Protection of peri-urban open spaces at the level of regional policy-making : examples from six European regions

Peri-urbanisation is a dynamic process consisting primarily of the expansion of artificial areas into natural, semi-natural, and agricultural areas. This process reduces peri-urban open spaces, thus it is threatening peri-urban biodiversity and hampers the provision of ecosystem services. In this manuscript, we introduced the concept of peri-urban open spaces and exemplified it on the level of regional policy-making in the following six European case study regions: Basque Country (Spain), Flanders (Belgium), Gorenjska (Slovenia), Hajdú-Bihar (Hungary), Mazovia (Poland), and Saxony-Anhalt (Germany). Our study aimed (1) to analyse land cover changes related to peri-urban open spaces in the case study regions, (2) to identify and classify policy improvements that are useful to protect peri-urban open spaces, and (3) to provide recommendations for regional policy instruments to improve the protection of peri-urban open spaces. We designed a mixed-method approach combining Geographical Information Systems, an explorative questionnaire, and a semi-quantitative survey to fulfil our research aims. Our results showed that peri-urban open spaces are decreasing in all case study regions but with different scale and dynamics over time. Mostly (non-irrigated) arable land was transformed into non-peri-urban open space. Moreover, we identify 15 policy improvements that are suitable to support the protection of peri-urban open spaces at the level of regional policy-making. Our results indicated a potential for improving the regulatory instruments and showed the usefulness of multi-level governance that better address the protection of peri-urban open spaces at regional level. Using our research results, we provided recommendations for regional policy-makers who are willing to pay more attention to the protection of peri-urban open spaces.