Green infrastructure (GI), as a concept and as a tool for environmental land-use planning at various scales, has burst onto the academic, political, and policy-making scenes in the last two decades. This tool, associated with strategic planning, offers integrated solutions for improving the ecological connectivity and urban resilience of open spaces, especially those affected by processes of urban sprawl, the abandonment of agriculture, and the territorial fragmentation of habitats and traditional agricultural landscapes. In spite of the advantages of GI, its design and implementation face a range of challenges and limitations. In this context, this paper has two objectives: Firstly, to address a critical review of recent literature on the subject, which, among other things, highlights the lack of references to the role of peri-urban agriculture in GI planning, and the positive contribution made by peri-urban agriculture to the local food supply and other regulatory and cultural services. Secondly, to propose a methodology to contribute to integrating practical GI planning in metropolitan regions to maximize the activation of traditional agricultural landscapes and the improvement of landscape connectivity in metropolitan regions for the reconnection of rural-urban relationships.

Discussions on food security in the Global North have raised questions about the capacity of peri-urban organic agriculture to provide sufficient healthy food for the urban market. Dealing with food security requires more attention to how to protect peri-urban organic farming systems from urban pressures while strengthening the sustainability of local food systems. Given that short food supply chains (SFSCs) have been proven to be effective at reconnecting people with food production, this study focuses on identifying the barriers that hinder their development and the opportunities derived from the comparative advantage provided by their urban proximity. This study is based on documentary and empirical research addressing food supply chain characteristics in the organic sector. This study is focused on Mediterranean peri-urban agriculture, where, historically, there have been close relationships between the city and the countryside. These relationships are based on the fact that many cities are traditionally located next to areas of high agricultural activity, where a wide variety of vegetables is produced almost continuously due to the relatively mild winter climate. This study deals with two medium-sized metropolitan areas in Andalucía in the south of the Iberian Peninsula—the coastal city of Málaga, which is of a tourist-residential nature, and the inland urban agglomeration of Granada. Our research shows, when compared with other studies, that the local organic food sector seems to have great potential to find innovative solutions based on a collective approach, local embeddedness, and collective knowledge and by prioritizing horizontal and sustainable processes at the local/regional scale.

Periurban agriculture is being hit by the effects of the globalized food system, as well as by concrete aspects of urban sprawl. Nonetheless, proximity to the main markets provides an opportunity to sustain agriculture in highly urbanized areas. In this sense, an increasing number of local initiatives is arising within the context of Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs). The economic impact of these initiatives, however, is limited by problems and inefficiencies that hinder their capacity to scale up. The present paper sets forth the results of a research project developed in Madrid and Cataluña. The study is based upon documentary and empirical research addressing the main problems periurban farmers are facing in relation to local food distribution. Among other factors, these refer to regulatory barriers, logistics, competition and dealing with consumers’ preferences. We conducted a questionnaire with a representative group of farmers from each region in three towns presenting different demographic sizes along with another questionnaire extended to the owners of small grocery stores, who play a vital role in the supply of fresh food in these municipalities. Our research demonstrates that most of the problems arising when dealing with SFSCS can be solved by introducing new forms of cooperation among the different agents of the food chain.

We use an original geographic framework and insights from science, technology, and society studies and the geohumanities to investigate the development of global environmental knowledge in tropical mountains. Our analysis demonstrates the significant relationship between current agrobiodiversity and the elevation of mountain agroecosystems across multiple countries. We use the results of this general statistical model to support our focus on mountain agrobiodiversity. Regimes of the agrobiodiversity knowledge of scientists, government officials, travelers, and indigenous peoples, among others, interacting in mountain landscapes have varied significantly in denoting geographic remoteness. Knowledge representing pre-European mountain geography and diverse food plants in the tropical Andes highlighted their centrality to the Inca Empire (circa 1400–1532). The notion of semiremoteness, geographic valley–upland differentiation, and the similitude-and-difference knowledge mode characterized early Spanish imperial rule (1532–1770). Early modern accounts (1770–1900) amplified the remoteness of the Andes as they advanced global ecological sciences, knowledge standardization, and racial representations of indigenous people as degraded, with scant attention to Andean agriculture and food. Global agrobiodiversity knowledge increasingly drew on corresponding representations of mountain remoteness. Our integration of the biogeophysical–social sciences with the geohumanities reveals distinctive geographies of agrobiodiversity knowledge. Assumed remoteness of mountain agrobiodiversity is not inherent but rather is actively formed in relation to global societies and knowledge systems and is thus relational. Connectivity and claims to territorial and indigenous autonomy distinguish newly emergent characteristics of agrobiodiversity. The multifunctionality and political geography of agrobiodiversity are integral to current mountain environments, societies, and sustainability.

Some of the results of the landscape planning study recently carried out for the Metropolitan Area of Murcia in south‐eastern Spain, specifically for the areas of the Vega Media del Segura and the Huerta de Murcia, are presented. From the perspective of landscape as heritage, understood as a quality of the entire territory, methodological criteria are contributed for the analysis of landscapes for spatial planning purposes, as well as the result of trends, values and problems affecting the landscapes of peri‐urban agriculture. Public participation is highlighted throughout, and proposals are made for the preservation and management of the landscape as a resource contributing to the sustainability of the metropolitan area.