Peri-urban agriculture in Barcelona: outlining landscape dynamics vis à vis socio-environmental functions

Abstract

Dispersed urbanisation promotes complex relationships between rural areas and the urban fringe, with emerging new functions for peri-urban agriculture (PUA). Although PUA is a type of productive farming of interest for urban planning due to its recognised functions, comparative analyses are needed to relate farm dynamics to fringe landscape modifications in different socio-economic contexts. Given the current limitation of specific methodologies to analyse PUA dynamics, a quantitative approach profiling farm types and the related landscape structure in an expanding urban region, the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, is proposed. Results indicate that PUA is based on five typologies with different territorial values, as a consequence of diverse economic relevance, socio-environmental weight and landscape prominence. Based on these results, a conservation strategy aimed at preserving the residual PUA landscape is proposed through the promotion of a polycentric functional network of farming with natural vegetation.