Peri-urban Fringe Research Articles

Reconnecting with nature: Developing urban spaces in the age of climate change

Climate change is occurring around us and impacting on our daily lives, meaning that we have to deal with our cities in a different way. There is also increasing awareness of the need for daily contact with green spaces and the natural environment in order to live a happy, productive and meaningful life. This reflective essay tells the narrative of how urbanisation has been disconnecting humans from nature. Non-sustainable, non-resilient patterns of urbanisation, along with the neglect of inner-city areas, have resulted in fragmentation and urban decline, led to a loss of biodiversity, and caused the deterioration of ecosystems and their services. Urban regeneration projects allow us to ‘repair’ and restore some of this damage whilst enhancing urban resilience. Connecting existing and enhanced ecosystems, and re-establishing ecosystems both within cities and at the peri-urban fringe is vital for strengthening ecosystem resilience and building adaptive capacity for coping with the effects of climate change. Cities worldwide need to look for suitable solutions to increase the resilience of their urban spaces in the face of climate change. This essay explores how this can be achieved through the integration of nature-based solutions, the re-greening of neighbourhoods and by correctly attributing value to natural capital. Transforming existing cities and neighbourhoods in this way will enable ecosystems to contribute their services towards healthier and more liveable cities.

Data Justice through the Prism of Information Politics and Resource Injustice: A Case Study from Hyderabad’s Urban Frontier

How does data visibility affect vulnerable communities that face uncertainty over occupational rights? Or in other words, can data justice be realized in settings of acute resource injustice? These are the overarching questions that our case study interrogates by opening up the black box of the community in the volatile and fast-transforming context of occupation rights on the peri-urban frontier. We examine the unfolding of data and information processes through the lens of enumeration and community mapping exercises conducted in a low-income neighbourhood or basti located in the fast-transforming peri-urban fringe of Hyderabad, India. We argue that the realization of data justice is mediated by ‘information politics’, i.e., the ways in which informational resources, as well as the risks and rewards associated with them, are distributed across individual actors and identity groups within the community. In so doing, our case study underlines the importance of a structural understanding of data justice and also suggests directions for embedding justice in data processes.

Transforming the Peri-Urban Fringe in China: The Example of Xi’an-Xianyang

Rapid urbanization in the past four decades has transformed the hinterlands of China’s major cities. While urban growth has consumed large quantities of farmland, many of the remaining farms in the country’s peri-urban fringes have responded to the nearby presence of a fast-expanding and wealthier urban market by changing the farm enterprise to cater directly for this market. The various responses are exemplified herewith, for the metropolis of Xi’an-Xianyang (13 million population), in north-west China’s Shaanxi Province. Based on participant observation and structured interviews with a sample of farmers from three peri-urban fringe villages, the study charted changes in ecosystem services as a quantitative measure of change between 1986 and 2017. An additional Delphi approach focused on the chief technological innovations during this period. The survey revealed the growing multi-functionality of those villages that had switched from traditional grain production to horticulture, supported by various government-funded programs. A significant development has been the introduction of farm-based tourism catering for urban-based tourists. The physical appearance of the fringe now resembles the so-called desakota landscape associated with south-east Asian cities, as massive new urban-industrial complexes sit alongside villages amidst islands of intensive farmland. The conclusion addresses key issues regarding the overall sustainability of agriculture within this fast-changing process of rapid urbanization.

Adapting to Climate Change: Lessons from Farmers and Peri-Urban Fringe Residents in South Australia

This paper reports on results from two major research projects conducted in South Australia. The first investigates adaptation to climate change in two of the state’s major grain and sheep farming regions, using semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The second uses a postal questionnaire and an internet-based survey of residents in the peri-urban fringes of Adelaide, the state capital, to examine knowledge of and attitudes to climate change and resulting adaptations, especially in the context of increasing risk of wildfires. The research on adaptation to climate change in agriculture focused on formal institutions (e.g., government agencies) and communities of practice (e.g., farm systems groups). Both groups noted that farmers autonomously adapt to various risks, including those induced by climate variability. The types and levels of adaptation varied among individuals partly because of barriers to adaptation, which included limited communication and engagement processes established between formal institutions and communities of practice. The paper discusses possibilities for more effective transfers of knowledge and information on climate change among formal institutions, communities of practice, trusted individual advisors and farmers. Research in the peri-urban fringe revealed that actions taken by individuals to mitigate and/or adapt to climate change were linked to the nature of environmental values held (or ecological worldview) and place attachment. Individuals with a strong place attachment to the study area (the Adelaide Hills) who possessed knowledge of and/or beliefs in climate change were most likely to take mitigating actions. This was also linked to previous experience of major risk from wildfires. The paper concludes by discussing prospects for developing co-management for reducing the impact of climate change across multiple groups in rural and peri-urban areas.

