Peri-urban Farmland Research Articles

Measuring heterogeneous preferences for the preservation of prime farmland with and without agrivoltaics

This study addresses a gap in cultural ecosystem service (CES) assessment of prime farmland located in peri-urban areas by presenting results from a choice experiment recently conducted in Utah’s Wasatch Front region. The choice experiment was designed to account for heterogeneous effects associated with a wide array of socio-demographic and attitudinal characteristics on household preferences for farmland preservation, including farmland used for the joint production of solar power and agricultural products. We apply a mixed-logit model to our data that controls for preference heterogeneity among Wasatch Front households along two dimensions – at the individual household level and according to different household types. We find that the typical household is willing to pay a non-trivial annual fee to preserve the region’s existing peri-urban farmland, and to a lesser extent is willing to pay for agrivoltaics on that land. We also find some evidence of preference heterogeneity among different types of households for farmland preservation and agrivoltaics; heterogeneity based upon traditional socio-demographic characteristics such as household income and location, as well as unique attitudinal differences related to how households view themselves in relation to agriculture, farmland preservation, and the extent to which taxation is an appropriate mechanism to fund local public goods. These findings can serve as crucial components of broader land-use studies designed to account for the full range of agri-environmental ecosystem services.

Peri-urban farmland zoning based on morphology and machine learning: a case study of Changzhou City, China

Peri-urban farmland zoning based on morphology and machine learning: a case study of Changzhou City, China

Occurrence, influencing factors and sources of atmospheric microplastics in peri-urban farmland ecosystems of Beijing, China

Atmosphere is an important component of the microplastics (MPs) cycle. However, studies on atmospheric MPs in peri-urban farmland ecosystems are limited. Herein, the occurrence, influencing factors and geographic sources of atmospheric MPs in peri-urban farmland ecosystems have been analyzed. The average deposition flux of atmospheric MPs was found to be 167.09 ± 92.03 item·m−2·d−1. Around 68 % MPs had particle size <1000 μm, while the main colors of MPs were black (40.71 %) and blue (20.64 %). Approximately 91 % MPs were fibers, while polyethylene terephthalate (49 %) and rayon (36.93 %) were observed as the major microplastic types. The main factors influencing the atmospheric deposition of MPs were gross domestic product (GDP), population density, air pressure, and wind direction. Deposition fluxes exhibited positive correlations with GDP, population density and air pressure, and negative correlations with wind direction. Combined with the backward trajectory model, MPs were mainly found to be originated from the southeast in September and from the northwest in October–February. The study of atmospheric MPs in farmland ecosystems in peri-urban areas is important for the protection of ecological environment, prevention of human diseases and control of MPs pollution.

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

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

Identifying agricultural areas with potential for city connections: A regional-scale methodology for urban planning

The main objective of this study was to characterize the spatial structure of periurban agriculture for the purpose of operational urban development, avoiding the use of cumbersome and costly surveys when the public action sphere is extended to a region or a country. On the basis of Partial Least Squares-Path Modeling (PLS-PM), the approach developed here uses data freely available in France and makes it possible to analyze complex relationships between the socio-economic structure of farms, demography, landscape structure, and landscape management and function. The results are used to identify spatial units of periurban farmland (USAP). Aggregated at the municipal level, they reveal municipalities under the influence of an urban pole whose agricultural areas have a greater possibility of developing short marketing chains towards the city and that could consequently justify public support for local supply options.

Integrating farmland in urban green infrastructure planning. An evidence synthesis for informed policymaking

The Green Infrastructure (GI) Strategy was adopted by the European Commission in 2013, to promote the deployment of GI by integrating it into main policy areas. Despite a high level of awareness for a policy integration across sectors at the EU level, urban and peri-urban farmland (UPUF) is up to now barely considered. A systematic evidence base addressing the contributions of UPUF can support a more informed policymaking. To address this, our paper developed a first evidence synthesis, to evaluate potential of UPUF contributing to policy objectives, thereby tackling major urban challenges. Furthermore an analysis of policy documents revealed gaps on the current state of policymaking and potentials for the integration in future policies. Due to a reciprocal consideration between EU level policies and scientific knowledge this work provides information that help to further construct scientific evidence to address policy concerns while taking into account multiple perspectives. Furthermore, we discussed the implications of our findings for further UGI research and policymaking and thus hope to extend the current political debate across policy sectors.

