Toward a new planning identity? Sustainable development, crisis landscapes and urban sprawl

A scientific debate developed on how to manage peri-urban land quality, agricultural and productive activities at the fringe, reconnecting urban-rural relations in a truly 'sustainable development' vision. Peripheral urban land may be regarded as multifunctional areas, favoring diversified economies and promoting agriculture-related uses of land containing urban expansion. The present work brings a reflection on periurban landscapes under recession, integrating different disciplinary visions. Non-urban, non-rural (degraded) landscapes are the objective of this study, going beyond the aesthetic-visual approach typical of landscape studies and reflecting a regional science perspective. When reading territorial complexity, a stronger integration between quantitative methodologies and qualitative approaches is needed. Evaluating latent landscapes under crisis requires an in depth understanding of historical, cultural and political implications of economic recession, suggesting an action plan triggering virtuous processes of sustainable development and revitalizing degraded environments in a time of reduced public budgets and increasing social inequalities of metropolitan regions.