Urbanisation patterns in Europe since the 1950s have resulted in a swath of low-density discontinuous development, commonly called peri-urban areas. These areas are characterised by a mixed rural-urban character, are highly dynamic in nature, and are expected to continue growing rapidly in the next few decades. This paper presents a systematic review of the literature on changes in peri-urban areas in Europe. We analysed 142 cases from 121 studies that are spread across Europe, representing a wide range of peri-urban processes. Land cover changes were the most reported changes, followed by socioeconomic changes, land use changes, planning process changes, land management changes, and environmental changes. Over half of the cases reported co-occurring land-cover and socioeconomic processes of change. In addition, we analysed sequential and causal relations between these processes. In this analysis we found that peri-urbanization cannot be conceptualized as driverland changeimpact, because often relations between processes pointed in different directions. Therefore, we characterize peri-urbanization as a multifaceted process that can manifest itself differently in different case study areas. In addition, we found that planning precedes land change processes about as often as it follows these processes, illustrating the specific challenge for planners and policy makers in managing peri-urban areas.

Recent estimates of additional land available for bioenergy production range from 320 to 1411 million ha. These estimates were generated from four scenarios regarding the types of land suitable for bioenergy production using coarse-resolution inputs of soil productivity, slope, climate, and land cover. In this paper, these maps of land availability were assessed using high-resolution satellite imagery. Samples from these maps were selected and crowdsourcing of Google Earth images was used to determine the type of land cover and the degree of human impact. Based on this sample, a set of rules was formulated to downward adjust the original estimates for each of the four scenarios that were previously used to generate the maps of land availability for bioenergy production. The adjusted land availability estimates range from 56 to 1035 million ha depending upon the scenario and the ruleset used when the sample is corrected for bias. Large forest areas not intended for biofuel production purposes were present in all scenarios. However, these numbers should not be considered as definitive estimates but should be used to highlight the uncertainty in attempting to quantify land availability for biofuel production when using coarse-resolution inputs with implications for further policy development.

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Many Japanese and European landscapes harbor biocultural diversity that has been shaped by human agency over centuries. However, these landscapes are threatened by widespread land abandonment, land-use changes, and urbanization. The aim of this study is to use a “solution scanning” method to identify place-based food networks in Europe and Japan that reinforce linkages between biological and cultural diversity in landscapes. In our analysis of 26 European and 13 Japanese cases, we find that place-based food networks are typically located in heterogeneous landscapes, are driven by civil society (and less by markets), and act at a local scale. Regional identity is the most frequently addressed societal issue. Scenery, rural tourism, and nature conservation are more important motivations in Europe, and physical well-being and revitalization of local economies are more relevant in Japan. European models are typically associated with achieving biodiversity conservation and socio-cultural tradition outcomes, and Japanese models more with public health and nutrition outcomes. We discuss the potential for transfer of approaches from Japan to Europe (e.g., models that tackle the aging of rural societies), and from Europe to Japan (e.g., models that build explicit connections between food production and biodiversity conservation). We conclude with a list of recommended policy measures, e.g., the creation of a flexible legal framework that protects the interests of and reduces political constraints for collaborative efforts to biocultural diversity in landscapes.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11625-017-0455-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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