosion, site-specific maximum acceptable soil erosion rates ('tolerable soil loss') would be helpful with which agricultural management schemes can be compared. The definition of thresholds must be site-specific, based on scientific evidence and concepts accepted by stakeholders and farmers. The overall goal is the long-term preservation of the functionality of soils and their ability to contribute to the long-term supply of multiple ecosystem services within multifunctional agricultural landscapes.

This contribution presents a concept, in which soil-related ES are combined with the potential degradation of soils by soil erosion to define threshold values at which ES supply can be sustainably ensured. It is based on the site-specific assessment of soil-related ES backed up by detailed soil information, monitoring data and the inverse derivation of soil loss rates at which the full supply of these ES can no longer be safeguarded. Farm management and soil cultivation measures can be adapted to comply the thresholds and preserve the functionality of agricultural landscapes. With the presented site-specific definition of thresholds, the concept can contribute to the definition of a safe operating space for agricultural landscapes and appropriate management schemes.

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# NAVIGATING TRADE-OFFS IN FUTURE EUROPEAN AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPES

Peter Verburg¹,² · Leen Felix¹

¹Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam · ²Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research

European landscapes show different, opposing developments at the same time: agricultural intensity is increasing in large parts of Europe while at the same time we find areas of agricultural abandonment in other places, and, smaller areas where more extensive, sustainable farming systems are adopted. The impacts of these differential developments depend on location. While at some locations the loss of productivity upon abandonment and re-wilding is small, while the benefits are large, this is different for other locations.

For all three potential directions of development we simulated a wide range of ecosystem service impacts. For each agricultural location in Europe we, based on these impacts, mapped the trade-off patterns between the different ecosystem services. Based on these we indicated where and to what extent which trajectory of agricultural development was most beneficial or detrimental.

These European-wide results help to target policy and incentives to the regions where benefits can be highest and trade-offs lowest, enabling agricultural development towards fitting within the planetary boundaries and contributing to the EU green deal targets.
# Productive urban landscapes – benefits, co-benefits and new modes for planning

## Symposium organisers

Werner Rolf (Technical University of Munich), Simona R. Grädinaru (University of Bucharest)

## Summary

In this symposium, we want to explore how landscape ecology can provide knowledge for better addressing the relationship between agriculture and the urban environment. We encourage contributions which focus on functions and processes related to productive landscapes, as well as the role of spatial planning on how to address them.

## Description

Across Europe, agricultural land use dominates the open spaces. However, impacted by population growth and rapid urbanization, the peri-urbanity undergoes a dynamic of chaotic development. In the context of increasing concerns over the depletion of food providing areas and raising awareness on human well-being, it is imperative to generate more and better knowledge on the dynamics of services, disservices, trade-offs and conflicts at the interface between cities and agricultural land.

Linked in subnational regional settings, the urban and agriculture can affect each other in negative as well as positive ways. On the one hand, urban growth leads to land consumption at the cost of productive agricultural land. Between 2000 and 2018, 70% of all land converted to artificial surfaces was farmland, a trend that is expected to continue. On the other hand, agricultural land is increasingly integrated within cities. That is because food provision is not the only service that agricultural lands provide. Co-benefits such as habitat for wildlife and recreation spaces for urban dwellers are equally important. Thus, urban and peri-urban agriculture offer promising pathways to promote transformation towards sustainable development. However, agricultural land may not always be welcomed by urban dwellers and conflicts may arise.

In this symposium, we want to explore these different perspectives on changes, effects and mechanisms to manage them. We want to address how landscape ecology can provide knowledge on the relationship between agricultural and cities, with the aim of supporting sustainable land use developments. Contributions are encouraged to address the following questions:

* What are services, disservices, trade-offs and conflicts of agricultural land and farming in peri-urban contexts?

* What are the benefits of agroecological transition, ecological intensification and diversification approaches for cities?

* What are the benefits and shortcoming of integrating farmland into the urban agenda?

* Which formal and informal instruments do cities adopt for integrating agriculture in their agendas?

* What are new modes of food production with co-benefits in peri-urban landscapes and for alliances between urban and rural partners?

* What are new modes to organize collaboration between public agencies, farmers and the public?

The discussions will be structured in two slots based on the following topics:

* New relations between farming for food production with co-benefits,

* New modes for planning to support such settings in peri-urban area.
PROVISIONING SERVICES OF HISTORIC GARDENS IN THE IRANIAN URBAN AND PERI-URBAN CONTEXTS

Majid Amani-Beni¹ · Mohammad Reza Khalilnezhad²

¹Southwest Jiaotong University · ²University of Birjand

One of the historic capabilities of Birjand city (East of Iran) is the existence of a large number of historic gardens that, despite the great importance from the perspective of landscape architecture, sufficient attention has not yet been given to the gardens from the viewpoint of landscape planning (Khalilnezhad, Tobias, 2016; Amani-Beni et al., 2021). One of the newest global approaches to historic gardens is the revival of agricultural and productive capabilities of gardens through methods and approaches called urban agriculture. While urban agriculture encompasses the tangible edible heritage of urban gardens, it also prioritizes engaging civil society in agricultural activities (Khalilnezhad, 2016). In urban agriculture, in addition to the owners of the gardens, urban dwellers benefit greatly from the collective gardening in the urban gardens (Farzin et al., 2020; Khalilnezhad, Golchin, 2021; Amani-Beni et al., 2022).

This study attempts to identify the strengths and weaknesses of Birjand's historic gardens for the development of urban agriculture, and therefore seeks to answer the following question: are Birjand's historic gardens appropriate for urban agricultural development?

The research method in this study is analytical-descriptive and main data were collected from bibliographic databases and through interviews with garden managers, experts, consultants, and some gardeners about 11 historic gardens. In addition, field studies in historic gardens have been conducted by the authors. Questionnaires were also used to collect the data including physical facilities of gardens, agricultural production activities in gardens, agricultural and horticultural objectives, marketing of horticultural products, and agricultural economics.

The results show that a large part of the area of Birjand's historic gardens is dedicated to agricultural activities. According to the findings of this study, historic gardens have the potential to create opportunities for public participation in the production, training, and consumption of agricultural and horticultural products. A combination of different goals, whether commercial, educational, social, therapeutic, or environmental, can be the key to the success of place-making of the historic gardens through urban agriculture. According to this strategy, the historic garden can be a place for interaction between different groups and users. Therefore, the formation of Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes (CPULs) depends on the strategy of public participation and involving citizens in the re-planning of historic gardens for the development of the edible public green space so that all gardens, whether private, public, or endowed, would be places for the presence and participation of citizens in the development of urban agriculture.

Amani-Beni M. (2021). *Hierarchical access to the edible landscape: the Akbarieh Garden in Iran*. Landsc. Res., 47(3): 1-21.

Amani-Beni M. et al. (2022). *Socio-Cultural Appropriateness of the Use of Historic Persian Gardens for Modern Urban Edible Gardens*. Land, 11(1): 38.

Farzin S. et al. (2020). *Investigation on Recognition of the Type of Multifunctional Landscape in Persian Garden (Case Study: Akbariyeh World Heritage Garden)*. MANZAR, 12(52): 6-17.

Khalilnezhad M.R., Golchin, P. (2021). *Evaluating the preferences and level of participation of the academic community in urban agriculture: the case of University of Sistan and Baluchestan*. Environ. Scien., 19(3): 193-216.

Khalilnezhad S.M.R. (2016). *Urban Agriculture as a Tool for City and Landscape Planning in Iran with Emphasis On the Role of Persian Garden*. Technische Universität Kaiserslautern. (PhD thesis)

Khalilnezhad S.M.R., Tobias K. (2016). *The productive landscape in Persian gardens, foundations and features*. BAGH-E NAZAR, 133(38): 3-16.

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# DELIVERING A HEALTHY AND SUSTAINABLE FOOD ECONOMY IN LETCHWORTH GARDEN CITY

Amelie Andre

University of Hertfordshire

In the late 19th century, Sir Ebenezer Howard shared a vision for new Garden City communities where the local food supply and consumption chain was shaped as a holistic rural-urban economic resource (Howard, 1898). While the Garden City movement had a major influence on urban planning history and practice, Howard's emphasis on integrating town and country in food terms has often been overlooked as a core feature. Today, the urban agenda increasingly includes food systems to tackle public health, social inequity, and sustainability issues. Hence, practicians and researchers explore the various facets of urban food and its interplay with the close environment to address the gap that the conventional food trade leaves on a local scale. Linking the Garden City spatial, economic, and political legacy with today's urban food agenda, this doctoral research explores the inherited unique governance and socio-spatial context of the world's first Garden City, Letchworth, in England. The research project aims at unfolding how these theoretical and applied features could influence a healthy and sustainable local food economy.

The research uses mixed methods to link the local food economy with practices on site. Quantitative methods entail mapping food-related locations with Geographic Information System software. Examined through Urban Morphological Analysis close-ups, maps enable the characterization of the spatial food features of the Garden City. These first inputs are cross-examined through ethnographic tools that include photographic surveys, observation, participation, and semi-structured interviews. The qualitative methods provide additional lived-experience perspectives against the initial bird's-eye view dataset to obtain a fine-tune knowledge of the local land use and food practices.

Three themes emerge from the data collected. First, originally designed to offer a local and fair food economy, today Letchworth's urban layout shows opportunities for local food production and procurement. The second segment regards the unique governance framework in Letchworth that implements public land ownership and land-value capture. These two principles are significant assets for policy decisions on land stewardship, use, and protection, but yet don't fully operate for local food consumption. Lastly, investigations suggest that the town's genesis carries shared values for local institutions, businesses, or community-led initiatives to contribute to alternative and sustainable food systems on a local level.

The research outcomes contribute to the explorations on urban food planning, highlighting how a place-based approach is critical to underpin sustainable food systems in the context of climate change exacerbating food inequity. In that regard, the Garden City legacy demonstrates how edible landscape, community empowerment, and land stewardship are three critical levers to underpin placemaking and support food governance to create resilient food cities.

Howard E. (1898). *To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to the Real Reform*. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co Ltd.

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ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN THE MILAN SOUTH-EASTERN EDGES. AN
INTERDISCIPLINARY MONITORING APPROACH

Valentina Capocefalo · Gemma Chiaffarelli · Alice Giulia Dal Borgo · Ilda Vagge

University of Milan

Peri-urban agricultural land functional recovery implies multi-facets processes, where human and ecological dynamics mostly need to be coupled in order to ensure effective results. Ecological and human sciences can help, from different perspectives, interlinking this plurality of impacts, while building composite management strategies for overcoming the existing barriers and enhancing the capacity of these systems of delivering multi-spectrum services within urbanized and agricultural areas. Based on these premises a study is being led on the Milan south-eastern rural edges, in an area interested by different agroecological projects and multistakeholder strategic visions. In particular, the study focuses on the effect of the policy strategies and effective actions on one side on the landscape agroecological functionality and, on the other side, on the role of this area as cultural medium, in relation to the participative approach implemented by the existing projects, directly involving citizens. Both aspects of the study address the issue of reconnecting and re-establishing a positive permeability between the urban and rural matrices.

On the ecological side, the study was preliminary focused on a detailed analysis of the current landscape ecological features. Based on field surveys and GIS analyses, the physiognomic, structural and dynamic traits of the landscape mosaic elements were studied, as well as their spatial patterns (Ingegnoli, 2002). A qualitative analysis of fluxes dynamics across the landscape mosaic helped mapping the existing barriers currently compromising the overall environmental stability of the area (Chiaffarelli, Vagge, 2021). This analysis was conceived as a useful tool for prioritising future interventions, allowing to map the possible effects attainable on landscape ecological dynamics through the agroecosystem diversification (in its composition, structure, dynamism and spatial configuration) and the mitigation of landscape texture gaps.

Moreover, the analysis results were the starting point for the setting of a methodology on the monitoring and assessment of the current and potential capacity of the area of implementing and generating ecosystem services, valuable both for the urban system balance and, on a cultural perspective, for its citizens (Dal Borgo et al., 2021). The concepts of connection, permeability and accessibility were indeed investigated not only from an ecological point of view, but also on their social and cultural sides. Indeed, a specific study is being led on the identification and evaluation of cultural ecosystem functions and services generated within regenerative agriculture and agroecology projects in the area, well known to the authors, who have already established partnerships with local associations and institutions.

The here presented evaluations represent useful methodological premises for the ongoing building of a comprehensive framework for the qualitative and quantitative assessment of the role of the studied peri-urban area in the provision of valuable and recognized ecosystem services, both on their ecological and cultural features.

Chiaffarelli G., Vagge I. (2021). *Methodological proposals for addressing agroecological design in peri-urban areas: a case study in the edges of Milan (Italy)*. AGROFOR International Journal, 6(1): 45-56.

Dal Borgo A.G. et al. (2021). *Luoghi e comunità. Storie di rigenerazione*. Milano-Udine: Mimesis.

Ingegnoli V. (2002). *Landscape Ecology: A Widening Foundation*. Berlin-New York: Springer-Verlag.
HOW MUCH PEOPLE ABANDONED AGRICULTURAL LANDS IN PERI-URBAN AREAS CAN FEED?

Simona Grădinaru¹ · Cristian Ioja¹ · Gabriel Ovidiu Vanau¹ · Mihai Razvan Nita¹ · Werner Rolf²

¹University of Bucharest · ²Technical University of Munich

In Europe, there are increasing interests to ensure regional food security in a sustainable way. One possible way is to recultivate abandoned agricultural lands. In many Eastern European countries land abandonment has affected agricultural lands, ranging from those in rural to the ones in urbanized areas. In this work, we will focus on the latter ones. This presentation will propose a method to assess the potential for food production of the abandoned agricultural lands located in urban and peri-urban areas. The Bucharest – Ilfov urban region is used as an example to illustrate the approach, being a rapidly urbanizing region, which has been largely affected by land abandonment over the past decade.

Three recultivation scenarios were developed in consideration of changes depending on the factors of land market, agricultural technology and climate change. For each scenario, we calculated the yields and the number of calories potentially produced by the main crops cultivated in the region. Findings show that recultivation potentials vary between 19% and 70% of the abandoned land surface, with higher yields projected to result from technological investments to the agricultural system. The number of people potentially fed by recultivating abandoned lands with mixed crops (e.g., grains, vegetables) ranges between 5.1 and 6.7 per ha. This production could support the region food supply and strengthen linkages between farmers and the urban population. The presentation concludes with the need to develop policies supporting urban food security while promoting the livelihood of local communities.