The evaluation for the impact of land use change on habitat quality: A joint contribution of cellular automata scenario simulation and habitat quality assessment model

China has experienced the most serious habitat degradation. Even though increasing attentions have been brought to this issue, we still lack the understanding of the impact of land use change on habitats. This study proposed an integrated framework with cellular automata (CA) scenario simulation and the “Integrated Valuation of Environmental Services and Trade-offs” (InVEST) model to evaluate how different landscape dynamics could exert influences on habitat quality. Unlike other methods, our approach evaluates habitat quality by analyzing land use cover in conjunction with habitat threats. The data needed in the framework is readily available spatial data, the demand is relatively low so that our approach is more useful in the data-scarce situation, and incorporating CA simulation facilitates the predictive scenario analysis. We simulated three alternative future scenarios with different development orientations by CA (fast urban sprawl, smart urban expansion, and ecology conservation scenario), and assessed the habitat quality in each scenario by the InVEST model. Results show that in current (2014) land use scenario, “moderate” grade (habitat quality value: 0.4–0.6) occupies the largest proportion (37.62%), and “poor” grade (0–0.2) area takes up 2.82%, concentrates in urban and peri-urban fringe, which proves the degrading impacts from urbanization. The impact of future land use change varies with different land use scenario: in fast urbanization scenario, the landscape displays complete habitat degradation, while the ecology conservation scenario shows the converse trend. The interesting finding is, the degrading impacts of urbanization could be weakened, or even eliminated by the smart urban growth scenario. It suggests that the trade-off between habitat conservation and urban development could be achieved.

Living on the Edge: Emerging Environmental Hazards on the Peri-Urban Fringe

In this current era of global-scale social and environmental change, many researchers, policymakers, and practitioners anticipate increasing danger. In a warmer global climate system, for example, ...

Transnational Suburbia: Spatialities of Gated Suburbs and Filipino Diaspora in Manila's Periurban Fringe

This article contributes to efforts in theorizing suburbanization as a global phenomenon by proffering the term transnational suburbia, suburbs produced through melded and contradictory spatialities of suburbanization, transnational migration, and diasporic capital. Using a framework interrelating the suburban, national, and transnational, I demonstrate its rise as gated suburban villages in Manila's periurban fringe, which serve as the idealized fruit of “successful” Filipino overseas labor. First, I trace the spatiotemporalities of Filipino diaspora, suburban expansion, and the real estate boom. Second, I discuss the idealization of “world-class” Anglo-American suburban developments as homes of “hard-working” and “deserving” overseas Filipinos. Third, I detail everyday suburbanisms inside these developments where transnational mobilities are negotiated in the lives of suburban residents. These accounts illustrate the contingencies and contradictions of transnationality and suburbanization. Whereas transnational mobility of overseas Filipinos fuels suburban expansion and sustains suburban living through remittance monies, it also prevents the attainment of the suburbs' utopic promises of idealized family life and community relations. The rise of these suburbs speaks to developments in the Global South, where economies rely heavily on remittance monies sent by their overseas citizens.

Assessing the sustainability of vegetable production practices in northern Ghana

ABSTRACTUrban vegetable production is an intensive agricultural strategy through which urban dwellers secure income and improve their livelihoods. An ethnographic study was conducted in Tamale, Northern Ghana, to understand whether vegetable gardening was a sustainable form of intensification. The study used an updated version of the Food and Agricultural Organization’s International Framework for Evaluating Sustainable Land Management. Accordingly, qualitative data were collected on the security and access to land, political acceptability and human and environmental health implications of urban patch farming. Changes between 2008 and 2014 in the spatial area of the vegetable sites were measured. Cabbage farmer incomes were quantified. The study found that urbanization has prompted an increase in the cultivation of highly profitable vegetables like cabbage. However, they are irrigated with grey and waste water while eaten raw. This, and the use of pesticides in high dosages, poses health and environmental hazards. Industrial growth has reduced the area of open space urban agriculture by 8.7% between 2008 and 2014. Farmers cope with this by cultivating on interstitial spaces and moving to periurban fringes. There, farmers develop institutional liaisons to gain access to intensification technologies and commercialize their production. This production system is dynamic but not yet sustainable.

