Challenges and opportunities for peri-urban futures

Rapidly increasing population and urban migration across different regions of the world are creating new and complex challenges. It is now increasingly realised that we need to restructure and rebalance the way that land use planning addresses these problems. Achieving and maintaining sustainability, liveability and productivity of these regions must address several key goals which include provision of adequate infrastructure, adaptation to new environments created by climate change, reduction energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, provision of adequate water supply and disposal of wastewater streams and maintaining biodiversity. This complex and ‘wicked’ problem manifests itself more dramatically in peri-urban areas, as these undergo faster land use changes. As such, this problem must be approached in a new integrated and interdisciplinary manner.