Green infrastructure planning in metropolitan regions to improve the connectivity of agricultural landscapes and food security

Green infrastructure (GI), as a concept and as a tool for environmental land-use planning at various scales, has burst onto the academic, political, and policy-making scenes in the last two decades. This tool, associated with strategic planning, offers integrated solutions for improving the ecological connectivity and urban resilience of open spaces, especially those affected by processes of urban sprawl, the abandonment of agriculture, and the territorial fragmentation of habitats and traditional agricultural landscapes. In spite of the advantages of GI, its design and implementation face a range of challenges and limitations. In this context, this paper has two objectives: Firstly, to address a critical review of recent literature on the subject, which, among other things, highlights the lack of references to the role of peri-urban agriculture in GI planning, and the positive contribution made by peri-urban agriculture to the local food supply and other regulatory and cultural services. Secondly, to propose a methodology to contribute to integrating practical GI planning in metropolitan regions to maximize the activation of traditional agricultural landscapes and the improvement of landscape connectivity in metropolitan regions for the reconnection of rural-urban relationshipsThis research has received funding from the research project “Paisaje y Huerta de Madrid” (PDRR-I8 agreement Autonomous University-IMIDRA) co-financed by the European Union through the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Foodstuffs and the Environment and the Community of Madrid-IMIDRA Rural Development Program 2014–2020, and the ongoing research project SAMUTER from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Foodstuffs and the Environment, in the 2018 call, submeasure 16.1 within the framework of National Rural Development Program 2014–202