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# FROM AGROPARK TO AGROPARK NETWORK: EXPLORING STAKEHOLDER PERSPECTIVES IN THE METROPOLITAN AREA OF LISBON

Lina María Hoyos · Isabel Loupa-Ramos

University of Lisbon

Food production has been pivotal for shaping cities presenting social, economic and environmental challenges. Since the 80's agroparks have emerged in European context for improving urban and peri-urban agriculture. The areas emerged as land-based proposals for safeguarding small agriculture that was under pressure from urban expansion (Fandani, 2019). This land-based proposal also represented opportunities for complementing food production with other urban and peri-urban demands related to ecosystem services provision (Yacamán, Zazo, 2015). Even though there is a variety of areas called agropark, the concept is yet to be clarified for all context.

In this communication we aim at unravelling the multiple dimensions of the concept of agropark and how to progress towards the concept of agropark network by using as case study the Metropolitan area of Lisbon in Portugal. Data were collected in a living lab setting through interviews to 12 local and regional stakeholders exploring their vision about the definition, land characteristics, possible ecological values, governance requirements and other elements for the construction of the concept of network of agroparks. Taking into account that neither agroparks nor network of agroparks exist in Portugal, the interviews explored the concept in the light of the advantages and challenges for the urban and peri-urban agriculture and its incorporation in the Portuguese planning instruments and policies.

Result show that the concept of agropark builds on areas of peri-urban and urban food production complemented with cultural ecosystem services that rural and urban area and its population. Regarding the agropark network it is a multiscale and multilevel, physical and non-physical platform built on social multi-actor agreements in the landscape. Ultimately, this research showed that better understanding and clarification of the concepts is crucial in mobilizing stakeholders to integrate food planning in territorial planning and management instruments at different scales.

Fandani D. (2019). *Agricultural Park in Europe as a Tool for Agri-Urban Policies and Design: A Critical Overview*. In: E. Gottero (Ed.), Agourbanism: Tools for Governance and Planning of Agrarian Landscape. Springer International Publishing.

Yacamán C., Zazo A. (2015). *El Parque Agrario: una figura de transición hacia nuevos modelos de gobernanza territorial y alimentaria*. Madrid: Heliconia S. Coop. Mad.

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EVALUATING THE SUSTAINABILITY OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF URBAN AGRICULTURE –
AN INTEGRATED PARTICIPATORY APPROACH

Henriette John · Martina Artmann

Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development

In cities a mosaic of different types of urban agriculture (UA) can be found (e.g., community gardens, vertical farming, community-supported agriculture). However, knowledge about advantages and disadvantages of different UA-types is still fragmented. In particular, it lacks an understanding in which regard technology-based and nature-based UA supports a sustainable food production in cities. Within our Edible Cities project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), we are aiming at systematically assessing different types of UA in a multidimensional way. We include ecological, social and economic criteria and their corresponding ecosystem services. The objective of the project is to comparatively evaluate the sustainability of nature-based and technology-based types of urban food production.

In our presentation we will introduce an integrated sustainability assessment of urban agriculture based on an Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) linked with a participatory approach. Our assessment framework will be exemplified by focussing on vertical farming, as a technology-based type of UA, and community-supported agriculture exemplarily representing nature-based UA. In a first European expert survey the most important sub-criteria per sustainability dimension have been identified and selected. The most important sub-criteria for the ecological dimension include microclimate and hydrology regulation, biodiversity and circular economy. As most important social sub-criteria education, community building and civic participation have been identified by the experts. Securing food quality and safety and its affordability as well as strengthening local economy are considered to be crucial for the economic sustainability dimension of urban agriculture.

Based on these results, the importance of the selected sub-criteria have been weighted in a second survey including selected German cities with different settlement densities and urbanization degrees as our case studies. The survey addressed urban administrations, nongovernmental organisations and practitioners as key actors for the implementation of UA. Finally, we will provide insights into our development of indicators for assessing the sustainability of vertical farming and community-supported agriculture.

Conceptually, our approach and results provide scientific fundamentals contributing to the further development of an integrative assessment framework (Artmann, Sartison, 2018) for a systematic comparative analysis and evaluation of different types of UA. From an urban planning point of view, they support the strategic promotion of sustainable types of urban food production depending on local framework conditions.

Artmann M., Sartison K. (2018). *The Role of Urban Agriculture as a Nature-Based Solution: A Review for Developing a Systemic Assessment Framework*. Sustainability, 10(6): 1937.

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CLASSIFYING HYBRID COLLABORATIVE MODELS FOR REGIONAL SHORT FOOD SUPPLY CHAINS – PROVIDING A BASIS FOR ASSESSING SUSTAINABILITY TRANSFORMATION IN THE RURAL-URBAN NEXUS

Katrin Martens<fnref n="1" /> · Annette Piorr<fnref n="1" /> · Sebastian Rogga<fnref n="1" /> · Bernd Pölling² · Jana Zscheischler<fnref n="1" /> · Andreas Obersteg<fnref n="3" />

In response to the negative effects caused by structures of the dominant agricultural system and by new market opportunities, more and more regionalized food supply structures have re-emerged in the urban-rural context of industrialized countries in recent years. We observe that regionalized food supply structures often go along with new forms of hybrid collaboration models, which include actors and institutions that have not collaborated in the past. They form new “alliances for sustainable development” in the agricultural and food sector, especially at the interfaces between urban and rural areas. However, a discourse has flared up in science and practice about the benefits of such hybrid collaborations, e.g. their sustainability, referring to a lack of critical systematization and calling for the need to create an assessment baseline for regional examples. Such a baseline would allow drawing conclusions about the transformative potential of such collaboration models and their potential to serve as blueprints for other regions.

In this work, a classification approach derived from the social enterprise literature is tested and extended with the aim of designing a systematization of new hybrid collaborations that allows for comparisons between regions and is sensitive to their dynamics. In an application we show how the classification approach considering the dimensions ‘actors’, ‘resources’ and ‘actions’, serves to discovering patterns in the development of regional short food supply chain practices, identifying individual transition paths and thus making statements about their sustainability and challenges.

<figure><img src="image_243.png" /></figure>

<footnote n="1">¹Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research · ²South Westphalia University of Applied Sciences ·</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³HafenCity University Hamburg</footnote>
# LINKING FOOD AND LAND SYSTEM RESEARCH ALONG URBAN-RURAL LINKAGES IN EUROPE

Markus Meyer<fnref n="1" /> · Andrea Früh-Müller² · Isabella Lehmann² · Nina Schwarz³

Food-system studies often assess dynamics, in production, consumption or processing and logistics in a spatially abstract manner. Land-system studies traditionally analyze land-use/land cover change with its environmental and societal drivers as well as impacts and are typically spatially explicit. Primary production is a main node where food and land systems overlap. Urban-rural linkages are an interesting perspective as both research strands analyze major processes at this interface: the rural-urban exchange of food and urban sprawl. In our contribution, we will propose a framework to reveal the interplay between food- and land-system research along urban-rural linkages in Europe.

We used a systematic literature review to determine how existing studies address the interface of food and land systems. We identified three clusters of studies: economic, footprint and crop modeling studies (cluster 1), and scenario-based land-use/land-cover change and remote sensing studies (cluster 2), and (qualitative) policy studies (cluster 3). The reviewed studies only partially integrate land- and food-system research. Most studies are stronger on the land- than on the food-system side and miss processing as well as distribution and sales. In addition, major linkages between land and food systems are implemented deterministically in current studies (e.g., through static land requirements for diets). Here, the role of actors and dynamic models considering systemic feedbacks could improve the realisms of studies. Future research should especially address and quantify governance largely, which is hardly quantified to date. Urban-rural linkages are weakly considered and if considered only from an urban perspective. Thereby, it would be interesting to study to which extent rural population and governance shape urban-rural-linkages, and how a change of focus from rural to urban areas could provide additional insights.

<figure><img src="image_244.png" /></figure>

<footnote n="1">¹Anhalt University of Applied Sciences · ²Research Group on Agricultural and Regional Development · ³University of Twente</footnote>
# GETTING THERE: LEARNING FROM ENGAGEMENT PRACTICE ON CONVIVIAL URBANISM TO DEVELOP PRODUCTIVE URBAN LANDSCAPES

Susan Parham¹ · Maximilian Manderscheid² · Ferne Edwards³

¹University of Hertfordshire · ²University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna · ³Norwegian University of Science and Technology

In this paper we reflect on peri-urban food focused initiatives broadly framed around sustainable, convivial urbanism, which have sought to employ highly socially engaged methods for working together on productive urban landscapes. Notions of what constitutes such landscapes have been informed by constructs including convivial green space, edible cities, transect-based agrarian urbanism, ecological and edible urbanism, and a growing body of work broadly within the framing of nature-based solutions. These approaches share an applied focus on developing and reconfiguring sustainable productive landscapes and townscapes from dense city quarters to peri-urban edges to respond to urgent climate change, biodiversity and environmental justice challenges. We assert that while we may know where we need to go to make and remake productive urban landscapes to successfully bring together rural and urban, and while we are all too aware of the importance of the ecology of these landscapes to our shared future, how to get there remains an extremely vexed issue despite the rich theoretical framing now available. We explore these applied challenges through four primary data-based examples: (1) the use of a transition pathway methodology to inform masterplanning in the 'EdiCitNet' project across seven cities including Berlin, Sant Feliu de Llobregat and Šempeter pri Gorici, (2) the Espigoladors gleaning program from Barcelona that redistributes wasted produce from farmers' fields to people in need in the city, (3) an urban design-based food retrofitting project in the new town setting of Hatfield in the United Kingdom, and (4) food cooperative initiatives connecting citizen consumers with producers in Vienna, Austria.

In this research presentation and paper we aim to explore how diverse partners can construct and shape inclusive programmes to reach a wide audience using design-focused food interventions to peri-urban landscapes to meet everyday food needs and combat food inequality. We aim to identify what shared characteristics, drivers and barriers within such applied projects can inform sustainable, convivial urbanism. The lessons drawn from these practice-based examples focus on new modes of planning, collaboration and placemaking that integrate agriculture and the urban environment in peri-urban settings; offer practical proposals for implementation: and are directed towards sustainable land use planning in future. Shedding light on the interactions of country and city through these perspectives on food and productive urban landscapes offers new learnings on understanding, planning and engaging in urban landscapes.

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# CHANGES IN THE DIVERSITY OF URBAN SOIL LANDSCAPES: AN EXAMPLE FROM A MEDIUM-SIZED CITY

Sylwia Pindral · Rafał Kot · Piotr Hulisz

Nicolaus Copernicus University

Due to a number of functions, soils are an important element of the environment, constituting a place for life development. They can be divided into various units, according to their genesis, properties, and functions. Soilscape is a part of the environment that, as a result of the mutual interaction of soil-forming factors forms an interdependent unit, that differs from neighboring areas. The research was carried out in the Inowrocław – the city developed from an industrial center to a place fulfilling multiple functions (industrial, spa, agricultural, transport). Our research aimed to create a qualitative and quantitative method of diversity analysis using selected landscape metrics and to develop maps of changes in the diversity of urban soil landscapes for the years 1934, 1978, and 2016.

The research was carried out in the following stages: (1) selection of input data, (2) data digitization, (3) development of urban soil map and soil transformation map, (4) creation of hexagonal grid within the city's administrative boundaries, and (5) calculation of landscape metrics (Number of Patches, Patch Richness, Total Edge, Maximum Diversity, Simpson's Diversity Index, Simpson's Evenness Index, Shannon's Diversity Index, and Shannon's Evenness Index) for each hexagon (10,000 m²) and calculating original pedodiversity index (PI) using bonitation method.

We proved that the PI is a good indicator of general soil landscapes changes that were linked to the degree of human soil transformation. The share of the highest values of the PI increased from 15.9% in 1934, 17.3% in 1978, to 20.9% in 2016. In the 1960s and 1970s – the formation and spread of the strongest transformed areas occurred. This process covered mainly arable land with soils of very high utility value. It was the result of the rapid development of industry and housing. On the other hand, in the period (1978-2016) industry restructuring and the specific development of the residential areas took place. This caused the decrease of pedodiversity in several zones as a result of combining relatively small patches into homogeneous large-area units.

The obtained results, due to their potential applicability, may be useful in updating the spatial development plans, as well as the environmental protection programs. In addition, the functioning of soils in the urban ecosystem and their ecosystem services are often omitted in the development of spatial management documents. Taking into account climate change and the increasing consumption, all soil resources may be of inestimable value in the future, thus restoring them for agricultural purposes can be a significant goal for stakeholders.

<figure><img src="image_246.png" /></figure>
AGRICULTURE UNDER PRESSURE: SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL TRADE-OFF DYNAMICS
OF NATURE'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO PEOPLE IN PERI-URBAN AGRARIAN LANDSCAPES

Matteo Riva¹ · Felix Kienast² · Adrienne Grêt-Regamey¹

¹ETH Zürich · ²Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research

Technological innovations and land transformation processes are increasing food production worldwide. However, a growing global population, changing lifestyles, urbanization, land scarcity and climate change are putting agricultural areas under pressure. Apart from providing food, agricultural areas provide a variety of other services such as habitat for various species, water regulation, aesthetic values or recreational opportunities, encapsulated within the concept of nature's contributions to people (NCPs). In this context of increasing pressure on agriculture, the resulting demands for NCPs call for collaborative management strategies that ensure a harmonious and beneficial coexistence of the different claims. Knowledge of the spatial and temporal fluctuations in supply of and demand for NCPs is essential to appropriately inform these management approaches. Strategic planning documents of Switzerland and the canton of Zurich were used to guide the choice of relevant NCPs. These NCPs were quantified using data from the mid-twentieth century until today, including land use and land cover, socioeconomic and biophysical variables as well as agricultural production data. This provided the basis to represent trade-offs between areas of supply and demand over time, with particular focus on the spatial scale at which these processes unfold. We conclude by discussing how such a historical assessment of NCPs supply, demand and flows in peri-urban agrarian landscapes can help manage landscapes for multifunctionality, i.e. support the ability of ecosystems to simultaneously perform multiple functions, leading to a balanced provision of multiple NCPs.

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PERI-URBAN FARMLAND AS PART OF URBAN GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE – FOUR
MODES FOR PLANNING

Werner Rolf

Technical University of Munich

Urbanization and agricultural land use are two of the main drivers of global changes with effects on ecosystem functions and human well-being. 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 talk presents the outcome of a doctoral thesis that 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.

