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The Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia, has worked closely with state and local planners and agricultural practitioners over the last 4 years to develop a new way to identify high quality agricultural land (HQAL). This methodology combines land capability or suitability for horticulture and dry land cropping and grazing with irrigation supplies, rainfall and yield information. It then ranks large tracts of “similar” land according to its versatility for a range of agricultural land uses. This information, developed in a pilot project in the mid west region of Western Australia (WA) has been designed to suit formal land use planning. The HQAL methodology is being extended to other parts of Western Australia (WA) and has value for local planning. To use this information effectively more work is required state-wide and nationally to establish the relative importance of HQAL in many locations, including those near cities and towns.

Peri-urban areas are the strategically most important emerging built environments that need to integrate appropriate food efficient design and planning. This chapter aims to understand food responsive design and form specific characteristics of new residential neighbourhoods in peri-urban areas. A review of three key food urbanism approaches was conducted. Two international master planned community case studies from the United States of America (USA) that apply ‘Agrarian Urbanism’ principles were analysed. A small scale residential neighbourhood case study in Sydney, Australia was redesigned to test applicability of these principles as identified through the review and analysis. Results from these case studies, emphasise the importance of protecting land in the peri-urban locations. Appropriate design and planning approaches can contribute significantly. Developing a strong evidence base; understanding community aspirations; formulating appropriate planning policy and recognising trandisciplinary connections of food efficient design and planning would be vital for building resilient communities of the future.

Peri-urban agriculture, especially livestock and vegetable farming, has deep roots in the food system of Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. The city’s population is increasing rapidly: current population is slightly over 1.51 million people whose demand for food is also increasing rapidly. Wakiso district, a peri-urban area surrounding Kampala city, ranks as Uganda’s number one and two producer of poultry and piggery respectively. The district of Wakiso accounts for about 7.4 % and 6.3 % of the total national populations of chickens and pigs respectively. However, agricultural land in these areas is increasingly at risk from urban encroachment, which is likely to adversely affect the city’s food security. This chapter examines the role of peri-urban farming in the food system of Kampala city and how it is at risk from urban encroachment. The chapter demonstrates that population growth, artificial distortions to the value of land in Kampala city, the booming construction industry as well as the creation of recreation and leisure facilities have escalated the competition for land in peri-urban areas between agricultural use and urban-type developments.

Climate change presents many challenges for local government in Victoria, Australia. In the Macedon Ranges local government area the future climate is likely to include more hot days, less rainfall and run-off and increased frequency and intensity of extreme events such as drought, flash flooding and wildfire. The purpose of this project was to identify, analyse and evaluate climate change risks and develop an adaptation plan that would assist the Macedon Ranges Shire Council on the outskirts of Melbourne begin to plan for likely impacts arising from climate change.

The development of the adaptation plan employed a best practice risk management approach in line with AS/NZS 31000:2009 and AS 5334:2013 and took and whole-of-council approach. Undertaking a risk assessment approach to climate change adaptation planning for a peri-urban local government area was successful. The approach assisted council to build capacity in climate change, adaptation and the process of undertaking a risk assessment and define their area of operation, influence and responsibility in regards to adaptation actions and the role of other external stakeholders. Further, it helped them to integrate the risks and associated adaptation options directly into the existing risk register system and understand the relativity of climate risks to non-climate risks that the council faces, such as land use change, increasing proportions of absentee landholders and an ageing demographic.

Climate change awareness is an imperative to achieve sustainability in developing countries. Lack of awareness is a significant barrier to climate change adaptation in developing countries. Raising climate change awareness at the local level is critical for Pakistan as climate change impacts are exacerbating the number and extent of disasters in this disaster-prone country. Pakistan’s vulnerability to climate change impacts is very high (ranked 12th in the world). This research assesses the awareness of climate change impacts among the local planning officials in Punjab, Pakistan. The research contextualises its findings in the context of Pakistan’s resilience to deal with the adverse impacts of climate change given its unique and unusual set of socio-political circumstances. The findings of this chapter are based on a detailed survey conducted with local planning officials of Lahore, Pakistan. The survey explores the level of awareness of climate change, its causes and impacts in Pakistan. The survey and subsequent analysis in particular focuses on the potential role of use of Geographical Information System (GIS) in raising climate change awareness.