Trajectoires résidentielles et morphologiques des franges périurbaines : une méthode appliquée au Limousin

Cet article propose une methode d’analyse des dynamiques de developpement residentiel generant des formes spatiales discontinues. A partir d’une base de donnees spatio-temporelles originale reposant sur des donnees fiscales, cette methode permet de surmonter les difficultes rencontrees pour decrire ces formes contemporaines de la croissance urbaine a l’echelle parcellaire, sur de vastes espaces et sur une echelle temporelle qui permet de remonter aux premices du developpement periurbain. Nous proposons d’appliquer cette methode en Limousin pour caracteriser l’evolution des espaces periurbains entre 1950 et 2006. Cette methode fait emerger des franges periurbaines evoluant avec des trajectoires residentielles et morphologiques specifiques. L’analyse de ces trajectoires est mise en perspective avec les apports successifs de l’economie urbaine s’interessant aux formes spatiales de l’etalement urbain.

Land Tenure Systems in Kisumu City; The Formal-Informal Dichotomy

Abstract: In the process of urbanization, the peri-urban areas are often the front line of urban transformation and transition and therefore potential zones of conflicts over land tenure arrangements. This study sought to explore land tenure arrangements, administration and governance in the peri-urban zones of Kisumu city. The objective was to provide empirical evidence on the conflicts and emerging governance issues in Kisumu city. In this working paper, we recognize three main drivers as being particularly important for facilitating equitable land use and therefore good outcomes from urbanization in Kisumu; Sound land use planning, smoothly functioning land and housing markets and capable and responsive land market. The results, based on the insights gained through conversational interviews as well as desk-top reviews show that public land tenure, leaseholds, freeholds and community land tenure systems are the most widespread in the study area. Holding land under leasehold and freehold tenure appears to be more widespread within peri-urban fringe. Whereas elaborate town planning criteria should ideally direct resource allocation, the challenge for Kisumu like other developing towns and cities is that it has been developing against a backdrop of poor urban planning practice.

Land conflict in peri-urban areas: Exploring the effects of land reform on informal settlement in Mexico

Peri-urban areas are often subject to intensive construction, through both formal and informal processes. As land transitions from rural to urban status, different land tenure and administration systems may come into conflict, leading to disputes, contestation and, in some cases, violence. However, little is known about the precise causes of peri-urban land conflict. In Mexico, peri-urban growth has historically proceeded peacefully, owing to the control exerted by a corporatist system of government, and the political use of land tenure regularisation. However, the effects of land reforms on transactions at the peri-urban fringe, in the context of wider processes of liberalisation, may be increasing vulnerability to conflict over land. This paper explores these issues through a case study of an irregular settlement on the peri-urban fringe of the provincial Mexican city of Xalapa, where contestations over informally developed land have escalated into violent encounters between groups of settlers and the state. The findings show that vulnerability to conflict in peri-urban areas can be attributed to the interaction of macro-level processes with local-level factors, including diverse claims, overlapping legal and governance frameworks and, critically, local power relations.

Contradiction and Complacency Shape Attitudes towards the Toll of Roads on Wildlife.

