Planning Peri-Urban Open Spaces: Methods and Tools for Interpretation and Classification

Urban and peri-urban agriculture (professional and not professional) in urban-rural interfaces has a crucial role in the maintenance and enhancement of landscape quality, urban green spaces and ecosystem services. The research presented in this article adopts a holistic approach, with a special focus on open spaces, in order to understand the complexity of peri-urban landscapes and to identify homogeneous units. It also defines map-based indices to characterize peri-urban landscape types and identify main functions to maintain and enhance. The method was applied to the peri-urban area of Turin (Italy), and maps of spatial and functional classification at the landscape unit level were generated, as well as a map of critical areas to improve. Despite some minor limitations, the method and tools proposed appear to have a range of applications in the context of global challenges and from a landscape perspective.