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# THE VALUE OF URBAN AGRICULTURE BEYOND FOOD PRODUCTION. FINDINGS FROM ALLOTMENT GARDENS IN GERMANY

Kathrin Specht¹ · Runrid Fox-Kämper¹ · Marco Dobrodolac¹ · Werner Heidemann² · Stefan Grote² · Caitin Kirby³

¹Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development · ²State Federation of Allotment Gardeners in Westphalia and Lippe · ³Michigan State University

The interest in urban agriculture (UA) is growing. One type of UA that is often overlooked within the scholarly debate are the classical allotment gardens. Their establishment can be traced back to the 19th century, thereby counting on a more than 150 years old tradition of practices. Currently, there are approx. 1 million people who rent an allotment garden plot in Germany, where triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic an increasing demand can be observed. Most of the plot-holders are people who otherwise do not have access to own home gardens. While food production is a mandatory practice for the plot owners, recreation is another key reason to rent such a plot. Despite the popularity of allotment gardens and their high prevalence, very little is known about their actual food production capacities, growing practices, resource-use, and social impacts. The aim of our study was to measure the four key components of the urban nexus in allotment gardens, namely: food production, water consumption, energy use and social impacts.

Our data collection was performed over two years (in 2019 and 2020) through diaries, in which eleven allotment gardeners documented their daily harvest (in kg/produce), water use (in l/water source), energy use (by use of fuel, fertilizer) and transportation (by km/means of transport). We further conducted a standardized survey to gain information about the social impacts of the garden activities.

The analysis of the diary data reveals that the eleven gardens produced a total amount of three tons of food, which makes up a high share of the gardeners' entire food needs during the growing season. The study thereby illustrates that the real contribution to food self-sufficiency in the allotment gardens is higher than generally assumed. The analysis of the diary data further quantifies the environmental footprint of the production in terms of CO2 equivalents and in terms of resource use attached to water and energy use. The survey results show that participation in allotment gardens is driven by a broad range of motives (such as the joy of being outside, personal desires for high-quality food and the opportunities for social interactions with other gardeners). The findings from the German allotment gardens are compared to data from other case studies in the same research project (the FEW-meter project), conducted in other countries, namely the US, Poland, France and the UK. The data helps to better understand UA practices, to show starting points for resource optimization and to improve the strategic embeddedness of allotment gardens in urban planning.

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ASSESSING FOOD SELF-SUFFICIENCY OF SELECTED EUROPEAN FUNCTIONAL URBAN AREAS VS METROPOLITAN AREAS

Marta Sylla · Małgorzata Świąder

Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences

The resilience of the local food system is being underlined as one of the most important strategic goals for a sustainable future. However, since the question of what constitutes the local scale of food production depends largely on the type of product and supply chain, the associated foodshed can range from a site scale, city and city region up to wider region and country level. As a proof of concept whether functional urban areas (FUAs) can serve as references for local food systems, we provide evidence on their capacity to provide vegetarian diet supply to their residents. Applying the Metropolitan Foodshed and Self-Sufficiency Scenario (MFSS) model methodology we estimate the level of potential food self-sufficiency of the FUAs. We quantitatively compare the results for FUAs with the results of local planning documents of metropolitan areas. The approach is applied to nine city regions representing different European countries: Wrocław (PL), Ostend (BE), Berlin (DE), Avignon (FR), Copenhagen (DK), Bari (IT), Brasov (RO), Athens (EL), Barcelona (ES).

The results show that vegetarian and local food demand could be satisfied in first five FUAs of these city regions. However, if the same number of calories as current diet delivers is to be maintained only the first three FUAs have enough agricultural land to supply vegetarian ingredients to this diet. The results for metropolitan comparison return the same three cities plus Bari. We discuss the use of FUA in defining foodshed area and the role of consumers' dietary choices in regional food self-sufficiency.

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# URBAN PASTORALISM AS VECTOR OF TRANSFORMATION OF ABANDONED LAND IN PRODUCTIVE GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE FRINGE OF POST-SOCIALIST CITIES

Roxana Triboi

Le:Notre Institute

The transition from the socialist to the capitalist regime was characterized by a set of rapid and complex changes that developed in parallel with chaotic development, solutions of dealing with uncertainty based on previous experiences of communist era by avoiding the public system while integrating informal food markets and network. The 'de-collectivization' process that took place at the beginning of the 1990s, which meant defragmentation of public state farms in small plots (as originally in the 1950s) and their retribution to the original owners led to a massive process of land abandonment. At the same time, the intensive and chaotic process of urban sprawl put pressure on the rural periphery and especially on the ancient state farms, that were only considered for their potential as the large open spaces suitable for urbanization. Through aggressive land speculation (because of lack of awareness, vision, and appropriate policies), the chaotical fragmentation of agricultural land at the fringe of the city, created a complicated patchwork of 'open' spaces that was considered as a reserve for future urbanization. The stabilization of the urban sprawl process, due also to the economic crises of 2008-2009, contributed to the installation and development of large-scale flocks in the interstices of 'pastoral urbanism'. The flock' mobility and flexibility of its scale, along with shepherd's know-how and informal food net-work contributed to this trend. Today, the domination of the food market by large scale distribution chains represent a major threat to the economic viability of urban pastoralism that along with the fragility of informal and marginal status represent the major pressure that could lead to the extinction of this phenomenon.

The quantitative research of this study concerned mainly the periphery of Bucharest, although some interviews, data analysis and visits were made also in the Parisian metropolitan area (France) and Wageningen (Netherlands). The analysis of different typologies of shepherding in the city and its periphery permitted the identification of patterns of activity that could be useful in order to develop and generalize a more sustainable and resilient model of urban pastoralism. Even if innovative aspects like building a complex management plan for the marketing and communication of the activity towards interested parties, co-constructing the project along with local actors, integrating it in local food networks that characterized the western model are important features that clearly need to be included. The main challenges in managing urban pastoralism will revolve around the dissemination of the 'know-how' and promoting pastoralism as a way of life and not just a work program that breeding animals in extensive system implies a way of life that should be compatible with today vision of work schedule and expectations of working conditions.
# MAPPING MULTIFUNCTIONAL GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORKS LINKING RURAL LANDSCAPES WITH URBAN SYSTEMS: HARNESSING NATURE TO MEET MULTIPLE SOCIETAL CHALLENGES

Lukas Egarter Vigl · Valentina Giombini · Heidi Simion · Thomas Marsoner

Eurac Research

The impact of human activities on, most notably, biodiversity and the carbon and nitrogen cycles are pushing humanity out of a safe operating space, undermining the resilience of many socio-ecological systems worldwide. The adoption and implementation of nature-based solutions (NBS) such as green infrastructure (GI), however, has the potential not only to foster the sustainable management of our resources, but also to enhance the delivery of benefits, or ecosystem services (ES), to society. Ecosystems and natural features can indeed provide several environmental, socio-economic, and biodiversity benefits which can help address the societal challenges of today. In this context, the concept of multifunctional GI networks fosters strategic planning at landscape level and the sustainable management of individual GI elements. By proposing a practical approach for mapping GI networks in several pilot regions across the Alpine Space cooperation area, we aim to highlight how the concept of GI can enable practitioners and researchers to enhance multifunctionality, develop tailored management strategies along a rural to urban gradient, and harness synergies between ES and policy goals. To this end, we spatially explicitly map several ES, assess ecosystem multifunctionality, and combine these findings with an ecological connectivity analysis to identify potential GI networks.

Our analyses provide high-resolution and targeted information showcasing key multifunctional features in urban, agricultural, forested, and open areas, highlighting critical corridors for regional and transboundary ecological connectivity. In agricultural landscapes, green linear elements and woody features support connectivity and important regulating services, such as pollination. The present mapping approach can support decision-makers and practitioners in conserving, restoring and sustainably managing our natural resources effectively and efficiently. The inclusion of not only provisioning, but also regulating and cultural ecosystem services provided by different landscape features allows to maximize the synergies but also to navigate the conflicts occurring between different ES, sectoral policies, and stakeholders' interests. In this context, the consideration of both ecosystem-based multifunctionality and ecological connectivity can support decision-makers in meeting the EU policy goals outlined in both the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strategy for 2030.
PRODUCTIVE URBAN LANDSCAPES IN BELGIUM AND DENMARK. A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE PROJECTS TUINEN VAN STENE (BELGIUM) AND TREKRONER (DENMARK)

Jeroen De Waegemaeker¹ · Lone Søderkvist Kristensen² · Elke Vanempten¹ · Elke Rogge¹ ·
Jørgen Primdahl²

¹Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food · ²University of Copenhagen

For long agriculture was a blind spot in planning theory and practice Today, planners are (re)discovering the (peri-)urban farmland and its significance for local food production, recreational facilities, biodiversity and climate. There is a growing call for innovative urban planning at the rural-urban fringe (RUF) that integrates farmland into the green infrastructure (GI) of cities. While extensions of a city's GI traditionally have been implemented at the expense of peri-urban farmland, new planning concepts such as Continuous Productive Urban Landscape (CPUL), Edible Green Infrastructure (EGI) and (bio)productive/agricultural park integrates both bio-based production as well as conventional urban park functions into integrated landscape design solutions.

The paper analyzes two innovative planning projects in the rural-urban fringe of two secondary cities: Tuinen van Stene in Ostend (Belgium) and Trekroner in Roskilde (Denmark). Tuinen van Stene is part of the local GI, known as the ‘green ribbon’, and aims to reconnect the city of Ostend to its rural surroundings by developing an agricultural park. Trekroner is a relatively new suburb, located in the periphery of the Copenhagen Finger Plan, where the local GI comprises extensively grassed pasture and small patches of cropland. Building on document analysis, interviews with key stakeholders, and site studies, the paper juxtaposes Tuinen van Stene and Trekroner and critically compares the objectives, the designs and the management of these RUF landscapes.

Our research highlights current challenges for urban GIs involving climate change, urban agriculture, public-private collaboration and community building. Both projects stem from the same needs: an aim to preserve open spaces at the RUF, changing aspirations for urban open spaces, creation of short food chains, and shortage of public funds for managing GI. Tuinen van Stene comprises publically as well as privately owned land and merges the agricultural activities, water management infrastructure and the park features (e.g. benches and pathways) into a singular design. To ensure flexibility and facilitate agricultural entrepreneurship, that design is a ‘framework plan’ rather than a traditional masterplan or a detailed design. Trekroner represents a sophisticated integration of residential areas and GI where a large proportion of the publically owned open space is managed by collective grazing groups of local residents that themselves manage sheep, cattle, and horses. The cropland in the area is cultivated by a commercial farmer. In conclusion the projects’ successes and shortcomings are summarized and lessons learned for future productive urban landscapes at the rural-urban fringe are outlined.

The participation at IALE2022 is financed by RECOMS, a project that received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 765389.
# COLLABORATIVE EMERGING PROJECTS OF URBAN AGRICULTURE IN ZURICH

Irene Yerro

Vienna University of Technology

This paper is a part of a PhD entitled “Impact of land use planning in emerging practices of urban agriculture. Case Study Zurich” obtained at the TU-Wien. The goal of this paper is to analyze how urban agriculture integrates in the urban fabric framed by policies and governance aspects and more specifically to explore the procedures and tools which support nature-based solutions as emerging practices of urban agriculture in urban areas. The study takes the city of Zurich (Switzerland) as a case study and focuses on the instruments and policies that promoted the development of emerging practices of urban agriculture as community gardens, rooftop gardens, intercultural gardens, etc. versus the more established urban agriculture practices as peri-urban agriculture or allotment gardens.

The paper explores and analyses in detail three different typologies of urban agriculture in the city of Zurich. A specific instrument for urban analysis has been developed in order to study spatial qualities and governance aspects (Lohrberg et al., 2015) of the emerging practices of urban agriculture. The analysis is displayed using texts, plans and images with a narrative dimension. The research methodology includes a literature review (bibliography, policy documents, reports), GIS maps and semi-structured interviews with the project participants and leaders.

The emerging practices of urban agriculture, where food security is usually not the main driver, offer other important social functions such as public relaxation, leisure, and educational activities (Becker et al., 2021). To what extent do they help the sustainable development of cities? How do land-use policies benefit the new types of urban agriculture? Detailed observation is necessary of the tensions generated between the different stakeholders participating in urban agriculture practices including bottom-up projects in the field of urban gardening, growing real estate pressure, and sustainable development policies, in particular land-use regulations (Grün Stadt Zürich, 2006).

The conclusions of the paper will be divided in two topics: the first one will show how emerging projects relate and fit in the spatial planning system, and will reveal the spatial qualities: localization, scale, visibility, urban function and perception. The second theme will discuss how urban agriculture integrates in the urban fabric governance aspects (Becker et al., 2021). The paper reveals as well the links and interactions between the “Grow it yourself” initiatives and the legal frame of city planning and how urban policies can incentive these kinds of projects and help local actors to take part in the city life.

Becker et al. (2021). *Beware, Utopia! Nürenberg: Institute for Applied Heterotopia.*

Lohrberg et al. (2015). *Urban agriculture Europe*. Berlin: Jovis.

Grün Stadt Zürich (2006). *Das Grünbuch der Stadt Zürich: integral planen – wirkungsorientiert handeln*. Zürich: Grün Stadt Zürich.

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# 8. Urban and peri-urban landscapes

## Landscape changes in times of urbanization: processes and projections

### Symposium organisers

Jasper van Vliet (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Luis Inostroza (Ruhr University Bochum)

### Summary

Urban land is growing rapidly, thus characterizing increasing shares of the landscape. Yet, this growth is manifested in different forms, including urban densification and compact development, but also urban sprawl, peri-urbanization, and rurbanization. Managing landscapes thus requires a thorough understanding of the multitude of urban change processes affecting these landscapes. This symposium welcomes contributions that centre on understanding the processes of multiple forms of urban development affecting landscapes as well as projections of future developments.

### Description

A small but rapidly increasing share of the land is covered with built-up land. Some of this built-up land is concentrated in large cities, but a large share is also distributed over villages, towns, and infrastructure in otherwise rural landscapes. This holds true across the globe, but particularly so for Europe. As a result, a large and increasing share of the landscape is to some extent characterized by built-up land. This includes large areas often referred to as peri-urban areas and also relates to processes such as rurbanization and counterurbanization.

Sprawling urban areas and the increasing presence of built-up areas in rural landscapes are often seen as undesired, because of its direct and indirect impacts on other land uses as well as on biodiversity, hydrology, and a range of ecosystem services. As a result, there is a need to better understand these processes in order to be able to manage them. Such understanding requires to go beyond merely differentiating between urban and rural land and instead needs to focus on the gradient in between, on the multiple functions and services landscapes providing to different people, and also on the acknowledgement of the connections and mutual dependency of urban and rural areas, for example in terms of flows of products, money, and people.

This symposium welcomes contributions that address urban development, in all of its forms, in landscapes. These include analyses of historical changes (preferably with an aim of understanding these processes), as well as assessments of future developments. Furthermore, we welcome submissions that analyse the impacts of these urban development processes, especially in terms of ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services.

