ABSTRACT
A key challenge for planners and policy makers is how to manage the interface between the urban and the rural, often termed the peri-urban fringe, as urban growth continues to supplant productive rural land. Planning has focused on how to restrict urban sprawl, which consumes both agricultural land and areas of conservation and recreation value, while still finding land for housing development sufficiently close to centers of employment. Various zoning arrangements have been implemented, sometimes favoring special protection for prime farmland or allocating land specifically to conservation and/or recreational use. Alternatives to sprawl have also been proposed, including a focus on so-called “brownfield” sites in the heart of long-established but expanding cities, and building new towns or satellite towns to serve a major city. These various measures can be seen in both developed and developing countries, but often with little direct focus on what resultant landscapes and land-use patterns are being created in peri-urban fringes. This paper directs its attention to these fringe areas, arguing that many have become the “edgelands” of planning systems, or neglected landscapes that merit more attention if they are to fulfill their potential to supply multiple needs for growing urban populations.
