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Peri-cene – resources

exploring the peri-urban eco-anthropocene

Project reports 

WP1: FRAMEWORK

WP2: GEO-SPATIAL

  • D2-1: Spatial analysis of urban-env change: Review of peri-urban / climate-env: data, analysis, modelling
  • D2-2: Peri-urban Analysis Tool (PAT): Software & brief report: sources, specs, user guidance

WP3: POLICY LAB

WP4: DETAILED CASE STUDIES

WP5: PATHWAYS

  • D5-1 – adaptive governance; review & analysis of peri-urban governance & institutional challenges
  • D5-2 – Policy & governance pathways: review & analysis of strategic innovations, in progress & forthcoming

 

P-CAT:  PERI-CENE Spatial Analysis Tool

The Peri-cene has developed the Peri-urban Analysis Tool (P-CAT), as an online system which provides a local application of a global spatial dataset.  The current link is https://nenpintoresearch.wixsite.com/temp-pcat

The P-CAT sets out common archetypes of global peri-urbanisation, ranging from. These archetypes will be overlaid on the climatic – biome types and the associated risk layers.  The P-CAT tool draws on existing global and local datasets including: the JRC’s Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL), the OECD Functional Urban Area classification, and the World Resource Institute Global Forest Watch.  The results are ground-truthed in two case studies in Chennai, India and Greater Manchester, UK.

On the P-CAT you can: Visualise spatial data for the PERI-CENE 21 partner cities in the P-CAT City Visualisers. Contribute with geospatial data for each of the PERI-CENE 21 partner cities in the P-CAT City Surveys:  Follow the PERI-CENE analyses and findings in the P-CAT Analyses

P-CAT City Visualisers:  You can find our City Visualisers for all the PERI-CENE partner cities in the map below. Hover over the placeholder to find the relevant link. These visualisers include spatial information about population distributions, built-up areas and degree of urbanisation based on the global dataset Global Human Settlement Layer produced by the European Union Joint Research Centre.

The visualiser has basic tools to select the layers, measure and identify features.  Attribution of the datasets can be found on each visualiser in the top right corner.

P-CAT City Surveys:  Stakeholders and citizens can contribute to the discussion about peri-urbanisation by adding geospatial data to our datasets, using the City Surveys for the city of their interest.  

Click on the link of the city of your interest in the map and follow the instructions.  You can add one piece of information at a time, and you can add as many inputs as you want, responding to the survey once per contribution.

P-CAT Story maps

The story maps offer a unique insight on the peri-urban geography and history, combining narrative with dynamic spatial mapping. See the samples:

 

Project links

The Peri-cene agenda is at the intersection of many relevant fields of research and policy. Peri-urban studies is a wide and diverse field, combining urban geography and spatial analysis, with new insights on ecosystems services and network economies. Some links to existing studies and projects are given below.

  • The EU-funded PLUREL project examined peri-urbanisation in the European context. The final report, Peri Urbanisation in Europe synthesises the results.
  • The Periurban Initiative, coordinated by IIT Madras, is a very advanced study into the issues around periurbanisation in the Indian context.
  • The EU-funded Climate resilient cities and infrastructure (RESIN)project, which draws on the state-of-the-art from the IPCC, developed practical tools and methods to help urban policymakers in European cities establish climate adaptation and resilience plans.
  • The peri-urban is not only about land-use and infrastructure but raises fundamental questions over social, economic and cultural issues such as inequality. How to understand the interactions of these various drivers is addressed through current work on ‘Synergistics’. Over-arching these are deeper and more structural challenges, which start with combined ‘socio-technical-ecological-political systems’.
  • Issues around peri-urbanisation and climate risk have a topical futures and foresight dimension, particularly around the notion of ‘anticipatory governance’. Underpinning work on this can be found in the Foresight Future of Cities report.
  • Issues around smart cities are important when considering the peri-urban. Relevant literature includes – Inside Smart Cities.

Journal papers

Adrianto D.W. and Ravetz, J. (2020). Indonesia – A bioregional prospect for the Malang peri-urban area: In: Fanfani, D., Mataràn, Ruiz A., Salvati, L., (eds). Bioregional planning and design: European perspectives on a transitional century. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46083-9_14

Carter, J.G, Karvonen, A, Winter, A, (2024): Towards Catchment Scale Natural Flood Management: Developing evidence, funding and governance approaches. Environmental Policy and Governance, 2024;1–15. DOI: 10.1002/eet.2101

Ran, Jing, Qionghui LI, Joe Ravetz, Tristram C. Hales, Adrian Healy, Zorica Nedovic-Budic, Omar Pȧrez Figueroa, Anna Taylor. Towards Hazard-Resilience Cities: Comparative Research on Resilience-related Policies and Local Practices in Five Cities Worldwide. Landsc. Archit. Front., 2024, 12(1): 26‒46 https://doi.org/10.15302/J-LAF-1-020091

Ravetz, J, and Sahana, M, (2025) Where is the peri-urban? Mapping the areas ‘around, beyond and between’. Frontiers in Sustainable Cities 7: https://doi.org/10.3389/frsc.2025.1436287

Ravetz, J, Rees, J.L, Adrianto, D.V. (2024) Beyond and Between: Connecting Urban and Rural for Shared Prosperity: compendium of inspiring practices on peri-urban-rural linkages: Nairobi, UN Habitat

Sahana, M.; Ravetz, J. (2024). Where is the peri-urban?  a working definition and global typology. In Sahana, M, (Ed.) Remote Sensing and GIS in Peri-Urban Research: Perspectives on Global Change, Sustainability and Resilience. Elsevier

Sahana, M.; Ravetz, J.; Patel, P.P.; Dadashpoor, H.; Follmann, A. (2023) Where Is the Peri-Urban? A Systematic Review of Peri-Urban Research and Approaches for Its Identification and Demarcation Worldwide. Remote Sensing. 2023, 15, 1316. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15051316

Salem M, Ravetz J, Divigalpitiya P, Rajan SC and Sahana M (2025) Editorial: Land-use management in peri-urban areas. Front. Sustain. Cities 7:1586052. http://doi.org.10.3389/frsc.2025.1586052

Salem, Muhammad, Joe Ravetz, Somi Sareen, Ting Dong, Mazharul Haque, Walid Bayoumi, Naoki Tsurusaki, Gang Xu,2025: Managing the urban-rural transition: A review of approaches and policies for peri-urban land use, Journal of Urban Management, ISSN 2226-5856, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jum.2025.04.006. 

Winter, A, Karvonen, A (2022) Climate governance at the fringes: Peri-urban flooding drivers and responses. Land Use Policy 117 (2022)

Woiwode C, Ramachandran A, Philip T, Rishika D and Rajan SC (2024) Identifying entry points for adaptive governance in peri-urban Chennai (India): a multi-dimensional, multi-level, and multi-scalar approach. Front. Sustain. Cities 6:1368240.  doi: 10.3389/frsc.2024.1368240

 

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