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# THE POTENTIAL TO DELIVER ECOSYSTEM SERVICES AS A CHALLENGE FOR GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE POLICY IN SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED CITIES IN POLAND

Agata Cieszewska¹ · Renata Giedych¹ · Barbara Szulczewska² · Joanna Adamczyk¹

¹Warsaw University of Life Sciences · ²Institute of Urban and Regional Development

Both, globally and in Poland, the application of the concept of green infrastructure (GI) and ecosystem services (ES) in cities takes place mainly in large cities. In smaller cities, and especially in small towns, both concepts are – at least in Poland – still poorly known and implemented in planning and management practices. Also the size and nature of GI resources as well as the scope of ES delivered in those cities are not sufficiently recognized. In Poland, more than 61% of the population lives in cities, of which 12.4 million (32.3%) live in cities with less than 100,000 inhabitants, defined as medium-sized (between 20,000-100,000) and small (less than 20,000). According to the demographic prospects those cities should be considered as shrinking cities. However the vision of their future development embodied in spatial policies in most cases anticipate an increase of built-up areas. Considering this, it seems that policy for GI is needed. For this policy the recognition of ES delivery is essential.

The aim of the presented research is to map and estimate the ES provided by areas that could be classified as GI of the cities studied due to their cover vegetation and/or water. The study included 264 small and medium sized urban municipalities within the administrative boundaries. The mapping included the following land categories: forests, parks, allotments, gardens, waters, fields, areas covered with low vegetation (grasslands, meadows, residential greenery), that have been analysed with various landscape indicators as well as statistical analyses. Identification of types and estimation of the importance of ES was carried out using CICES V5.1 classification.

The study revealed that the provision of regulating ES in general connected with a stable natural structure, good conditions to sustain natural processes is of greater importance in small cities with a significant share of areas covered with permanent vegetation cover (forests >50% or low vegetation >30%) or water – it occurs in half of small cities, and much less among medium cities – 35%.

Provisioning services are important in cities with a significant share (> 30%) of arable land – this applies to 32% of small cities and only 12% of medium cities. The rather low level of provision of cultural services is surprising. This is because of the small share of public parks – in more than 20% of the studied cities the share is 0%, and in 60% of them public green areas cover up to 5% of the area.

Based on the research conducted, it can be concluded that in studied cities cultural ES are provided at low rate. At the same time, regulating ES prevail. So, there are two basic challenges for future GI policy: Polish small and medium-sized cities. The first of them is to create elements of GI, that provide cultural ES (particularly in small towns), and the second – to solve the problem of provisioning ES connected with a significant share of arable land.

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# BEHIND DENSITY TRENDS: REVEALING THE SPATIAL IMPACTS OF DIFFERENT POPULATION CHANGES IN EUROPEAN CITIES

Chiara Cortinovis¹ · Davide Geneletti² · Dagmar Haase¹

¹Humboldt University of Berlin · ²University of Trento

Density is a key parameter of urban systems and density trends have been considered key indicators to describe urban development. A persistent decline in density has been often adopted as an indicator of sprawl. Nevertheless, similar density trends can be the result of different underlying changes in population and residential area, which imply different impacts on both human well-being and the urban environment. In a context where urban population is still projected to grow, the ‘no land take’ strategy promoted by the European Union aims at reverting the prevailing de-densification trend and is expected to foster densification by halting the expansion of residential areas. However, cases of changes in density trends in European cities have not been well documented, and little is known about the underlying factors that made them possible.

The aim of this research is to analyze the recent density trends of European cities and the underlying trends in residential area and population, in order to reveal where changes in density trends occurred and which factors determined them, with special focus on the possible distinct role of natural population change and migration.

The analysis is conducted on the residential density trends and the underlying trends in population and residential area during the two periods 2006-2012 and 2012-2018. Land use and land cover maps are retrieved from the Urban Atlas database, while population data, including separated values for natural change and net migration, are mostly collected from national statistical offices. The sample comprises 331 cities: one third of urban centers with more than 50,000 inhabitants in the 28 countries of the pre-Brexit European Union.

De-densification was the prevailing trend involving 60% of the cities in the first period, but the ratio reversed between 2012 and 2018, with almost one out of three cities showing a change in density trend. The large majority of them moved from de-densification to densification. Residential area increased in almost all cities in both periods, even if at progressively lower speed. Population growth, instead, characterized 60% of the cities in the first period, and 75% in the second one. Changes in density trends, especially from de-densification to densification, are mostly determined by strong changes in population growth, more frequently due to migration than to natural change. At the same time, correlation analysis shows that the increase in residential area is significantly correlated to natural population change, but not to net migration.

The results suggest that, so far, population changes have been the main driving factor behind densification trends and that, besides their intensity, natural growth and migration have different spatial impacts that can shape the urban development of cities. The effects of the ‘no land take’ strategy will likely depend on the type of population growth that will prevail in the different contexts.

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# ON THE ROLE OF EMOTIONS IN INFLUENCING PEOPLE'S STEWARDSHIP FOR PERI-URBAN LANDSCAPES

Adrienne Grêt-Regamey · Marcelo Galleguillos

ETH Zürich

Across the world, urban areas are growing twice as fast as urban populations. This transformation takes places where urban and rural land uses closely blend and form a new type of landscape, which is neither rural nor urban, often called the peri-urban area. While this peri-urbanization process takes place in highly different contexts all over the world, globalization processes are fostering an uniformisation of these areas. Since landscape character, as the “distinct and recognizable pattern of elements, that makes one landscape different from another”, is known to be a key determinant for the tie between people and place, this uniformisation is lowering people’s place attachment, place identity and place dependence. In turn, this decline in sense of place is known to reduce feelings of caring for the local community and will ultimately cause a loss in people’s motivation to participate in the landscape-shaping process. In other words, uniformisation of peri-urban areas influences people’s stewardship for their landscape and the services it provides, and finally people’s ability for place-making, i.e., an intentional change of the landscape to generate a sense of place.

When judging an environment, both affective and cognitive reactions are engaged. People's affective evaluations of environments can be described by their immediate reactions. In contrast, cognition can be interpreted as the explicit evaluation of settings that requires mental processing. In this contribution, we thus investigate how peri-urban landscapes influence both emotional and cognitive reactions. On one hand, we exposed participants to various virtual acoustic-visual stimuli of urban, peri-urban and rural landscapes and measured the nervous system reactions using electrodermal activity. On the other hand, we administered an extensive questionnaire that included socio-demographic information as well as landscape quality and novel place-making measures, which we validated in a large online survey (n = 10,071).

First results of the 300 participants collected in 2020 in Olten and Aarau (Switzerland) and 2021 in Utrecht (the Netherlands) using a mobile visual-acoustic lab support our hypothesis that peri-urban landscapes trigger only weak emotions and that these emotions are much more negative than if participants are exposed to urban or rural environments. Furthermore, we observe that skin conductance responses are related to various indicators of place-making, place attachment, place dependency and place identity, as well as low visual features of the landscapes. Applied in various case studies in Europe, the same experiment will help improve our understanding for place-making in and stewardship for peri-urban landscapes.
# TOURISM DEVELOPMENT AND URBANIZATION OF FOOD SPACES: EXTENDED URBANIZATION PROCESSES IN MEDITERRANEAN COASTAL AREAS

Sebastian Felipe Burgos Guerrero

University of Milano-Bicocca

How have food systems shaped and been shaped by the urban, and what are the constitutive properties, geographies and socio-spatial transformations resulting from these processes under evolving tourism development? The profound socio-spatial transformations of ‘rural’ landscapes have been both the determinant factors and resulting expressions of ongoing urbanisation processes, embedded and materialized in contemporary urban food spaces. In fact, food systems have been at the base of the historical emergence of urban cores, providing the basic metabolic requirements to a growing non-agricultural population, while experiencing broader socio-spatial transformations in the way we produce, distribute, consume, and even think and talk about food. The widespread modification of landscapes connected to evolving tourism development, especially in Mediterranean coastal areas, have in turn giving rise to new forms of land-use practices, urban-rural relations and spatial-temporal movements and concentration of tourist and resources that highlight the complex interrelationship between the phenomenon of tourism and the production, reproduction, and differentiation of food spaces. The historical modification of such spaces connected to evolving tourism urbanization can thus be interpreted by the three moments of concentrated, extended, and differential urbanization, offering new epistemological orientations that go beyond the classic dichotomy of an urban-rural opposition. The food issue emerges in this context as an intrinsically urban question, with entrenched power dynamics, consumption patterns and specific socio-spatial configurations, determining the access, logistics, consumption, socialization, and production of food in evolving tourism landscapes.

This research operationalizes food spaces as a privileged lens through which to interpret, map, conceptualize and, ultimately, influence the social, economic, political, and environmental impacts of urban and tourism development, setting forth a systematic literature review and empirical study of the relationship between tourism urbanisation processes and food systems. Findings will provide evidence of extended urbanization processes in two Mediterranean coastal areas, highlighting the underlying processes and implications for public policy, planning and urban studies.

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HOUSING DEVELOPMENT WITHIN AND AROUND NATIONAL PARKS IN RAPIDLY
URBANIZING LANDSCAPES – CASE STUDIES FROM POLAND

Michał Jakiel

Jagiellonian University

Protected areas (PAs) are cornerstones of biodiversity conservation, but in present time they are in danger of becoming isolated islands in urbanizing landscapes. Land use changes, especially land development and their implications in the vicinity of PAs may have a significant impact on their ecological functioning and biodiversity and may cause landscape fragmentation and isolation (DeFries et al., 2007; Rodríguez-Rodríguez, Martínez-Vega, 2019). Many authors emphasize that PAs' vicinity are attractive for housing development (Radellof et al., 2010; Borgström et al., 2012; Brambilla, Ronchi, 2016). Therefore, this study aimed at investigating whether the proximity to protected areas may increase the likelihood of residential development and how this development impacts landscape fragmentation and ecological connectivity.

The historical land use changes in 1920-2016 were analyzed based on various databases (historical topographic maps, aerial photographs, National Database of Topographic Objects, Land and Property Register). The analyses were carried out within the selected Nationals Parks (NPs) boundaries and in their surroundings, i.e., in the concentric buffer areas (every 500 m) around NPs, in legally protected buffer zones and in areas outside the buffer zone. The studied areas have different levels of protection, so the effectiveness of buffer zone in reducing land development was assessed compared to the area not covered by any legal protection.

The results have indicated that the main change around NPs was the loss of open areas (mostly due to the housing development and abandonment of agricultural land), which was higher in the close proximity to NPs. These results pose significant questions regarding the effectiveness of current conservation efforts and legal instruments in the spatial planning system for reducing the intense housing development and urban sprawl process in the vicinity of PAs.

*The study is supported by the National Science Centre, Poland project Preludium 16 (DEC-2018/31/N/HS4/00634) and Etiuda 7 (DEC-2019/32/T/HS4/00517).*

Borgström S. et al. (2012). *Outside the boundary – Land use changes in the surroundings of urban nature reserves*. Appl. Geogr., 32: 350-359.

Brambilla M., Ronchi S. (2016). *The park-view effect: Residential development is higher at the boundaries of protected areas*. Sci. Total. Environ., 570: 1402-1407.

DeFries R. et al. (2007). *Land use change around protected areas: management to balance human needs and ecological function*. Ecol. Appl., 17: 1031-1038.

Radeloff V.C. et al. (2010). *Housing growth in and near US protected areas limits their conservation value*. PNAS, 107(2): 940-945.

Rodríguez-Rodríguez D., Martínez-Vega J. (2019). *Analysing subtle threats to conservation: A nineteen-year assessment of fragmentation and isolation of Spanish protected areas*. Landsc. Urban Plan., 185: 107-116.
IMPACT OF POLITICAL LEGACIES ON THE PATTERN OF THE WILDLAND-URBAN
INTERFACE IN POLAND

Dominik Kaim¹ · David Helmers² · Michał Jakiel¹ · Daniel Pavlačka³ · Volker Radeloff²

¹Jagiellonian University · ²University of Wisconsin-Madison · ³Palacký University Olomouc

Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) is area where settlements are located near wildland areas (Radeloff et al., 2005). It is useful in detecting the areas of high wildfire exposures, human-animal coexistence incidents and other human-nature interactions. Since current WUI extent is mainly attributed to recent land use changes (Radeloff et al., 2018), the research indicating its persistence over time and dependence on the historical processes is largely missing. In this paper we present a first country-wide WUI map of Poland. It was created based on the database of nearly 15 million buildings and a Sentinel-2-based forest map.

Our analysis shows that substantial part of the country (35.1%) is located in WUI, while number of buildings in WUI exceeds 60%, which means that substantial part of the Polish rural buildings are located in WUI. Pattern of WUI is not uniform, and can be explained by the former political boundaries, which existed before 1945 much better than by the natural ecoregion diversity. Currently WUI hot-spots are located around the largest Polish agglomerations and in the Carpathian Mountains. It is a result of the land use changes, where farmland abandonment is leading to either forest cover increase or settlement development and both processes supports new WUI creation. So far WUI was not included in any spatial policies in Poland regarding fire risk, human-animal coexistence, or spatial planning. Our analysis introduces WUI concept in Poland, what will open new opportunities to test its applicability in many disciplines.

*The study was supported by the National Science Centre, Poland, contract no. UMO-2019/35/D/HS4/00117.*

Radeloff V.C. et al. (2005). *The Wildland-Urban Interface in the United States*. Ecol. Appl., 15(3): 799-805.

Radeloff V.C. et al. (2018). *Rapid growth of the US wildland-urban interface raises wildfire risk*. PNAS, 115: 3314-3319.

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# THE GLOBAL HOMOGENIZATION OF URBAN FORM. AN ASSESSMENT OF 194 CITIES ACROSS TIME

Richard Lemoine-Rodriguez · Luis Inostroza · Harald Zepp

Ruhr University Bochum

The spatial structure of cities, i.e. their composition, shape and degree of fragmentation or compactness, is a physical expression reflecting development efficiency. Identifying the evolution of urban systems in time and space is crucial towards sustainable urban development. In this paper, we assess the spatial structure of 194 cities from 1990 and 2015, in order to identify patterns, clusters of similar cities, trajectories, and the global distribution of urban form. We delineated the contiguous urban fabric, employed landscape metrics to quantitatively describe urban patterns, applied a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to reduce the dimension of data to an uncorrelated set of variables and identified groups of cities with similar urban forms by means of hierarchical clustering.

