Rural and Peri-urban

Europe’s rural and peri-urban areas are affected by a wide range of land take activites, for example soil sealing, (farm)land abandonment and land degradation. At the same time, these areas provide many societal services such as sustainable food production, recreation, water retention and biodiversity. Today’s (rural) spatial planning instruments prioritise nature conservation and restoration, landscape development and land consolidation. They also provide opportunities to promote sustainable use of soils and soil health.