RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN URBAN-PERIURBAN-RURAL REGIONS: FIRST FINDINGS FROM THE EU-PROJECT PLUREL

Urbanisation is a politically important issue in Europe as urban development exerts pressure on open space, causes land use change and affects the function of green areas and agricultural land use. In order to resolve conflicting demands for and pressures on land and open space, it is crucial to understand the drivers and processes behind urbanization in a rural-urban continuum. An improvement of our knowledge and the creation of better tools for the assessment of the future social, environmental and economic impacts of land use changes are necessary. Only then it is possible to identify effective strategies for the planning of sustainable land use systems. Developing such strategies and sustainability assessment tools for peri-urban land use relationships is the aim of the EU projec