We found four types of urban form: compact-grey, transitional, ragged-small and fragmented-complex cities. Globally, continentally and regionally, cities have followed a trend towards more homogeneous urban forms, most of them becoming transitional as a consequence of both, processes of fragmentation and compactness. The only exception of this trend is a group of large cities in Australia, New Zealand and the United States, which are still predominantly fragmented-complex. Under the persisting process of urban expansion, small to medium-sized cities showed to be the most dynamic in terms of expansion and change in urban form, which makes them key towards sustainable urban development. This analysis contributes to the understanding of the transformations induced by the process of urban expansion that shapes urban form. Such information is crucial for achieving urban sustainability.

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# SPATIAL LOGIC OF PARK ACCESS IN GREATER DOHA, QATAR

Khalida Lifam Marthya · Madhavi Indraganti

Qatar University

Urban parks are public assets that unite communities and enhance livability of neighbourhoods. Spatial distribution of urban parks does not always adhere to people's needs or desires. In the context of Qatar, where social stratification in terms of ethnicity and economy is evident, equitable park distribution that meets the needs of the residents raises a social justice issue. Using established and new methodology, this paper identifies the green park distribution pattern in Greater Doha, Qatar using open source demographic data and park need variables. The paper uses two approaches for spatial analysis of green parks: (1) by using walkable service areas to highlight zones with lesser walkable accessibility to neighbourhood parks, and (2) by identifying zones with higher park need using variables such as population density, housing subtype and population subtype.

Results show that about 22% of the zones in Greater Doha and Al Daayen have less than 10% population within walkable access. These zones are majorly home to expatriate population and low-wage migrants in Doha Municipality. Need based analysis shows 'unpatterned inequality' with a greater need both in Doha and suburbs. Findings provide insight into drafting policies on planning parks based on the need to ensure equitable access to different demographic sections.

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ASSESSING SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT – AN EXAMPLE OF INDICATOR SYSTEM

Denis Michalina · Peter Mederly

Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra

Indicators are a useful tool for assessing the level of achievement of strategic objectives and the success in implementing the concept of sustainable development in cities. We aim to provide an overview of the sustainable urban development assessment methodology and its application in selected Slovak cities. We have designed the methodology based on reviewing and analysing selected international and European indicator systems, methodological guidelines and recommendations by various authors, the basis of which are 40 indicators considering the environmental, social, economic, and institutional dimensions of sustainable development. When selecting the indicators, we considered criteria such as their relevancy to development objectives of Slovak cities, availability and quality of data, and frequency of use and the importance of indicators in terms of their application for assessing sustainable urban development. The methodology also includes design of structure and content of indicator methodological sheets. The methodology was applied in the eight largest cities of Slovakia. To evaluate the indicators, we used the scoring method – we scored each indicator and subsequently compiled the integrated indicator through a weighted arithmetic mean of the total number of points scored for each indicator and for sustainable development dimension. Based on the integrated indicator, we then compared the overall performance of each city in terms of sustainable development. Using this approach of evaluation, the capital city Bratislava scored the highest while the city of Prešov the lowest. Finally, we summarized methodological findings and recommendations for the assessment of sustainable urban development. The results of this research can be used especially in the decision and policy making, planning and management process related to urban development in Slovakia, but can provide methodological inspiration also for other European countries.

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# MAIN DIRECTIONS OF LANDSCAPE TRANSFORMATIONS IN POST-INDUSTRIAL URBAN AREAS

Katarzyna Pukowiec-Kurda

University of Silesia in Katowice

Contemporary dynamic space transformation, force to identify new factors that mainly shape the landscape. Landscape formation in post-industrial urban areas is influenced by the processes associated with the transformation of traditional industrial regions into metropolitan areas. Along with this transformation, their function and administrative status are also changing, but the biggest changes are spatial. Learning about contemporary landscape transformation processes allows us to define forecasts for their further development. The aim of this study was to identify landscape transformations in areas anthropogenically changed due to coal mining.

Traditional coal districts in two countries, Poland (Silesian Metropolis – GZM) and the Czechia (Ostrava-Karviná Region – OKR), were selected as study areas. Study areas from two countries allowed for the analysis of similarities and differences in landscape transformation and space management in both of them. The study was based on the LUCC+LTC (Land Use Cover Changes + Landscape Type Changes) model procedure. At the first stage using Corine Land Cover, on the basis of indicators of landscape changes, the dynamics of changes in the years 2000-2018 was determined. In addition, on the basis of orthophotomaps, landscape types in 2000 and 2020 were identified and compared with each other. Locations of changes were verified with planning documents.

The results indicate that the period 2006-2012 saw the most dynamic transformation in both GZM and OKR. The landscape change index indicates that greater landscape transformation occurred in Poland. The main process changing the landscape was suburbanization, which manifests itself in: increased acreage of residential, commercial, industrial areas and denser road network. In both areas, warehouses and logistics centers are massively built. At the same time the area of agricultural land is decreasing. Both in Poland and the Czechia there has been a closure of most mines and a changed into wastelands, recreational areas or young forests.

In conclusion, it should be pointed out that the transformation of landscapes is progressing, but becoming less dynamic. The progressing anthropization of landscape is visible. The landscape of both GZM and OKR is heading towards further urbanisation, or even metropolisation, with all the characteristics of such urban centers. Such manifestations are: expansion of airports, CBD with global corporations occurance, densification of highway network, construction of skyscraper district and transfer the residential function to the suburbs. A characteristic feature is also the phenomenon of urban sprawl.

Further research and monitoring of landscape changes will verify the forecasts. Nevertheless, the identified landscape changes and the processes generating them, indicate further development of cities and an increasing need for their sustainable management.

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UNDERSTANDING REGIONAL URBAN SPRAWL AND DENSIFICATION PROCESSES THROUGH SETTLEMENT AND BUILDING NETWORKS

Yves Marc Räth · Maarten J. Van Strien · Adrienne Grêt-Regamey

ETH Zürich

A growing and urbanizing human population is leading to expanding and densifying settlements (i.e. villages, towns, and cities) worldwide. In Switzerland, the majority of the historical population growth occurred in the past 200 years. During this time period, the landscape has changed drastically as settlements expanded, densified, and became increasingly interconnected through roads, highways, and railroads. Yet, the processes governing urban expansion and densification are not well understood. In this study, the changes of the built environment are analyzed with time series of building and settlement networks. The small-scale building networks are constructed by linking building footprints, based on their orientation and distance to one another, and are used to detect intra-urban changes of urban morphology through network analysis. At the same time, the building networks serve to delineate the nodes for the large-scale settlement networks. The links in the settlement networks are based on spatially explicit commuter flows. These networks are derived from detailed historic maps and datasets.

We investigate the relation between the settlement network topology and the intra-urban morphology in the Swiss Plateau over the past 150 years through 16 time steps. It is expected that urban expansion and densification depends not only on settlement characteristic (e.g. economic or population growth) but also on the relations among settlements in the settlement network, i.e. the network topology (homogenous, polycentric, monocentric). This understanding can help to improve policies to better control urban sprawl in particular in countries where heavy urbanization is still ongoing.

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# MAPPING CHANGES TO FUNCTIONAL URBAN GREEN SPACE GLOBALLY

Elizabeth Schrammeijer · Ziga Malek · Peter Verburg

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Ongoing and rapid expansion of urban area often occurs at the cost of vegetation cover. As a result the essential benefits of green spaces can also be lost or deteriorated. Especially social functions, such as opportunities for psychological restoration or social interaction, cannot be replaced by human built infrastructure. To develop sustainable and liveable cities it is important that we understand the current state of urban green spaces (UGS) and how urbanisation changes their potential to provide essential social functions. To this end we develop a global map of urban green spaces that shows how their characteristics differ between regional urban landscapes and how they change over time. We analyse global and regional differences and past change in demand and supply of social functions. Our findings demonstrate clear regional differences that are closely linked to urban form and socio-economic situation. We also show that ecological context, such as biome type, has a clear influence on UGS characteristics. In some regions urban densification appears to be the cause of dramatic UGS fragmentation and loss and a corresponding increase in mismatch between demand and supply of social functions. In others extensive suburbanisation has similar effects. We emphasize that UGS play an integral role in sustainable urban development and that ecological and social contexts need to be considered in planning effective development strategies.

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# CITIZENS' PERCEPTIONS OF LANDSCAPE CHANGES AND THEIR DRIVING FORCES: EVIDENCE FROM POLAND

Iga Kołodyńska · Piotr Krajewski · Aleksandra Krzyżanek · Ada Garczyńska

Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences

Landscape change is caused by a complex combination of technological, social, cultural, political and spatial processes. These processes are called drivers, or key processes in landscape change or driving forces of landscape change. They are mostly divided into five main groups – socio-economic, political, technological, natural and cultural – and are analyzed as proximate and underlying processes.

The way people perceive those changes is helpful to recognize and analyze the change in the social and cultural context. The perceptive approach helps to recognize people's attitudes and behaviors, which are highly significant direct drivers of local people's priorities and preferences in the context of landscape changes, and hold important information for planners and decision makers. The perception of landscape change may impact the perceived attractiveness of the living environment which is one of the most important factors affecting residential satisfaction. Whether we perceive landscape change as negative or positive may also impact our mood or contribute towards better quality of life. Therefore, the motivation for this study arose from the need to recognize how citizens perceive different types of landscape change and what driving forces are associated with this change in two different settings.

The main aim of our studies was to explore the driving forces of landscape change and their impact on the landscape as perceived by citizens. In our study, we use quantitative tools for unravelling processes of landscape change over time and a qualitative tool aimed at capturing people's perceptions about those changes. We use the two municipalities of Ostrów Wielkopolski and Kąty Wrocławskie as illustrative examples of urban and urban-rural municipalities in two time periods, 2006-2021 and 2012-2018, in Poland. We apply a three-stage approach: (1) to identify the main landscape changes based on land cover data, (2) to characterize those changes with the use of orthophoto maps, and (3) to identify the driving forces of landscape changes with the use of an online survey and interviews.

The results show a large agreement between the perceived and actual level of changes. We identified key landscape change processes in both municipalities, and we conclude that citizens' perceptions concerning those processes in both municipalities differed depending on the context, the level of changes, and the way this process was planned and implemented. In both municipalities the respondents pointed out political driving forces of landscape change as key underlying drivers. Future landscape planning should consider citizens' approaches towards landscape change to achieve better societal approval and improve the quality of life of the inhabitants.

*This research was funded by the National Science Centre, Poland, grant number 2018/31/D/HS4/00659.*

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ASSESSING THE LEVEL OF LANDSCAPE CHANGE IN POLAND – QUANTITATIVE STUDY FOR DISTRICTS AND PROVINCES

Iga Kołodyńska · Piotr Krajewski · Monika Lebiedzińska · Karolina Birnbaum

Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences

In the recent 20 years, an intensification of landscape changes and increasing pressure on landscape values have been observed. Landscape transformations are observed all over the world, especially in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The fall of communism was the beginning of landscape transformations in Poland. Another stage of landscape development started in 2004 after Poland's accession to the European Union and the activation of funds for changing the transport system or the reconstruction of degraded areas. Significant changes in the landscape also affected protected areas due to high tourism activities.

We aim to identify the main areas and direction of landscape changes in Poland using quantitative approach. We use Corine Land Cover database to analyse the intensity of changes in the context of districts and provinces in two time periods: 2006-2012 and 2012-2018 in terms of area change for each land cover type, number of changes, general changes per km² and Landscape Change Index (LCI).

Results show that the changes were more intense in the first analyzed period (2006-2012) than in the second (2012-2018). Changes per km² are most intense in Małopolskie province. The biggest loss is observed in agricultural land while settlement, industrial areas and forest grow in the first period. Similar tendencies are observed in the second period yet the grow of settlement areas is smaller. Biggest LCI is observed in central, northern, southern and south-west Poland in 2006-2012. While in 2012-2018 biggest LCI is observed in the south Poland (Małopolskie province).

This research was funded by the National Science Centre, Poland, grant number 2018/31/D/HS4/00659.
# PROTECTION OF PERI-URBAN OPEN SPACES AT THE LEVEL OF REGIONAL POLICY-MAKING: EXAMPLES FROM SIX EUROPEAN REGIONS

Marcin Spyra · Janina Kleemann · Alina Schürmann · Nica Calo · Christine Fürst

Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg

Peri-urbanisation is a dynamic process consisting primarily of the expansion of artificial areas into natural, semi-natural, and agricultural areas. This process is the backbone of diminishing of peri-urban open spaces, thus it is threatening peri-urban biodiversity and hampers the provision of ecosystem services. In this manuscript, we introduced the concept of peri-urban open spaces and exemplified it on the level of regional policy-making in the following six European case study regions: Basque Country (Spain), Flanders (Belgium), Gorenjska (Slovenia), Hajdú-Bihar (Hungary), Mazovia (Poland), and Saxony-Anhalt (Germany). Our study aimed (1) to analyse land cover changes related to peri-urban open spaces in the case study regions, (2) to identify and classify policy improvements that are useful to protect peri-urban open spaces, and (3) to provide recommendations for regional policy instruments to improve the protection of peri-urban open spaces. We designed a mixed-method approach combining Geographical Information Systems, an explorative questionnaire, and a semi-quantitative survey to fulfil our research aims.

Our results showed that peri-urban open spaces are decreasing in all case study regions but with different scale and dynamics over time. Mostly (non-irrigated) arable land was transformed into non-peri-urban open space. Moreover, we identify 15 policy improvements that are suitable to support the protection of peri-urban open spaces at the level of regional policy-making. Our results indicated a potential for improving the regulatory instruments and showed the usefulness of multi-level governance that better address the protection of peri-urban open spaces at regional level. Using our research results, we provided recommendations for regional policy-makers who are willing to pay more attention to the protection of peri-urban open spaces.

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SOCIAL-ECOLOGICAL INTERACTIONS BETWEEN COMPOSITION AND CONFIGURATION OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE ALONG RURAL URBAN SETTINGS OF BANGALORE, INDIA

Pramila Thapa¹ · Mario Torralba¹,² · Tobias Plieninger¹,²

¹University of Kassel · ²University of Göttingen

Green infrastructures (GIs) are important elements to provide ecosystem services and connectivity in rural and urban landscapes. GIs often link rural to urban areas, but until now little is known about the specific ecosystem services contributions and the spatial, ecological, and socio-cultural connections of GIs in the rural-urban continuum. Bangalore, also known as the 'Garden City', is highly illustrative of urban GIs, as it displays a diversity of GI elements such as street trees, home gardens, parks, spiritual trees, and water bodies. This study aims to identify the social-ecological associations that explain the GI composition (quality and quantity) and configuration (geometric arrangement, isolation, and position of elements) of GIs in Bangalore. We ask how do the amount and configuration of GIs vary among urban, transitional, and rural areas? How do biophysical conditions (such as built-up area, density, asphalt road density, and distance from the city center) and socio-demographic conditions (such as income source, ethnicity, population density, knowledge on the natural environment, housing ownership, and an affiliation to a formal organization) relate to the GIs' distributions among the urban, transitional, and rural areas? To do so, we will use WorldView images. We will consider vegetation, forest, and water bodies as GI elements to assess their percentage cover, size, number, and fragmentation. We will run the Multiple Logistic regression to assess the relationship between the amount and configuration distributions of the GIs with the considered socio-demographic factors. Outcomes of such a social-ecological and spatial assessment of GIs in the rural-urban continuum would help regional planners and decision-makers visualize and plan to facilitate various GIs.

