peri-urban landscape: the next challenge

This book underlines the importance of establishing, in the planning and urban policies oriented towards sustainability, a relationship between the urban expansion - observed in its different forms and dynamics - and the ability of soil and landscape to support agricultural productivity and interface processes. This is the development of a specific investigation theme linked to the problem of soil degradation and peri-urban lands allows a valuable re-interpretation in the field of landscape studies. This book queries the value of the ＂rural＂ around a city, in a multidisciplinary perspective encompassing land transformations, good practices, and urban planning trends.

Land transformations are at the center of analysis and discussions on the management, planning, and design of the landscape everywhere. This topic is particularly appropriate for European landscapes where land changes are often associated with the degradation of rural and natural areas. This issue represents a crucial point within the framework of the ecological transition towards a truly sustainable society and economy, as established by the European Union.

This book is the result of detailed bibliographic research, of in-depth historical research on the most recent challenges and topics of greatest interest in the field of urban studies. Original landscape transformations analyses were performed, introducing also some practical cases, considered relevant contributions in spatial planning.

Jacopo Mughini Gras graduated cum laude from the Faculty of Architecture of the University ’La Sapienza’ - Rome (Italy), where he obtained a license to practice. As a result of the studies undertaken and the experience acquired both in Italy and abroad, he was interested in landscape and territorial design as well as in environmental issues in terms of landscape and urban planning, delving into a number of different topics. In particular, those issues concerning the redevelopment, design and enhancement of the territory in both rural, urban, and peri-urban contexts, both in Italy, such as in Rome and Venice, but also abroad in the southeastern suburbs of Paris (Vitry-sur-Seine). He currently resides in Rome where he is collaborating with architectural firms that specialize in urban regeneration and landscape architecture, facing issues encompassing environmental sustainability, energy saving and bioarchitecture.

Letizia Pace has always had a great passion for nature and environmental issues, and for this reason she undertook studies in Geological Sciences with a specialization in Geosciences and Georesources at the University of Basilicata (Italy). Between 2018 and 2019 she also attended an advanced training course entitled ＂＂Geomatik-Application of new technologies for environmental monitoring (air, water, soil matrices)＂＂. In July 2021 she won a scholarship that got her to engage in the analysis of satellite data, particularly MODIS, Landsat and Sentinel 2 data, using software and platforms such as QGIS, Hegtool, SNAP, and GEE, with the ultimate goal of studying the environmental fragility of Mediterranean landscapes, threatened by climate change and land degradation phenomena, from an environmental perspective.