Simple SummaryMitigating the toll of roads on wildlife can become difficult when awareness and exposure does not result in willingness to change driving behaviour. Using a self-reporting questionnaire, we found that while most drivers view wildlife vehicle collisions as a serious issue, increasing exposure to collisions decreased this attitude and it did not translate into willingness to adopt additional mitigation strategies. In addition, despite most respondents stating they routinely drive slower when collision risk is high (at dusk and dawn), our assessment of driving trends via traffic speeds suggested this sentiment was not generally adhered to. We suggest that competing priorities and complacency when risk to people is low may adversely affect willingness to prevent collisions.Most people in the world now live in cities. Urbanisation simultaneously isolates people from nature and contributes to biodiversity decline. As cities expand, suburban development and the road infrastructure to support them widens their impact on wildlife. Even so, urban communities, especially those on the peri-urban fringe, endeavour to support biodiversity through wildlife friendly gardens, green spaces and corridors, and conservation estates. On one hand, many who live on city fringes do so because they enjoy proximity to nature, however, the ever increasing intrusion of roads leads to conflict with wildlife. Trauma (usually fatal) to wildlife and (usually emotional and financial) to people ensues. Exposure to this trauma, therefore, should inform attitudes towards wildlife vehicle collisions (WVC) and be linked to willingness to reduce risk of further WVC. While there is good anecdotal evidence for this response, competing priorities and better understanding of the likelihood of human injury or fatalities, as opposed to wildlife fatalities, may confound this trend. In this paper we sought to explore this relationship with a quantitative study of driver behaviour and attitudes to WVC from a cohort of residents and visitors who drive through a peri-urban reserve (Royal National Park) on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia. We distributed a self-reporting questionnaire and received responses from 105 local residents and 51 visitors to small townships accessed by roads through the national park. We sought the respondents’ exposure to WVC, their evasive actions in an impending WVC, their attitudes to wildlife fatalities, their strategies to reduce the risk of WVC, and their willingness to adopt new ameliorative measures. The results were partitioned by driver demographics and residency. Residents were generally well informed about mitigation strategies but exposure led to a decrease in viewing WVC as very serious. In addition, despite most respondents stating they routinely drive slower when collision risk is high (at dusk and dawn), our assessment of driving trends via traffic speeds suggested this sentiment was not generally adhered to. Thus we unveil some of the complexities in tackling driver’s willingness to act on reducing risk of WVC, particularly when risk of human trauma is low.

Residential development in the peri-urban fringe: The example of Adelaide, South Australia

The peri-urban fringes of large metropolitan areas of Australia continue to experience major changes as natural and semi-natural landscapes are converted to built-up areas largely through increased residential development. These irreversible conversions are producing significant challenges for ecological and environmental protection. Yet, there has been little attempt to systematically analyse and model some of the key spatial features of these peri-urban fringes, especially in terms of examining factors underpinning new residential development. This paper attempts to fill this information gap using Adelaide, South Australia, as an exploratory case study. Using parcel-level data, we quantified spatial patterns of residential development during four consecutive periods (ten-year intervals between 1971 and 2010), revealing a gradual slow-down in the rate of new housing development after the 1980s. The effects of major roads and services, residents’ attraction to areas of high natural amenity, and previous residential development were estimated using logistic regression models and geographically weighted logistic regression models, respectively. Variation partitioning was used to examine the relative importance of three groups of predictors of residential development. Roads and services had the greatest impact on the pattern of residential development in the 1970s, while previous residential development ranked first among the three groups of forces in the last three time-periods. Influences relating to the attraction of natural amenities were of the least importance to peri-urban residential development during all four periods. These findings can help understand change mechanisms within peri-urban fringes and to develop corresponding policy responses to improve their management.

Participatory action research for rural and regional development

Participatory action research for rural and regional development

Modern Views, Unblocked: Looking into the Distance in Phú Mỹ Hưng, a Vietnamese New Urban Zone

When describing Phu Mỹ Hưng, an upscale master-planned residential and commercial development located on the peri-urban fringe of Ho Chi Minh City, residents typically emphasize the light, the air, and the openness. They often comment on how modern it is and describe how it offers a new way of seeing the urban landscape—it offers a “modern view.” The view residents describe is modern because it is unblocked, has depth of field, and allows people to see beyond the dense webs of social relations and concrete walls that circumscribe views elsewhere in the city. This modern view offers people a generalized sense of “release” or of becoming unblocked. In this article, I describe the ways in which residents and visitors engage with, discuss, and even write poetry about open spaces, parks, wide boulevards, and riverfront promenades in Phu Mỹ Hưng. In the process, I show that the modern view they describe is not only a way of looking at landscapes, but also expresses urban social aspirations, which can carry subtle, yet often powerful, political connotations.