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THE SWISS LANDSCAPE MONITORING PROGRAM LABES THAT INTEGRATES BOTH PHYSICAL/SPATIAL AND SOCIAL DATA: RESULTS FROM THE SECOND RUN 2020

Lina Torregroza¹ · Marcel Hunziker¹ · Flurina Wartmann² · Felix Kienast¹

¹Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research · ²University of Aberdeen

Most of the landscape monitoring programs in Europe and worldwide are limited to the physical and biological space despite the fact that land-use is strongly linked to the socio-cultural realm via people's perception, as it is stated by the definition of landscape of the European Landscape Convention. The Swiss Landscape Monitoring Program LABES is one of the first large-scale landscape observatories where not only physical/spatial data are included but landscape perception has been systematically monitored with representative surveys from the beginning of the monitoring program. The entire monitoring consisted of roughly 30 indicators. Approximately 25% of the indicators measured perception properties: respondents were instructed to base their statements on the landscape and places of their current home municipality rather than on pictures of specific landscapes. We distinguish two perception concepts: (1) an evolutionary determined perception component, and (2) a culturally determined interpretation component based on concepts such as place identity and place attachment.

In the first run of LABES 2010 the physical/spatial and the social preference data were gathered and analysed more or less independently resulting in separate clusters of indicators. However, first attempts to correlate physical/spatial indicators with social/preferential ones turned out to be highly promising. There was, e.g., a clear interdependence of high urban-sprawl values and low preference values. Nevertheless, the findings remained statistical correlations, and it lacked a theory-driven empirically supported explanation of this interdependences.

A method re-development project was, thus, conducted to close the gap between physical/spatial indicators and the social ones. We included indicators focusing specifically on the contents of what is measured by the physical/spatial indicators. In addition, the latter were extended by recreation suitability and use indicators to allow going beyond only landscape preferences. Multi-level and structural equation modelling then was applied to analyse the complex data in an adequate way. At the conference the results of this method re-development project will be presented as well as selected results of the second run of LABES 2020.

Finally, the question arises which approaches are most suitable for which task. On-site surveys of course are most adequate for regional studies and for exploring the mechanisms, photo-based online surveys help to include a large population but still stick to particular situations represented on the photographs. And finally, the general municipality evaluation regarding landscape and recreation quality is best to gather information about the public perception of large areas as countries or beyond (suitable to compare the situation in, e.g. the whole of Europe).

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ANALYSIS AND MODELLING OF CHANGES IN SETTLEMENT SYSTEMS

Jasper van Vliet¹ · Mengmeng Li¹ · Yuan Wang² · Peter Verburg¹

¹Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam · ²Hebei Normal University

Built-up land has profound impacts on the landscape, for example in terms of aesthetics and ecological disturbance, even when it occupies only a fraction of the landscape. Yet, spatial analyses as well as future projections often represent landscapes based on their predominant land cover, thus often ignoring small patches of built-up land. Such simplification hampers our understanding of processes of landscape change, as well as our capacity to develop future projections with landscape ecological relevance.

In this study, we operationalize the concept of settlement systems to better analyze past landscape changes and explore future scenarios. Settlement systems in this case are operationalized as stages along the conceptual rural-urban gradient, from agricultural village landscapes to urban cores. They differ not only in the amount of built-up land, but also in terms of the predominant and cover, number of settlements and population density.

We first map settlement systems in China for the year 1990, 2000, and 2010 and analyze their changes over time. Not unexpectedly, we find that a large share of the landscape includes some settlements, and can thus be characterized accordingly, while only a small fraction is characterized by denser urban systems. Yet, more surprisingly, we find that the vast majority of all built-up land is included in village and town landscapes. Moreover, we find that over time, settlement systems change gradually along the rural-urban gradient, rather than suddenly from strictly rural to strictly urban.

Subsequently, we simulate future settlement changes, and under different planning strategies. Here, we find that the same population scenario can lead to drastically different settlement system outcomes, depending on whether intensification or expansion of built-up areas are promoted. This again affects the impact on cropland as well as natural areas, both of which are very much under pressure in China.

Our results show that large shares of the landscape can be characterized by the presence of human settlements of different types, and that these settlements change incrementally. In many spatial analyses this nuance is lost due to the simplification of landscapes, while our results show their relevance in both understanding and projecting landscape changes.

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# Governance mixes for sustainable peri-urbanization: how can landscape ecology contribute?

## Symposium organisers

Marcin Spyra (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg), Silvia Ronchi (Polytechnic University of Milan), Chiara Cortinovis (Humboldt University of Berlin)

## Summary

Peri-urban landscapes (PULs) are often characterized by unsustainable development, conflicts, and fragmented governance, but they are also key places to address cross-scale issues such as water management, biodiversity conservation, and ecosystem service provision. In this session, we aim to investigate innovative governance mixes for PULs sustainability and to explore how the holistic approach of landscape ecology can contribute to them. We welcome both applicative cases and theoretical perspectives.

## Description

Peri-urbanization processes involving urban expansion through land take and soil sealing are massive, often taking place beyond any regulations, threatening the performance of ecosystems and the provision of ecosystem services. These processes lead to the emerging of peri-urban landscapes (PULs), transition territories connecting cities with their surrounding environment, where urban, rural and natural or semi-natural characteristics are mixed. The governance of PULs faces multiple challenges: vertically and horizontally fragmented governance and planning, increasing pressure of market forces, speed of peri-urbanization processes, and lack of awareness about their potential consequences, among others. At the same time, it needs to address urban, regional and (cross-) national development goals such as air pollution reduction, integrated watershed management, infrastructure planning and management, biodiversity conservation, provision of and accessibility to ecosystem services.

Fostering sustainable development requires to overcome the numerous conflicts that characterize PULs and to approach them as interfaces where opportunities for governance experimentation and new governance mixes can emerge. Such new governance mixes do not refer to a particular type of governance or a simple combination of policy instruments but indicate a thoughtful mix of different, top-down and bottom-up governance approaches, introduced at different administrative levels, discussed and implemented by a wide range of governance actors, and bringing different formal and informal outcomes.

We hypothesise that a holistic landscape ecology approach can offer a transdisciplinary platform to develop innovative governance mixes towards sustainable PULs. However, several limitations and barriers are likely to emerge in such complex landscapes. To explore those barriers and the opportunities emerging in PULs, we encourage researchers and practitioners to present case studies, exemplary applications, theoretical frameworks and perspectives, as well as proposals of innovative governance processes, policy instruments, decision-support tools and methodologies, which contribute to addressing the following questions:

* What kind of governance mixes could increase the sustainability of existing and future PULs, and how?

* What is/can be the role of landscape ecology and landscape approaches when developing innovative governance mixes towards sustainable PULs?

* What are the good practices related to the successful implementation of governance mixes in PULs?

* What are the challenges and barriers for implementing governance mixes towards sustainable development in PULs?
RE-PLANNING OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE AND NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE URBAN TRANSITION

Sigvard Bast¹ · Ulla Mörtberg¹ · Johan Högström¹ · Berit Balfors¹ · Lina Suleiman¹ · Chiara Cortinovis² · Blal Adem Esmail³ · Jarumi Kato Huerta⁴ · Davide Geneletti⁴ · Christian Albert²

¹KTH Royal Institute of Technology · ²Ruhr University Bochum · ³Humboldt University of Berlin · ⁴University of Trento

Landscape approaches are important for planning of urban sprawl in peri-urban landscapes, continuously emerging in many metropolitan regions. In the case of Stockholm Region, land-take and incremental urbanisation is a continuous process, while the regional development plan has ambitions to steer the overall development in a sustainable direction. This plan contains a green infrastructure effort building on a set of green wedges, mainly serving as support to the needs of the city and suburbs and their citizens. This initiative differs from the later green infrastructure action plan provided by the county administrative board, related to the EU biodiversity strategy and guidelines. The latter has a different approach, mainly targeting biodiversity goals as well as ecosystem services. These approaches differ from each other in several ways while both have unclear roles when it comes to municipal planning on different levels. Furthermore, the municipalities have their own initiatives when it comes to green infrastructure and nature-based solutions and it is not clear how the different planning tiers are linked to each other, to planning and management, and to multifunctional landscapes. The aim of the REPLAN project is to investigate how the different green infrastructure initiatives are linked to planning, to each other on different scales, and whether they can serve multi-functional landscapes when it comes to biodiversity and different ecosystem services. The REPLAN project involves stakeholders and practitioners on different planning levels for co-producing knowledge, methods and strategies for green infrastructure and nature-based solutions to serve as tools for sustainable transition of metropolitan areas and their peri-urban landscapes.
LANDSCAPE QUALITY AND ECOLOGY OF PERCEPTION THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE
BUILT ENVIRONMENT AND URBAN SETTLEMENT IN MOUNTAIN AREAS

Lorena Fiorini · Camilla Sette · Bernardino Romano

University of L'Aquila

The appreciation of the qualities of the landscape by individuals has long been limited to perception relationships. Several notable examples could be cited: one of the best known is the reporting of the wonders of American nature made by Lewis and Clark after their expedition in 1806 and which led to the establishment of the world's first National Park in 1872, Yellowstone. But to this example we cannot neglect to associate that of the Italian legislation that introduced the landscape plans, that is the law 1497/39 "Protection of natural beauties". It is evident that social communities have always established functional relationships with landscape contexts, using and exploiting ecosystem services, but these concepts came rather late to the understanding of the general public thanks first of all to scientific production (Costanza et al., 1997) and then with the international research project Millennium Ecosystem Assessment supported by the UN in 2001 (MEA, 2005). In any case, it cannot be denied that perception remains central to this day and undoubtedly supports the large part of tourist motivations. From the above considerations emerges the need to protect the landscape, in particular with the care linked to the actions of redevelopment, conservation and restoration, finalizing the objectives to the maintenance of functional qualities towards the human component and biodiversity in general, but not neglecting the aspects more basal than perception quality.

The theme shows many emblematic characteristics in the Italian mountains, in particular in the settled parts of this, where, apart from some limited virtuous cases, interventions have followed one another over time that have dramatically damaged the historical features of ancient villages and relationship matrices.

Italy is currently experiencing a season of strong relaunch of the debate connected to the abandonment of the mountains, which follows the one already activated in the early 1970s. Specifically, very simplistic planning and promotion actions are envisaged aimed at generic 'repopulation' objectives, as well as intense infrastructuralization according to models that have now been failed in previous decades.

Very little is said and proposed instead on the topics of the profound improvement of the image of the settlements, and in the same protected areas it is very tiring to enforce rules that can lead, again in the span of at least twenty years, to the retrofit of these processes of alteration of the built heritage which, if it has any chance of resuming permanent functions, emerging from the spiral of economic neglect, it must first recover perception quality and become again an attractor for the interests of reuse and attribution of new functions.

Costanza R. et al. (1997). *The value of the world's ecosystem services and natural capital*. Nature, 387(6630): 253-260.

MEA (2005). *Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Synthesis*. Washington: Island Press.

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IDENTIFYING AND REGULATING PERI-URBAN AREAS BY A LANDSCAPE PLANNING APPROACH. THE CASE STUDY OF TURIN (ITALY)

Federica Larcher¹ · Claudia Cassatella² · Enrico Gottero²

¹University of Turin · ²Polytechnic University of Turin

Since the nineties, peri-urban areas have inspired many research and produced strong interest in the field of the territorial science, especially with the aim of governing conflicts between city and countryside, as well as finding valid and universal solutions to the phenomenon of peri-urbanization. According to several authors, the peri-urban is a specific space, neither urban, nor rural. It is an interface, a contact zone between urban settlements and closing rural areas. At the same time peri-urban areas undergo the urban pressure and provide socio-economic and cultural functions taking advantage from proximity to urban areas (Piorr et al., 2011). The complexity and different types of peri-urban areas are the main reasons that make a homogeneous interpretation, an unambiguous identification and designation, as well as the definition of land use rules, very difficult. The aim of this research is to develop a replicable method to identify and draw up peri-urban areas, as well as to define guidelines for statutory planning at different scale and in the European context. In order to a deeper understanding of the peri-urban concept and its dimensions, this method is applied to a case study of the Turin Metropolitan Area (TMA).

The proposed method includes: (1) the discourse analysis of plans and policy documents related to Turin peri-urban area in the last 20 years, (2) the identification of the peri-urban area, based on different criteria and conditions of peri-urbanization, including distance from urban centre and integration with functional urban area (FUA) (essential conditions), number of inhabitants, degree of urbanization and infrastructure (primary conditions), altitude and slope (secondary conditions), and (3) the definition of rules and guidelines for peri-urban open spaces.

This research produced a new perimeter of the Turin peri-urban area, defined transformation and conservation rules such as procedural guidelines, a scheme of peri-urban open spaces at local scale, implementing instruments (agro-urban projects, agricultural parks, integrated financial tools) at local and supra-local levels. The authors also highlighted the relevance of the landscape planning approach in governance and regulatory planning of peri-urban areas, considering the global drivers and new challenges such as food security and land use conflicts, the role of peri-urban areas in terms of maintaining and strengthening green infrastructures, feeding the city and preserving agricultural land, as well as strengthening urban-rural linkages and management of city-countryside relationship.

Piorr A. et al. (Eds.) (2011). *Peri-urbanisation in Europe. Towards a European Policy to sustain Urban-Rural Futures, Synthesis Report*. Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen /Academic Books Life Sciences.

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URBAN AND PERI-URBAN SHAPES FOR SUSTAINABLE GOVERNANCE

Alessandro Marucci · Chiara Di Dato

University of L'Aquila

In most countries worldwide, cities have developed following the path of ‘sprawl’. This path is typical of urban settlements scattered over vast and very low-density areas. As a model of growth, the ‘sprawl’ phenomenon has become a standard and it has been studied as a territorial disease for years (Romano et al., 2017). Territorial diseases like ‘sprawl’ are difficult to manage over the Italian territory because decisions about urban development are very fragmented. In fact, urban and spatial planning are exclusive competence of almost 8000 different small municipalities. From strategical actions to projects on built areas, such as new infrastructures and welfare services, decisions are demanded to countless municipal councils. Along more than 300,000 km², every administration governs very little plots of land, as little as polygons of few kilometres per side (Romano et al., 2019). Therefore, the study aims to focus on recurring settlements and to interpret them.