Microbial functional traits in phyllosphere are more sensitive to anthropogenic disturbance than in soil

Soil-plant microbiome plays a critical role in the regulation of terrestrial ecosystem function and service, including biogeochemical cycling and primary production. The lack of knowledge regarding the differences in microbial functional traits, i.e. the functional genes related to carbon (C), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and sulfur (S) cycles, between soil and plant microbiomes hampers our prediction of the terrestrial nutrient cycling processes under the pressure of anthropogenic disturbance. Herein, a quantitative microbial element cycling (QMEC) method and amplicon sequencing was employed to characterize CNPS cycling genes and microbial communities in soil and plant samples collected from peri-urban farmland with high anthropogenic disturbance and forest ecosystem with minimal disturbance. The soil-plant system harbored a diverse array of CNPS cycling genes, which were significantly more abundant in soil than in phyllosphere. The overall CNPS gene profiles in farmland samples was distinct from that of forest samples in both soil and plant phyllosphere. Farmland samples had a lower abundance of CNPS cycling genes than forest samples, indicating that intensive agricultural management practices may consequently compromise the biogeochemical cycling potential of nutrients. Significant positive correlations between the abundance of CNPS cycling genes and microbial diversity were observed in phyllosphere microbiome but not in soil, suggesting that the functional redundancy in soil microbiome may be higher than that of phyllosphere microbiome. Taken together, we provide experimental evidence for the substantial impacts of anthropogenic disturbance on CNPS cycling genes in the soil-plant system and necessitate future efforts to unravel the plant microbiome diversity and functionality under the pressure of global changes.

Agricultural activities affect the pattern of the resistome within the phyllosphere microbiome in peri-urban environments

The plant microbiome represents a crucial pathway for human exposure to environmental antibiotic resistance. However, little information is available regarding the plant associated resistome in human-related environments at a larger scale. Here, by high-throughput quantitative-PCR chip-based array and amplicon sequencing, we characterized antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and bacterial communities in plant and soil microbiomes from human highly disturbed peri-urban farmland and less disturbed forest at a watershed scale. A total of 71 ARGs were detected in the phyllosphere, which covered almost all the major recognized classes of antibiotics that are administered commonly to humans and animals. The overall pattern of the plant associated resistome in intensive anthropogenic influenced farmland was significantly different from that of forest environments (PERMANOVA, P < 0.01), indicating that agricultural activities might be important drivers in shaping the plant resistome. A bipartite network analysis suggested that all ARGs detected in the plant microbiome were also present in the soil microbiome. Together, our findings provide a better understanding of the plant resistome and suggest that land use is a key contributor to the composition of ARG profiles in the plant phyllosphere, and that the soil resistome may represent a critical reservoir of plant associated ARGs.

Variability of agroecosystems and landscape service provision on the urban\u2013rural fringe of Wuhan, Central China

Urbanization drives changes in peri-urban farmland use which probably affects the spatial pattern of landscape service provision. This study charts patterns in these services and analyses the impacts of biophysical and social-economic factors such as land use allocation and proximity. A spatially explicit survey was conducted among 767 farmer households on the urban–rural fringe of rapidly urbanizing Wuhan (China). The hypothesis of a largely linear change with distance from the urban centre was tested separately for 7 quantified landscape services with RDA and regression analysis. Significant linear patterns were found for 4 landscape services: food, vegetables and fruits, trees, and storm water runoff reduction. Air pollution mitigation and recreation were found to be associated with nearby water rather than green infrastructure, which is likely due to the abundance of water around Wuhan. In addition, storm water runoff reduction correlated with green infrastructure (grasslands and forests). Bundling of landscape services was found to vary along the urban–rural fringe, with recreation and air pollution mitigation bundled at the urban end, while ponds and recreation bundled in the rural outer zone. In short, several provisioning and regulating services varied linearly with distance, whereas others did not, due to the strong geographical forcing by water.

