Periurban agriculture in Lombardy between urban sprawl, multifunctionality and new lifestyles: towards a territorial approach for rural development

The European approach to rural development policies is\r\ngradually shifting to spatial differentiation, blending the\r\nterritorial dimension. A differentiation of the rural character\r\nbased on specific attributes of the territory is required,\r\nincluding lifestyles, supply of services and amenities and\r\ncompetition in soil use. We present a classification of the\r\nmunicipalities in Lombardy (Italy) aimed at providing recommendations\r\nfor the development of regional policies.\r\nGrounding on four different and independently developed\r\nthematic classification relating to the heterogeneity in\r\nurban-rural linkages, the social morphology, the economic\r\ngeography and the geographical morphology we construct\r\na unified classification of municipalities that considers the\r\nmultidimensionality of the rural attribute.