The result is a classification of different morphological settlements, from urban to peri-urban areas. Such a classification is relevant also for identifying natural areas, which are the counterpart of urban patterns. In fact, both urban settlements than natural areas are components of good multilevel urban planning. Urban and peri-urban areas are distinguished in different ways in literature. However, most of the definitions are subjective and ambiguous. In fact, they describe settlements from a qualitative perspective only. Then, the authors propose to analyse and classify some urban and peri-urban areas. The goal of this work is to formalize a methodology for the classification of peri-urban areas and provide a tool for new dynamic and sustainable forms of governance, using GIS-based technologies and artificial intelligence (AI). The integration of geography and machine learning can produce novel approaches in addressing a variety of problems occurring in natural and human environments (Dobesova, 2020). The proposed work is developed in the context of LIFE IMAGINE, an integrated LIFE project lasting 7 years (2020-2027). The project is created with the aim of supporting the development of an integrated, unified, coordinated, and participatory strategy for managing the Natura 2000 network in Umbria Region.

Dobesova Z. (2020). *Experiment in Finding Look-Alike European Cities Using Urban Atlas Data*. ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf., 9(6): 406.

Romano B. et al. (2019). *Molecular no Smart-planning in Italy 8000 Municipalities in Action throughout the Country*. Sustainability, 11: 6467.

Romano B. et al. (2017). *Land transformation of Italy due to half a century of urbanization*. Land Use Policy, 67: 387-400.

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# GOVERNANCE AND ACTOR MIX SHAPES THE PATHWAY TO SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE IN A DUTCH PERI-URBAN REGION

Nynke Schulp<fnref n="1" /> · Franziska Komossa<fnref n="1" /> · Laura Scherer² · Emma van der Zanden³ · Marta Debolini<fnref n="4" /> · Annette Piorr⁵

peri-urban areas in Northwest Europe tend to have an important component of intensive agricultural land. While the access to open space is an important public good for peri-urban residents, the intensive agricultural use also results in conflicts between agricultural use and the public good demands of residents. Sustainable future development of peri-urban areas that combine intensive agriculture with peri-urban demands requires an approach that helps reconciling this variety of agricultural and well-being goals.

A portfolio of sustainable intensification (SI) measures that aim at improving sustainability of farms, landscapes, as well as local value chains, might foster that reconciliation. However, it is unclear how the mix of governance actors and stakeholders in a peri-urban setting can trigger or restrain SI. In a case study in the Netherlands, we explored how SI of agriculture can contribute to a sustainable future of the region, and which actors are leverage points for implementing SI.

Our case study is located close to Utrecht, the fourth city of the Netherlands, and is characterised by a mix of dairy and fruit production. Building on interviews and workshops, we gathered insight in the potential futures for the region, reflecting both a business-as-usual as a preferred vision of a future pivoting around improving sustainability of agriculture. We did a stakeholder network analysis of the region to identify key actors. This was combined with empirical analysis based on surveys, interviews, and secondary data in a Bayesian Belief Network. We used the Bayesian Belief Network to explore options for SI implementation in the future. We linked the actor network to implementation of three SI measures (farm-level efficiency measures, small landscape elements, and direct sales), and used sensitivity analysis to identify which groups of governance actors or stakeholders are leverage points for implementation.

Dependent on the SI measure, farmers are the key actor towards a more sustainable agricultural system in our case study, or are triggered by other actors. The stakeholders preferred a future with a strong local value chain, improved landscape quality, and continuation of current farm-level efficiency improvements. This future requires broad support of all actors involved, with local actors without a formal role being a leverage point. Overall, trade-offs among public goods are almost inevitable when taking up SI measures.

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<footnote n="1">¹Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam · ²Leiden University · ³PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency ·</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴INRAE, UMR 1114 EMMAH · ⁵Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research</footnote>
ENHANCING URBAN RESILIENCE TO FLOOD RISK THROUGH NATURE-BASED
SOLUTIONS IN PERI-URBAN ECOSYSTEMS: THE CASE OF MEXICO CITY

Gloria Soto-Montes-de-Oca¹ · Gustavo M. Cruz-Bello¹ · Rosalind Bark²

¹Metropolitan Autonomous University · ²University of East Anglia

Floods are one of the most frequent natural hazards, and they occur in almost every country, with climate change exacerbating their frequency and intensity. Improvements in urban planning, governance, and the use of nature-based solutions (NBS) can be cost-effective ways to make human settlements more resilient to flooding. Retaining and slowing the upstream runoff of a peri-urban area with vegetation and soil management can play an important role in risk management. Ecosystems in the peri-urban interface might still be rich in natural capital that provision regulation ecosystem services, such as flood and erosion control. The resilience of the ecosystems per se may also provide insurance and option values that safeguard provision of ecosystem services under uncertainty and into the future. Paavola and Primmer (2019) explain that the challenge of capturing insurance value in governance arrangements is that insurance value is a co-benefit of natural resources management with the characteristics of public or club goods. Typically, urban planning in developing countries does not integrate NBS for flood risk management.

In our research, we used information on those areas that supply and demand regulating ecosystem
systems to reduce flood risk in Mexico City. Specifically, we use the Soil and Water Assessment Tool
(SWAT) to estimate the runoff amount and sediment retention and model interventions aimed to
restore ecosystems in peri-urban areas. In the demand areas we approximated the spatial pattern of
benefits of the likely runoff reduction, considering: (1) insurance compensation data based on a public
insurance scheme, (2) econometric functions that consider flood depths and marginalization index of
the affected areas, and (3) the preventive expenditure of infrastructure to offset negative impacts of
ecosystem services delivery. We found evidence of low compensation via the public insurance scheme
provided by Mexico City government; observed that the benefits of improving ecosystems in peri-urban
areas are greater than alternative investments in grey infrastructure to reduce runoff and floods; also,
we found that the areas that provide a greater potential to reduce runoff were mostly located in
natural protected areas and that runoff coefficients increased in areas with no protection. We
concluded that in addition to policies that protect natural areas other governance instruments could be
explored to incentivise the provision of flood regulation ecosystem services, such as enhanced
insurance policies. Furthermore, as most peri-urban land in Mexico is communally owned and managed
in ejidos; the Mexican common property model, that working with ejidos will be critical to developing
incentives that protect the insurance value of peri-urban ecosystems.

Paavola J., Primmer E. (2019). *Governing the provision of insurance value from ecosystems*. Ecol. Econ., 164, 106346.

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GOVERNANCE MIXES FOR SUSTAINABLE PERI-URBAN LANDSCAPES: AN ANALYSE
OF INTERNATIONAL POLICY APPROACHES USING A SURVEY OF PRACTICES

Marcin Spyra¹ · Chiara Cortinovis² · Silvia Ronchi³

¹Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg · ²Humboldt University of Berlin · ³Polytechnic University of Milan

To foster sustainable development, peri-urban landscapes (PULs) can be approached as interfaces that, beyond many conflicts, can also create opportunities for governance experimentation and thus for innovative governance mixes to emerge.

Our research discusses spatial planning-oriented governance mixes, which do not refer to a particular type of governance. Governance mixes in our understanding are broader than an unstructured combination of different policy instruments/approaches and indicate a thoughtful mix of different, top-down and bottom-up policy and planning approaches, which are introduced at different administrative levels, bringing different formal and informal outcomes, discussed and implemented by the wide range of governance actors. The overall aim of the governance mix is to increase sustainability of PUL. The aim of our research is to analyse what kind of policy instruments, policy support tools, approaches and methodologies have been implemented to address specific planning challenges in the extent of PULs. This gives us a possibility to describe governance mixes responding to such challenges.

To fulfil our aims, we designed an on-line survey through which experts (either researchers, planners, or policy-makers) could describe specific policy instruments applied in a PULs. The survey is composed of seven sections covering an overview of the policy instrument, the objectives, the achievements, the resources for implementation, the actors involved, the critical aspects emerged, and the support tools adopted in the process. Almost all questions are close-ended, and the responses were binary coded (0-no, 1-yes).

During the last year, we received and collected 50 answers from 26 countries, describing 46 different policy instruments, some of which applied in more than one case study. The range of sustainability challenges addressed is very wide, among the many mentioned there are the climate change, the water management, and the built environment. Legal and regulatory instruments are the most popular, and their implementation is frequently supported by public resources. However, a wide variety of practices emerge in terms of actors involved, and support tools adopted during the process.

The results suggest that a thoughtful mix of different policy instruments could be a good strategy to overcome the criticalities of each specific instrument and to address the sustainability challenges of PULs in an effective way.

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# Tools for co-governance of nature-based solutions for sustainable cities

## Symposium organisers

Martina van Lierop (Technical University of Munich), Rieke Hansen (Hochschule Geisenheim University), Stephan Pauleit (Technical University of Munich)

## Summary

In relation to nature-based solution (NBS), a transformation towards more fair and inclusive collaborative governance processes is emphasized increasingly. Yet, implementation of these processes is hampered by a lack of resources, time, skills and knowledge on co-design, co-implementation, co-management as well as co-assessment and co-monitoring. This session welcomes contributions, which explore instruments, procedures and tools to support co-governance of NBS: top-down government-led and bottom-up community-driven; formal and informal; short-term and long-term. At the close of the session, a round table discussion allows to derive key messages and recommendations.

## Description

The concept of nature-based solutions (NBS) has gained increasing interest as a means to make major contributions towards more liveable, sustainable and climate-resilient cities. In relation to NBS in urban areas, the need for a transformation towards more fair and inclusive collaborative governance processes is emphasized. Consequently, there is an increased interest in transdisciplinary research into the design and implementation of participatory planning processes, co-production of NBS in living labs or other co-creative processes, the involvement of underrepresented and marginalised groups and promoting social justice. Yet, knowledge on co-governance processes is still scarce, scattered and one-sided, while in practice lack of resources, time, convictions, and skills further hamper making these processes constructive and long-lasting.

This session aims to explore tools and instruments to support the co-design, co-implementation and co-management of NBS on different policy levels from EU, national to regional and local. As collaborative approaches require a diverse set of governance modes (i.e., mosaic governance), top-down as well as bottom-up strategies are considered. Instruments and tools supporting the integration of top-down government-led approaches and bottom-up community driven initiatives for NBS will receive however particular attention. Collaboration, participation and communication tools as well as planning, market-based and regulatory instruments are considered. The session will enhance our understanding how formal and informal procedures as well as short-term interventions and long-term thinking can be skilfully combined to foster NBS. Our interest extends to include co-assessment and co-monitoring of NBS and the related governance processes, as collaborative approaches should be involved across the whole spectrum of a planning process.

The session invites talks that present and reflect on collaborative approaches, such as living labs, from different environmental, economic and social-cultural contexts as well as the diverse perspectives from practitioners as well as researchers involved in the design, planning, management and governing of urban areas. Moreover, we welcome insights on innovative new tools to promote procedural and recognition justice from global development studies to be more inclusive, give marginal groups a voice, and define measures to countervail power imbalances. Contributions investigating the criteria of good governance practice for a better integration of different actors and sectors in the public domain are also encouraged to participate.

Key messages and recommendations for tools for the co-governance of NBS will be synthesised at a co-learning setting with speakers and participants in the open round table discussion.

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GREEN SPACE GOVERNANCE BETWEEN PARTICIPATION IN TOP-DOWN PLANNING AND CO-CREATION – EXAMPLES FROM ELEVEN EUROPEAN CITIES

Rieke Hansen¹ · Marleen Buizer² · Arjen Buijs² · Stephan Pauleit³

¹Hochschule Geisenheim University · ²Wageningen University & Research · ³Technical University of Munich

Green (and blue) spaces are considered as nature-based solutions that help to tackle pressing societal challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, or social injustice. This is often linked to a shift from top-down planning to more co-governance (Bulkeley, 2020). However, institutions such as public administrations dealing with urban planning and green space planning face barriers in transforming their routines and practices towards urban sustainability and new governance approaches. This is due to path dependencies resulting from investments in public infrastructure such as a car-centric design of public spaces, formalized planning approaches as well as a lack of budget for maintenance of urban infrastructure, including green infrastructure (Carroli, 2018; Boulton et al., 2020)

Our study builds on the EU research project GREEN SURGE (2013-2017), which investigated green space planning and governance in cities across Europe and developed concepts, recommendations and guidelines for the use of green infrastructure as an innovative approach (Pauleit et al., 2019). These data provide the most comprehensive and in-depth information on green space planning and governance of European urban areas to date. By re-examining eleven of the twenty cities in 2020 and 2021, we shed light on the question whether and how green space planning and governance has changed, having the unique opportunity for a comparison with the previous state of affairs.

The interviews conducted as part of this research revealed increased political support for green space planning as well as higher demand for green and attractive surroundings from citizens. At the same time, challenges such as restricted financial resources and staff remained prevalent. In addition, new tasks and cross-sector cooperation increased the workload in some cases. In terms of green space governance, most respondents reported an increase and provided examples of new discussion formats with stakeholders, approaches such as citizen budgets, or co-management of green spaces with citizen groups. We will present selected examples from these eleven cities and discuss different approaches to green space governance on the spectrum from public participation to co- and self-governance approaches.

Boulton et al. (2020). *Under pressure: Factors shaping urban greenspace provision in a mid-sized city*. Cities, 106: 102816.

Bulkeley H. (2020). *Nature-based solutions towards sustainable communities: Analysis of EU-funded projects*. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.

Carroli L. (2018). *Planning roles in infrastructure system transitions: A review of research bridging socio-technical transitions and planning*. Environ. Innov. Soc, 29: 81-89.

Pauleit et al. (2019). *Advancing urban green infrastructure in Europe: Outcomes and reflections from the GREEN SURGE project*. Urban For. Urban Green., 40: 4-16.

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INTEGRATION OF NBS IN LOCAL GOVERNANCE AND URBANISATION TRAJECTORIES
IN EU AND CELAC CITIES

Beatriz Kauark-Fontes¹ · Cesar Ortiz-Guerrero² · Fabio Salbitano¹ · Jaime Hernández-García² · Livia Marchetti¹ · Maria Alejandra Cruz-Suarez²

¹University of Florence · ²Pontifical Javierian University

The concept of nature-based solutions (NBS) has been rapidly progressing in both Europe and Latin America reflecting a transition in the way that urban development is perceived. However, the attention given to NBS in urban governance and in the planning process is often limited by the fragmentation of responsibilities in technical and administrative services, in policy and planning, and across levels of government. This can drastically harm NBS implementation and the benefits they can provide. Integration is a key issue in the establishment of NBS. This study analyses the state of integration of NBS in governance and planning in seven case studies of Europe and Latin America part of the H2020 project, CONEXUS. This research aims to understand the current state of top-down and bottom-up integration in urban governance and NBS planning process within and across scales and dimensions. It intend to recognize entry points, in practices and policies, that hinder or can catalyze more agile forms of cross-sectoral multi-level governance to champion NBS projects.

