Integrating farmland in urban green infrastructure planning. An evidence synthesis for informed policymaking

The Green Infrastructure (GI) Strategy was adopted by the European Commission in 2013, to promote the deployment of GI by integrating it into main policy areas. Despite a high level of awareness for a policy integration across sectors at the EU level, urban and peri-urban farmland (UPUF) is up to now barely considered. A systematic evidence base addressing the contributions of UPUF can support a more informed policymaking. To address this, our paper developed a first evidence synthesis, to evaluate potential of UPUF contributing to policy objectives, thereby tackling major urban challenges. Furthermore an analysis of policy documents revealed gaps on the current state of policymaking and potentials for the integration in future policies. Due to a reciprocal consideration between EU level policies and scientific knowledge this work provides information that help to further construct scientific evidence to address policy concerns while taking into account multiple perspectives. Furthermore, we discussed the implications of our findings for further UGI research and policymaking and thus hope to extend the current political debate across policy sectors.