In this chapter the effects of climate change on food production are considered with particular reference to urban agriculture and the associated impacts on food security. The value of urban agriculture to the health and nutrition of developing and developed countries is described. The current status of related research by international agencies is outlined and their omissions highlighted. Proposals are made as to how theses overlooked areas of research might be addressed.

This chapter discusses the adaptive capacity of coastal urban and peri-urban Indigenous People’s to climate change. It is based on the findings of a National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF) funded project that utilised a series of case studies that engaged key representatives from Indigenous organisations in five coastal locations in three states of south-eastern Australia (Low Choy D, Clarke P, Jones D, Serrao-Neumann S, Hales R, Koschade O et al., Aboriginal reconnections: understanding coastal urban and peri-urban Indigenous people’s vulnerability and adaptive capacity to climate change, National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, Gold Coast, 139 pp, 2013). The study has highlighted the social, economic and environmental impacts on urban and peri-urban Indigenous communities inhabiting coastal areas throughout south-eastern Australia. These impacts include a loss of community and environmental assets, such as cultural heritage sites, with significant impacts on their quality of life and the establishment of potential favourable conditions for the spread of plant diseases, weeds and pests. The study also found that opportunities did not readily exist for engagement with climate change adaptation policy and initiatives and this was further exacerbated by acute shortages of qualified/experienced Indigenous members that could represent their communities’ interests in climate change adaptation forums. The evidence emerging from this research clearly demonstrates that Aboriginal people’s consideration of the future, even with the overlay of climate change and the requirements for serious considerations of adaptation, are significantly influenced and dominated by economic aspirations which are seen as fundamental survival strategies for their communities.

A number of specific climate change induced issues to emerge from the research included: the potential for Indigenous involvement in the ‘bush tucker’ industry utilising wild plant species will potentially suffer from changes in species availability; concern was expressed about changes associated with peri-urban and urban development which appears to be escalating micro-environmental changes; peri-urbanisation is a major environmental change which threatens cultural assets including Aboriginal sites; Indigenous communities need representation in climate change adaptation forums and to be more directly involved in land and sea care projects. The chapter concludes with recommendations to better position Aboriginal engagement and knowledge systems in the wider climate change adaptation policy discourse.

Voluntary collective action is essential to natural resource governance. In peri-urban settings, a complex behavioural and institutional matrix frames such action, and the net balance of incentives and disincentives, supports and impediments determines the likelihood of effective action on any issue. Coupled with this, each issue has its own biophysical and social characteristic, which intersects with the character of the community. Taken together these issues suggest the need for a realistic understanding of what will make collective action feasible, and design of institutional arrangements to manage the totality of the behavioural setting and the reality of the problem being addressed. Taking invasive species (and in particular invasive animals) as an example, this chapter explores the dynamic nature of the challenge of collective action in a peri-urban setting.

This chapter is the result of a research project on the peri-urban area in Greater Beirut conducted at the Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management (LDEM) Department at American University of Beirut (AUB), and improved during the fall semester 2013–2014, LDEM design course titled ‘Site design in urban context.’ The research explores the potentiality of landscape approach using urban agriculture as a sustainable strategy capable of reconstructing brooked identity and territorialised marginalised people. Could the use of urban agriculture in Beirut play a role in the break off gentrification process?

Real estate is a major driver of the economy in many countries of the Middle East, as in other developing nations. It is one of the main barriers to the development or implementation of zoning and planning regulations that would make urban agriculture more than a fortuitous and temporary use of space (Zurayk 2010). Moreover, A-line Raad argues that Lebanese urban society is now undergoing a paradigm shift in social thought and action towards valuing heritage, public space, social cohesion, and accessibility to leisure and cultural activities recognising that these factors can enhance urban liveability. The peri-urban greater Beirut area was chosen in the design course as a case study to explore, while designing, the potentiality of the landscape approach in addressing the multiple features of those areas. The gentrification process in Beirut was identified as one of the drivers of the city development causing de-territorialisation and incongruous land use coexistence.

Defining urban spatial expansion, this chapter examines the role of mega urban regions (MURs) in Southeast Asia. These MURs can be regarded as economic integration regions. Globalization is integrating the MURs into global economy. Globalism is embraced at the national level but functions at the local level. Hence, urbanisation is made up of the interaction between national scale, provincial scale, urban scale and individual scale of individuals and households. Urbanisation in the MURs is driven by a complex array of social, economic and political processes.