The study follows a qualitative methodology composed of a review of official documents and literature from the municipalities, to take stock of the existing governance structure in place; collection of primary data through participatory workshops and expert interviews to confirm the knowledge acquired and gather further insights from the field; and a prospective analysis with cross learnings and challenges between the two regions. Findings show differences in contexts and on the state of NBS implementation, but also similarities regarding the barriers and opportunities for integration in governance and planning. The state of NBS integration in urban governance is still novel in both regions. There are initial dialogues among the public sector, academia, and local actors from different scales but with limited levels. Planning in silos still persists affecting potential confluence of actions and policies. Limited awareness about NBS benefits and limited levels of environmental education were found to be major barriers towards NBS advocacy and engagement with citizens both in EU and CELAC. CELAC case studies further face obstacles to participation such as high levels of inequality and urban violence, while in EU, the issue 'not in my backyard' were highly present. However, the study also displays that the cities find themselves in a good position to enhance their state of integration. In both regions, there is a concentration of national and international plans and policies that reflects in local NBS initiatives creating an enabling atmosphere for the continuity and integration of NBS. Municipalities and citizens show an increasing interest in reconnecting with nature and therefore to be engaged in NBS co-design. To frame it, our results indicate that the current conditions are suitable to further prioritize the integration of NBS within cities' agenda and to promote changes towards their co-design.
PARTICIPATORY APPROACH EMPLOYING QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE METHODS FOR EXPLORATION OF CULTURAL ECOSYSTEM SERVICES ATTRIBUTED TO URBAN GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE - CASE STUDY OF THE CITY OF ZAGREB, CROATIA

Martina Kičić · Ana Marija Marin · Dijana Vuletić · Silvija Krajter Ostoić

Croatian Forest Research Institute

Participatory approaches in natural resource management are gaining momentum lately. When carried out properly, they produce important information, which can be used to inform planning and management based on the inputs from their direct users. The city of Zagreb has plenty of green spaces. However, insufficient public participation in green space planning and management leads to decisions that do not include public perceptions and opinions including those of green space users. This leads to green space management that does not meet public needs and expectations.

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) of urban green infrastructure are important for citizens' well-being. Focus group participatory mapping on the topic of CES perception and use was employed for all districts of the city of Zagreb. In total, the focus groups consisted of 94 participants. Explored CES were place attachment, recreation, aesthetic experiences, education, and cultural identity. Alongside focus group interviews, participatory mapping with participants had been conducted. Locations of certain CES were recorded on a physical map and later digitalized. The qualitative analysis detected the most important attributes for each CES category and tree-based urban green infrastructure type. The quantitative analysis further confirmed the results of the qualitative analysis, where place attachment, recreation and aesthetic experiences were more often mentioned, while education and cultural identity were less mentioned.

Participatory approaches, such as focus group participatory mapping, are a highly useful methodological approach and tools for gathering a rich array of data on a specific phenomenon in public spaces. Even though it could be time-consuming, arguably, it is an efficient approach when there is lack of previous research and there is a need for deeper understanding, how people perceive and use urban green space. For governance and planning processes in green infrastructure that means that complete information is obtained from direct users producing new knowledge that is usually hard to capture using indicators or proxies, therefore, leading to better decision making. Besides, including public opinion in the planning and governance process increases the likelihood that future decisions are perceived positively and the process itself honest and inclusive.
VISUALISATIONS AS A TOOL IN PARTICIPATORY PROCESSES – LESSONS LEARNED FROM PRACTITIONERS

Martina van Lierop · Daniel Hildebrandt

Technical University of Munich

Visualisations are important instruments in the toolbox of spatial planners to communicate the spatial complexity of nature-based solutions (NBS). Yet, with the recognition of NBS, also comes an increased need for inclusive collaborative planning processes. If planning processes become more participatory to ensure inclusion of a broad range of actors and communication with non-professionals is required, what does this mean for the way spatial planners communicate with visualisations? Despite its importance, participatory planning is still often treated as a niche activity and finds only limited application in teaching curricula due time and resource constraints. Knowledge in research is scarce and focuses mainly on the application of new digital visualisation tools. Knowledge on communication through visualisations beyond mere informing is often acquired through learning-by-doing in practice. Our aim was to make the tacit knowledge on visualisations in participatory planning processes explicit.

During the summer of 2020, semi-structured interviews with nine experts in participatory planning from Germany were conducted either in person or due to Covid-19 restrictions per phone or online platform (e.g. Skype, Zoom). Each of the experts had at least five years of professional experience. The interviewees were asked to send the questions in advance together with our working definitions of 'participatory planning' and 'visualisations'. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and subjected to a content analysis with the support of MAXQDA.

From the interviews became evident that visualisations bring a variety of benefits to participatory planning and can be used effectively when used thoughtfully. Although different visualisation techniques have been considered, the most relevant distinction is between analogue and digital techniques. Digital techniques allow for complex data to be presented: scale and temporal changes, select specific information and alternatives. However, digital techniques are hindered by technical hurdles and need for expertise. Here analogue techniques perform better. Instead of mere interaction with the visualisation, their simplicity and low-key access threshold offer more potential for social interaction among participants. Such interactions can lead to constructive discussion between participants and in turn to higher quality decisions, while promoting trust and acceptance in the planning process. In early stages of planning processes, analogue visualisations have a degree of openness for changes, which allows for discussion, while the level of detail and complexity in digital techniques support objective decision-making in later stages. Although the interviewees do see the benefits of visualisations, when carefully selected for the specific process, they do stress that visualisations are no panacea for successful participation processes. A well-managed pro-active facilitation is at least as important.

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# GUIDING NBS CO-GOVERNANCE – AN OVERVIEW OF PRINCIPLES AND INSTRUMENTS FROM NBS GUIDANCE

Martina van Lierop · Andrea Skiba · Valentina Arros · Christin Ganserer · Alice de Mendes
Freitas · Stephan Pauleit

Technical University of Munich

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are recognized as a means to transform cities into climate-resilient, biodiverse and healthy living environments. NBS guidance material, such as handbooks, guides, manuals and toolboxes shall support the mainstreaming and implementation of NBS in practice. Concurrently, there is an increased call for collaborative governance and planning processes to support an inclusive and just urban transformation. Yet, knowledge is still scarce on how processes of NBS intersect with social and environmental justice. We wanted to understand how well the procedural dimension of NBS co-governance and its related challenges have been addressed in the available guidance and review the recommended strategies, principles and instruments.

Working within the framework of the EU-funded CONEXUS project, we conducted a content analysis on NBS supporting guidance from European and Latin American contexts. Guidance material in either print or digital form (e.g. online PDF, website) was collected through expert knowledge, snowballing and a Google search with keywords. As we focus on material targeted at non-academic users, scientific databases were not consulted. Material was included in the languages English, German, Portuguese, and Spanish, which focused on (peri-)urban contexts and NBS or related concepts. Moreover, the results should be prescriptive. 132 research projects, individual publications or websites (70 English, 3 German, 6 Portuguese, 57 Spanish) were first reviewed for their focus on either the substantive or procedural dimension of NBS. Material addressing the latter dimension (55 English, 2 German, 5 Portuguese, 32 Spanish) was further analysed concerning process phases, scale levels and level of participation, transdisciplinary collaboration and inclusiveness. In addition, these guides were scanned for strategies, principles and instruments supporting collaboration, participation, and inclusiveness.

The challenges for NBS most frequently addressed are ‘climate resilience’, ‘health and well-being’ and ‘participatory planning and governance’, while ‘air quality’ is the least addressed. ‘Social justice and social cohesion’ have proportionally been more often mentioned in Spanish guidance than in English guidance. Most of the guidance focuses on the city/municipal and local level, while NBS on a global or continental scale are rarely considered. Around two-third of the guidance deal with the process phases of ‘planning and design’ and ‘assessment and analysis’, while ‘management’ is still only taken into account in around a quarter of the guidance. Frequently mentioned principles for governance and planning processes were ‘bottom-up’, ‘long-term’, ‘reflective’, ‘iterative’ as well as ‘room for experiment’. In addition, we identified and described 12 categories of instruments from formal regulatory to informal instruments for public participation.

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DESIGNING COLLABORATIVE PLANNING FOR NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS.
OBSERVATIONS FROM ROMANIA'S LOCAL ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION PLANS

Cristina-Gabriela Mitincu · Constantina-Alina Hossu · Mihai-Răzvan Niță · Ioan-Cristian Iojă · Andreea Niță

University of Bucharest

Nature-based solutions (NBS) can help cities increase their resilience and sustainability. They represent those actions inspired, supported or copied from nature, which have a high potential to simultaneously provide multiple environmental, social, and economic co-benefits. Environmental planning acts as an indispensable approach to promote the integration of NBS in urban areas. Achieving integrated governance approaches and considering the participation of different stakeholders in implementing NBS were identified as key opportunities for successful organization and scaling of NBS across cities. Therefore, our study aims to identify the main stakeholders that could be considered in promoting NBS, as well as to understand the strengths and weaknesses of collaborative planning processes.

A sample of seven Local Environmental Action Plans (LEAPs) from Romania was selected to identify the stakeholders responsible for the planning and implementation of LEAPs policies that include NBS. Stakeholders were classified based on their type (i.e., institutional and participatory) and character (i.e., innovator, change agent, transformer, mainstreamer, laggard, reactionary, and controller). A network analysis approach was employed to identify the most involved and influential stakeholders and the relationship between them, besides to better understand the extent of the collaboration between different individuals or groups.

Our main findings show that the institutional stakeholders such as municipal administrations are the most involved in the environmental planning process, while the general public obtained low centrality scores. Moreover, our study highlights the deficiencies and opportunities of the planning process in order to promote NBS, considering, on the one hand, the relatively low influence of innovators, change agents, and transformers, as well as, and on the other hand, the potential for building collaborative relationships. Thus, for the successful implementation of NBS, it is necessary to establish a dialogue at all levels of public and private organizations. In conclusion, our study emphasizes the necessity for better coordination between the responsible stakeholders in order to support effective NBS diffusion.

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# THE ROLE OF PARTICIPATORY COMMUNICATION FOR SUSTAINABLE CITIES – THE CASE STUDY OF TURIN (CONEXUS, PILOT PROJECTS WITH SCHOOLS)

Mariangela Pastorello

Urban Lab Torino / Malmö University

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are currently considered among the most effective tools available to city governments and urban planners to tackle climate-change issues in cities, as they enhance environmental resilience while providing social and economic benefits. Nonetheless, communicating the value of NBS to citizens is still a challenge. Toolkits, definitions and researches in the field multiply, trying to guide city officials, technical experts and urban practitioners through this complexity.

The implementation of NBS is also seen as an opportunity to actively engage with the local population. Yet, the resulting participatory actions often have limited long-term impact. In fact, the technical aspects of NBS, together with budget, project and time constraints, makes it difficult to coordinate with capacity building and substantial citizen participation throughout the policy cycle – also due to skill gaps of city authorities and lack of expert facilitators. As a result, NBS might be selected through top-down decision processes and only accompanied by collateral participatory activities. In this sense, long-term positive effects can be insufficient.

Given the above, the presentation will explore the role of participatory communication as a potential for long-term success of NBS initiatives by presenting a case study from the City of Turin (Italy) in the framework of the Horizon 2020 EU Project CONEXUS. Specifically, it will focus on a first round of pilot projects developed by the Urban Lab of Turin (partner of Turin for CONEXUS) with four local schools involved in the local living lab. From spring until the end of 2021, the Urban Lab worked closely with teachers on custom project-based learning pilots. From January to June 2022, groups of students learnt about NBS and local resilience policies through different workshops, site visits and practical activities, with the involvement of local stakeholders (leveraging on specific expertise). The final result is a co-designed public campaign (podcasts, videos, articles, guided tours, educational modules produced by students).

After outlining the context and analysing the outcomes of the schools projects, insights from a series of qualitative interviews (with city officials, school personnel, local stakeholders) will be presented, highlighting elements to be further developed, as well as potential pitfalls. It will also be explored whether a deeper, shared understanding among citizens and the local government is flourishing, which could possibly lead to future participatory actions.

Students (young citizens) can be innovative ambassadors of nature-based thinking, reaching undetected local players and favouring networking – inviting us to investigate further on the importance of building together contextual knowledge as a first step towards participatory governance for more sustainable and inclusive cities.

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# FROM FORMAL TO INFORMAL: LEARNING FROM DIFFICULTIES AND OBSTACLES IN CO-GOVERNING AND CO-IMPLEMENTING NBS IN A LATIN AMERICAN PERI-URBAN NEIGHBOURHOOD

Nicolas Salmon · Grace Yepez

YES Innovation

In the framework of the CLEVER Cities project, a mixed approach of co-governance and co-creation was experimented in Quito, Ecuador, using the peri-urban neighbourhood of San Enrique de Velasco (SEV) as a study site. SEV is a typical Andean city neighbourhood, conformed on the slopes of the Pichincha volcano and between two urban ravines that are home to still largely preserved vegetation. However, the rapid and unplanned development of the neighbourhood has eliminated access to these spaces and largely eliminated the vegetation in the urban area – public spaces and streets – which excludes the residents from direct contact with nature and exposes them to multiple resilience and quality of life issues.

From an initial co-creation and co-design process formally established within the framework of the project and adapted to the local case with the Municipality of Quito, also a partner in the project, the experimentation quickly showed the essential role of informality in achieving the objectives. The co-governance process faced a multitude of barriers that we propose to explore here as lessons learned from the field. These barriers stem from the inherent informality of this type of neighbourhood, which is characterised by an irregular relationship with the authorities but also by difficulties of representation within the community itself. There are also difficulties with the relationship with and traditional perception of nature by the community, as well as with the expectations of integrating nature into their urban environment. In the neighbourhood, the capacity for consensus within the community was often limited, mirroring the obvious coordination difficulties between the different municipal entities involved. Finally, the detection of old and unknown municipal bylaws, which serve as references for the interventions of certain municipal entities in the urban space, upset the initial theoretical process.

Faced with these difficulties, the use of the traditional Ecuadorian participatory process of 'minga' allowed a strong dose of improvisation and pragmatism to be injected into the methodology, imposing direct and on-the-field dialogues between the community, the design team and the local authority, allowing in the end the conformation of a tripartite private-community-public financing and the implementation of an NBS (low-cost rain gardens in an unpaved street) which is original in the context of Quito.

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