Access to agricultural land in peri-urban spaces: social mobilisation and institutional frameworks in Rome and Valencia

Urban and peri-urban agriculture have gained worldwide momentum within the framework of the renewed food and nutrition security agenda. This has a special significance for Mediterranean cities, due to their traditional strong links with their agricultural surroundings. However, the renewed dynamism of peri-urban agriculture is constrained by the limited access to farmland of new farmers or already installed farmers. This paper explores how socio-political movements that aim to renew local food systems and introduce new models of urban-peri-urban governance are revitalising the debate on access to peri-urban farmland. A comparative analysis was conducted in two Mediterranean metropolitan areas (Rome in Italy and Valencia in Spain), in which different policy frameworks shape the conditions of access to farmland. Despite the institutional differences between these two cases, the results show that, for the organisations involved in these movements, facilitating access to farmland is now a crucial challenge in achieving their multiple objectives. The paper also addresses the supportive role (and the constraints) of the local authorities in facilitating access to farmland for those producers willing to adopt alternative business models that can give rise to the transition towards more democratic and sustainable local food systems.

Peri-urban farmland owner in the growing municipality, case study Kediri Municipality

Farmers in the peri-urban are facing difficulties to sustain farming activities. Kediri municipality is one of growing municipality in the East Java Province and hold important role as growth pole. Its farmland covers approximately 30% of total area [1]. It is projected to decrease in next 20 years due to accommodating dwellers’ activity. At the same time, food security issue emerges and farmers are encouraged to maintain it farmland according to agrarian law [2] and protection of sustainable food crop farmland [3] to achieve food security. This paper aims to investigate farmland owner point of view related to growing municipality issue. The variables are farmland owner decision, household condition both social and economic aspect. This research employed in-depth interview which is part of Repertory Grid Technique and descriptive statistical analysis. The respondents are 5 farmland owners who are farmer. We found, farmland owner tends to sell their land if none succeed farming. They are also prioritizing formal education. They confirmed that their children less interested when their children get higher education. Neighbor farmland activities affect farmland owner preferences. For instance, when neighbor farmland owner sells their farmland, other owners tend to sell it too. It showed bond between farmland owners. Furthermore when it converted into built up area, it gives negative impact on farming activities such as water pollution. This finding can be used by government to establish spatial planning especially municipality that has big percentage of food crop farmland.

A stakeholder approach, door opener for farmland and multifunctionality in urban green infrastructure

During the last years Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI) has evolved as a research focus across Europe. UGI can be understood as a multifunctional network of different urban green spaces and elements contributing to urban benefits. Urban agriculture has gained increasing research interest in this context. While a strong focus has been made on functions and benefits of small scale activities, the question is still open, whether these findings can be up-scaled and transferred to the farmland scale. Furthermore, multifunctionality of urban and peri-urban agriculture is rarely being considered in the landscape context. This research aims to address these gaps and harnesses the question if agricultural landscapes – which in many European metropolitan regions provide significant spatial potential – can contribute to UGI as multifunctional green spaces. This work considers multifunctionality qualitatively based on stakeholder opinion, using a participatory research approach. This study provides new insights in peri-urban farmland potentials for UGI development, resulting into a strategy framework. Furthermore, it reflects on the role of the stakeholder involvement for `multifunctionality planning´. It suggests that it helps to define meaningful bundles of intertwined functions that interact on different scales, helping to deal with non-linearity of multiple functions and to better manage them simultaneously.

Operational modelling of peri-urban farmland for public action in Mediterranean context

Awareness of peri-urban farmland multi-functionality and social concern for food security have prompted public action for the preservation of farmland around cities. A growing literature on peri-urban farming characterises its dynamics and quantifies urban pressure and farmland consumption by urban sprawl. However, such research requires expensive surveys and comprehensive databases that are usually inaccessible to planners and public-policy analysts.This paper presents an analytical framework for peri-urban farmland characterisation that is operational for public action. Based on in-depth analysis of a Mediterranean local case study using surveys, on-site landscape reading, remote sensing analysis and interviews, we classed peri-urban farming into spatial units of peri-urban agriculture (USAPU). The classification obtained over seven municipalities was later used to train a fractional regression model, which was then tested on the rest of this French département (similar to NUTS-3 level), to predict the presence and actual proportion of each USAPU in the total agricultural land of each municipality. Furthermore, we drew up categories of municipality according to USAPU distribution that open perspectives for public action on peri-urban farming. We discussed whether such a model could be used as an instrument for decision-making on food planning, rather than simply for fairly reliable future predictions. This work is the starting point for the development of a methodology characterising complex peri-urban areas, simple to handle and hence operational for policy-makers and planners.

