Horticulture,livelihoods, and urban transition in Africa: evidence from South‐West Cameroon

This article documents change in periurban horticulture using repeat surveys in 1995 and 2004 of about 300 households around Muea, Cameroon. Real household incomes increased by 14%, with a large shift from farm to nonfarm income. Within agriculture, activity shifted from staple crops to horticulture, both for sale and in home consumption. In 1995, there were large remittances from farmers involved in periurban horticulture to their village of origin; in 2004 remittances continued and horticultural farmers were also heavily involved in informal financial associations. Periurban horticulture is disproportionately practiced by women and older workers, and plays an important and growing role in African livelihoods.     

Agriculture and proximity to roads: How should farmers and retailers adapt? Examples from the Ile-de-France region

The present study was carried out in the Ile-de-France region surrounding Paris, which is both the biggest conurbation in France and a large agricultural area. In areas such as these, airborne pollutants from road traffic may adversely affect the quality of the food produced by farms close by. This raises questions about the spatial compatibility of farming and road networks, although there is currently no scientific consensus concerning potential health risks for producers and consumers. Some actors in agricultural supply chains have tried to limit potential risks by producing technical guidelines, including isolation distances between major roads and fields farmed under contract. This paper analyses these “isolation distances”, using approaches from the agricultural and social sciences: surveys on stakeholders in agribusiness and on farmers, and a cartographic simulation submitted to the surveyed farmers for discussion. The results show that isolation distances serve to create market opportunities in a context of market segmentation, or are applied as a precautionary principle. Though not a widespread practice, safety distances could have considerable impacts on farms in terms of both technical management and total farm area, thus calling for further scientific research on this issue.     

Development of a methodology for the characterization of urban and periurban green spaces in the context of supra-municipal sustainability strategies

Periurban landscapes should be interpreted as multifunctional spaces enabling them to be valued according to environmental, economic and social criteria. This article proposes a methodology for the characterization of urban and periurban green spaces in the context of strategies which enable planning processes for cities of the future to be devised. Firstly, the green belt is characterized and evaluated and its resilience and dynamic analyzed. Subsequently, different supra-municipal tools are compared and a summary of various existing methodologies and programs is produced, making it possible to develop a matrix for diagnosing projects for green spaces and periurban natural spaces and evaluating their potential as a Green Infrastructure in the context of Open Space Strategies. The application of this method in the characterization of periurban space emphasizes elements of scenic beauty whose incorporation in the said strategies does not require large investments but instead an effort in terms of promoting such places. The drafting of this Open Spaces Strategy offers a cross-disciplinary planning tool with which to take action using a landscape reading scale. This comprehensive view makes it possible to optimize efforts and investments and involve the whole community at all levels of operation through processes of citizen participation. As a result, a systematic and collective diagnostic tool is obtained for characterizing the urban and periurban green belt, which can be applied to the various periurban spaces in accordance with the multifunctionality demanded by supra-municipal strategies.     

Emotional and satisfaction benefits to visitors as explanatory factors in the monetary valuation of environmental goods. An application to periurban green spaces

Over the last few decades, especially in urban areas, there has been a revival of the notion of quality of life in connection with periurban green spaces, the presence of which is thought to improve emotional well-being. This paper aims to determine how far the monetary valuation of this environmental resource is influenced by aspects relating to users’ emotional experience and satisfaction. The contingent valuation method is used to estimate monetary valuation and structural equation models allow examination of the relationships between visitor attitude and behaviour variables. The study focuses on two periurban green spaces in Spain and the data are obtained by means of face-to-face, in situ surveys of visitors. The findings support the relationship between visitor attitudes and the monetary valuation of this environmental good, revealing the need to advance further in exploring the potential of such natural resources to enhance urban social well-being.     

Going beyond landscape change description: Quantifying the importance of driving forces of landscape change in a Central Europe case study

Over the past decades, urban sprawl and agricultural intensification have enormously changed the traditional cultural landscape of the Swiss lowlands. This research aims to analyze the driving forces of urbanization, agricultural intensification, and greening in five municipalities of the periurban Limmat Valley, near Zurich, Switzerland. The main objectives of the paper are (1) to quantify the change in urbanization, agricultural intensification, and greening, (2) to determine the driving forces of landscape change, (3) to determine the relative importance of socioeconomic, political, cultural, technological, and natural/spatial driving forces, and (4) to establish from which administrative levels and spatial scales the most important driving forces originate. Changes for the periods 1930–1956, 1957–1976, and 1977–2000 are documented based on a comparison of cartographic maps. A list of 73 potentially relevant driving forces is established based on document analysis. Based on further document analysis and expert interviews, 52 of them were found to be relevant primary driving forces for the documented landscape changes. We found that in all three periods, urbanization was the most important process of change. Greening is steadily increasing in importance and surpassed agricultural intensification in the last period. Overall, as well as for urbanization, the economic driving forces, followed by political driving forces, are most important for landscape changes in all three periods. Cantonal driving forces are most important, followed by the national, local and international driving forces. By presenting an approach to quantify the contribution of major driving forces groups to landscape change this study contributes to method development in land change research.     

Taken for a ride? Mainstreaming periurban transport with urban expansion policies

This article describes the transportation needs and practices of periurban residents in a village in the Gurgaon district of the Northwestern Indian state of Haryana. As conurbations grow, urban authorities place much emphasis on connecting them with other major cities or towns. Improving their connectivity with the peripheral villages receives scant attention. This ignores the duality of economies that operates within the newly created urban spaces. This article argues that this reflects a bias in and politics of urban planning that accepts the hegemony of cities to the peril of rural areas that support them and with whom crucial rural–urban links evolve with urbanization. Using a qualitative research design, an ethnographic approach and a diversity of data sources, this article shows how social heterogeneity, land use change and other transformations in rural–urban links brought on by urbanization shape periurban transportation needs and practices. Though the acquisition of private means of transport is made possible through the sale of agricultural lands by the periurban elite, the article shows the increasing role of shared private transport in linking the village with the city. Urban authorities focus on connecting growing cities with other major urban centers; however, the article argues that linking them better with peripheral villages will be essential for making processes of urbanization equitable and sustainable and have wider spin-off effects. Such interventions need to be based on a nuanced understanding of transition processes underway in periurban spaces as well as the complementary roles of private, public and shared private transport.