Urban fringes: challenges for the viability of our cities

The Grea­ter Gene­va area — a cross-bor­der conur­ba­tion with France and Swit­zer­land — is expe­rien­cing one of the highest urban growth rates in Europe. Its natu­ral and cultu­ral heri­tage, its qua­li­ty of life and its land­scape are under pres­sure, espe­cial­ly at the urban fringe level. Using this area as an example, we ques­tio­ned the rela­tion­ship bet­ween city and nature, star­ting from the hypo­the­sis that urban edges represent an oppor­tu­ni­ty for arti­cu­la­tion bet­ween urban, natu­ral and rural envi­ron­ments and places. Based on an inter­dis­ci­pli­na­ry ana­ly­sis car­ried out in depth in a test area (trans­boun­da­ry eas­tern Lake Gene­va), the pro­ject shows that urban edge grids struc­tu­red by a varie­ty of layers, inclu­ding woo­dy vege­ta­tion and often water or wet­lands, contri­bute to the bio­lo­gi­cal connec­ti­vi­ty and eco­sys­tem ser­vices of the metro­po­li­tan area’s eco­lo­gi­cal infra­struc­ture. They are dyna­mic places with mul­tiple uses that need to be mana­ged for the com­mon good, they pro­vide contras­ting atmos­pheres and contri­bute to the qua­li­ty of the land­scape, social and sen­si­tive inter­ac­tions with living things within a natu­ral envi­ron­ment of proxi­mi­ty. The pro­ject pro­poses tools to iden­ti­fy the urban edges of the metro­po­li­tan area, cha­rac­te­rise their dif­ferent qua­li­ties and then find stra­te­gic ways to manage them in urban plan­ning and land use. https://lisieresurbaines.wixsite.com/lisieres-urbaines