High rugosity cities: The geographic, economic and regulatory pathology of America’s most non-concentric urban areas

The guiding theory in urban development largely views non-concentric urban form as undesirable and even pathologic for poor land-use planning, with negative consequences for peri-urban farmland. As a result, the dominant planning discourse calls for concentric urban areas, thereby minimizing the urban interface. Yet, the urban interface is known to be important to housing markets, particularly where farmland amenities are valued. This research argues that increased rugosity, or greater urban interface exposure, is vital to both urban and agricultural markets. Findings from 30 case study counties and spatial multivariate analysis demonstrate that an increased urban interface is associated with large populations, high rates of population growth, high demand in the housing market, and significant historic peri-urban farm holdings involved in direct-marketing. High rugosity urban areas are associated with the sustained vigor of both urban and agricultural land-uses.

Effects of urban sprawl on arthropod communities in peri-urban farmed landscape in Shenbei New District, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China

Peri-urban farmland provides a diversity of ecological services. However, it is experiencing increasing pressures from urban sprawl. While the effects of land use associated with farming on arthropod assemblages has received increasing attention, most of this research has been conducted by comparing conventional and organic cropping systems. The present study identifies the effects of urban sprawl and the role of non-cropped habitat in defining arthropod diversity in peri-urban farmed landscapes. Multi-scale arthropod data from 30 sampling plots were used with linear-mixed models to elucidate the effects of distance from urban areas (0–13 km; 13–25 km and >25 km, zones I, II, and III, respectively) on arthropods. Results showed that urban sprawl, disturbed farm landscapes, and disturbance in non-cropped habitats had negative effects on arthropods, the latter requiring arthropods to re-establish annually from surrounding landscapes via dispersal. While arthropod species richness showed no obvious changes, arthropod abundance was lowest in zone II. Generally, patch density (PD), Shannon diversity index (SHDI), and aggregate index (AI) of non-cropped habitat were major drivers of changes in arthropod populations. This study contributes to identifying the effects of urban sprawl on arthropod diversity and documenting the multiple functions of farm landscapes in peri-urban regions.

Governance changes in peri-urban farmland protection following decentralisation: A comparison between Montpellier (France) and Rome (Italy)

Many countries have implemented laws and planning instruments to preserve farmland on the urban fringe. This paper aims at a better understanding of the governance changes in peri-urban farmland protection following decentralisation processes in France and Italy. We compare the implementation of farmland protection instruments in the two city regions of Montpellier and Rome. From a governance perspective, we highlight the practical issues of effectiveness and social acceptability arising from power devolution, different forms of governance, and the potential conflicts when planning control shifts to lower-than-regional bodies.Our analysis is based on qualitative methods. Primary data were collected through document analysis, participant observation and in-depth interviews aimed at understanding local stakeholders’ practices and points of view on access to farmland, housing and building rights.We find that around Rome and Montpellier, decentralisation has produced multiple decision-making authorities and increased the complexity of procedures. Despite more regulatory constraints in agricultural areas, farmland conversion has persisted. However, decentralisation processes have also changed ways of governing and favoured local alternative initiatives for farmland protection and farming development on the urban fringe. New modes of governance involve public local authorities, farmers’ representative bodies (Montpellier) and civil society organisations (Rome). In both cities, they have a positive but limited impact on the effectiveness of farmland protection instruments. Their social acceptability varies, depending on who is really included in the participation process.

Spatial distribution of soil cadmium and its influencing factors in peri-urban farmland: a case study in the Jingyang District, Sichuan, China.

