Farmland – an Elephant in the Room of Urban Green Infrastructure? Lessons learned from different case studies.

The focus of Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI) research for sustainable urban development has been largely on green urban structures, such as parks and urban forest. The role and contribution of farmland has often been neglected. This presentation wants to scrutinise the potential of farmland’s contribution to the basic conception of UGI. First it reports on three case studies from peri-urban regions in Germany (Rolf et al., subm.). Habitat suitability modelling was used to map the potential spatial distribution of low-intensity farmland, with emphasis on grassland systems. Based on these potential distributions, landscape indicators are used to analyse structural connectivity as a surrogate for functional connectivity, which supports ecological and abiotic processes and functions, but on the other hand characterises functional social connectivity, with respect to the accessibility of recreation. The results of this study suggest that farmland bears a great potential to contribute to UGI. The immediate surroundings of the cities do not just offer spatial potential but can enhance connectivity significantly.
Furthermore first results of another case study in Sweden will be presented, in the peri-urban region of the City of Malmö.