Perceived approval of substance use in soldiers vs. civilians

We analyze the role of landscape ideology in the recent Ontario Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH) Greenbelt Plan. Focusing on the “Protected Countryside,” the major land-use designation in the Plan that structures the Greenbelt framework, we explore tensions between abstract ideals of countryside used by policy makers to elicit support for the Plan and people's lived experience of material landscapes of the peri-urban fringe. Approaching “countryside” from the combined perspectives of landscape studies and political ecology, we show how the abstract ideals used to build support for the protection of countryside in the high-level political arena are in tension with existing material landscapes as people experience them. When implementing the Greenbelt Plan, the abstract ideals have to be applied at the landscape level through negotiation with municipalities, property owners, and other interests. In addition to drawing upon more conventionally legitimate explanations for landscape protection based on environmental science and land-use planning principles, the designation of Protected Countryside and the strategies used to implement the Protected Countryside designation at the local level suggest a tentative commitment to recognizing landscape values and collaborative environmental management processes in policy-making. As with any such normative land-use plan, the success of the Greenbelt Plan hinges on the long-term agreement between planning agencies and diverse publics. We demonstrate the usefulness of approaching environmental management challenges at the urban–rural interface by bringing the perspectives of landscape studies and political ecology into implementation processes for land-use management strategies like the Greenbelt. We argue that public participants deserve legitimate collaborative roles in negotiating just and desirable land uses based on their experiences, and provide observations on ways to bring contested goals and tools for achieving them into reflexive negotiations about how landscapes are and should be produced.

The Peri-urban Land-Use Planning Tangle: An Australian Perspective

With increasing urbanization of the world's populations, there is increasing concern about land consumption, particularly, urban expansion onto non-urban land. This paper identifies current approaches leading to this point and argues that these create a tangle requiring a more mature approach if land use is to be managed more effectively, especially at the peri-urban fringe. The effects of managing peri-urban land under current paradigms are demonstrated in case studies of Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. The conclusion uses international examples to suggest that fresh planning approaches that take an integrated view of land-use management in a new paradigm are needed.

High-tension choices: An analysis of everyday energy-related practices among Lyon-based families

This article examines how personal habits related to energy consumption both in a domestic setting and during day-to-day transport use are initially acquired and how they subsequently develop; it also focuses on the nature of the changes that have occurred since the latest jump in energy prices. The analysis presented here draws on the findings of the socio-anthropological component of the TransEnergy research project, financed by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche as part of the Villes Durables (Sustainable Cities) programme, which examined the impact of energy price rises on households living and working in the peri-urban fringe zone of France's second city, Lyon.

The "Life basin": A Territory Putting down Rurality in Periurban Fringes of Paris

L'espace rural n'est pas aise a identifier face a la domination des villes ; le dernier Zonage en Aire Urbaine (2010) de l'INSEE propose un decoupage du territoire francais a partir du degre d'influence des villes pour eviter la partition « urbain/rural ». L’abandon du terme « rural » au profit de « l’urbain » rend difficile l’apprehension statistique de cet espace, representant pourtant une large partie du territoire francais. Si la categorie des bassins de vie peut aider a combler ce manque, celle-ci presente des faiblesses a proximite des grands poles urbains. Etant donne la difficulte a trouver pour cet espace, en particulier aux portes de la ville, un support statistique, ne peut-il etre repere par le biais de constructions territoriales locales, empreintes de revendications rurales pour s'affranchir de la ville dense ? La reflexion prend appui sur une approche monographique (territoire de l’Ouest francilien) de maniere a apprehender les formes d’action dans leurs multiples dimensions.

Wildfire preparedness, community cohesion and social–ecological systems

The consequences of wildfires are felt in susceptible communities around the globe on an annual basis. Climate change predictions in places like the south-east of Australia and western United States suggest that wildfires may become more frequent and more intense with global climate change. Compounding this issue is progressive urban development at the peri-urban fringe (wildland–urban interface), where continued infrastructure development and demographic changes are likely to expose more people and property to this potentially disastrous natural hazard. Preparing well in advance of the wildfire season is seen as a fundamental behaviour that can both reduce community wildfire vulnerability and increase hazard resilience – it is an important element of adaptive capacity that allows people to coexist with the hazardous environment in which they live. We use household interviews and surveys to build and test a substantive model that illustrates how social cohesion influences the decision to prepare for wildfire. We demonstrate that social cohesion, particularly community characteristics like ‘sense of community’ and ‘collective problem solving’, are community-based resources that support both the adoption of mechanical preparations, and the development of cognitive abilities and capacities that reduce vulnerability and enhance resilience to wildfire. We use the results of this work to highlight opportunities to transfer techniques and approaches from natural hazards research to climate change adaptation research to explore how the impacts attributed to the social components of social–ecological systems can be mitigated more effectively.