Semi-agricultural ecosystems in peri-urban areas are susceptible to contamination. The spatial distribution and influencing factors of such pollution are unclear and poorly constrained in many areas worldwide. Therefore, studying the problems of soil pollution in peri-urban areas is critical for environmental management and agricultural production. In this paper, with cadmium (Cd) as the target pollutant, the spatiotemporal variations of soil cadmium pollution and the relative importance of the affecting factors were analyzed at a peri-urban area from the Jingyang District, Sichuan, China. Statistical results showed that the farmland in the study area could be considered moderately soil Cd-polluted, under the dual influence of natural factors and human activity. In particular, the soil Cd concentration in Tianyuan and Bajiaojing exceeded 0.5mgkg-1, for intensive industrial enterprises are distributed in these areas. Correspondingly, the geoaccumulation index also showed that the contamination of Cd in this area was moderately polluted. Moreover, the ecological risk index was 80% in the study area, indicating that the soil Cd pollution potential risk was moderate to high. High geological background values (soil Cd=0.29mgkg-1), river migration, industrial enterprises, and traffic significantly influenced soil Cd pollution, with natural geological factors playing greater roles. The significant horizontal-spatial effective distances away from Shiting River, Deyang-Aba Highway, and chemical plants were 200, 400, and 100m, respectively. These results will be useful in guiding farmland cultivation and pollution remediation effectively in the peri-urban areas.

Planning for Peri-urban Agriculture: a geographically-specific, evidence-based approach from Sydney

ABSTRACTAgriculture on the fringes of cities across the Global North is increasingly perceived as making an important contribution to urban sustainability. As Australian cities continue to expand and encroach on their peri-urban peripheries, there is rising concern about loss of farmland to housing. Such concerns are especially urgent in the Sydney Basin, due to population growth, and topographical and land-use constraints. Accounting for the Basin's farmlands, however, remains opaque, not unrelated to difficulties in acquiring reliable data on the area and value of Sydney's agricultural industries. The problem is not simply that there are no data available but rather that the nature of existing data is (often hotly) contested. Critical questions for urban planners therefore remain unanswered, including: is peri-urban agriculture as important as advocates suggest? Are metropolitan food supplies under threat? If peri-urban farmland is important, what should be done to preserve it? In collating and analysing existing Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and non-ABS data on Sydney agriculture between 1992 and 2011, we outline the need for more reliable and consistent longitudinal data to enable better planning for Sydney's farmland into the future. Notwithstanding limitations of available data sources, our findings reveal trends in Sydney Basin agriculture that invite debate on many assumptions about the nature of peri-urban agriculture. These findings emphasise the importance of geographically specific, evidence-based analysis as a basis for planning for peri-urban agriculture.

The integration of action research and traditional field research to provide sustainable solutions to maintaining periurban agriculture

AbstractMaintaining periurban agriculture and prime periurban farmland has become a leitmotiv in land use planning and management around many cities in North America and Western Europe since the 1960s. This article focuses on the changing perspectives associated with these planning and management initiatives as well as changing research approaches. Initially, periurban farmland was often seen by planners as a land reserve for urban development. Subsequently, concern was expressed about maintaining the prime agricultural land resource via farmland protection programmes, especially in North America in the 1960s and 1970s. Early research into periurban agriculture involved statistical analyses of farmland losses and changing agricultural production systems, and farmer interviews to identify pressures and opportunities facing periurban agriculture. Gradually, it became clear that maintaining farmland resources and farm activities required more than just ‘protecting’ them from urbanisation. Two types of initiatives developed: (1) the construction of agricultural development plans to ensure sustainable farm development, e.g. in Quebec since 2008, in France since the mid‐1970s and more recently in Wallonia (Belgium) in 2014; and (2) a change in the research approach to support periurban agricultural sustainability. While still using interviews with farmers and other actors, more important is the emergence of action research to provide support to farmers, their neighbours, elected officials and professionals in developing agricultural development plans, with the aim of achieving a better integration of periurban agriculture into the regional urban system. This paper develops this reasoning using research in Canada, France, and principally Belgium to illustrate the argument.

Landscapes of food production in agriburbia: Farmland protection and local food movements in British Columbia

Post World War II suburban growth in Canada and the US has created concern over the long-term availability of farmland to meet food production needs. Subsequent efforts to provide legal protection to agricultural land continue to shape the development of the fringes of nearby urban areas. This paper employs the concept of “agriburbia,” suburban landscapes in which agriculture maintains a significant presence, to investigate the relationship between peri-urban farmland preservation efforts and local food movements. Through a case study analysis of Vancouver, British Columbia's suburb of Richmond, we assess the impact of a strict agricultural land use restriction on urban development. We highlight a dialectic between rural and urban that includes fruitful interactions between large-scale and commercial agriculture, small plot agriculture, and local food movements in both the agriburb and its neighboring city.