Moving toward a convergent model of peri-urban expansion? rethinking city design, spatial planning and landscape conservation in Southern Europe

Urbanization is one of the crucial issues of global change and, with increasing frequency, we observe a remarkable correlation between socioeconomic changes and urban land use and landscape modifications. Urban expansion pattern is getting increasingly dispersed and fragmented. Topography and natural amenities contribute to shape the territorial development in suburban districts which, in turn, are strictly associated with preference for environmental landscape expressed by citizens characterized by uneven socio-economic status, primarily income inequalities. Typically observed in Mediterranean cities under structural crises, the socio-spatial polarization resulting from intense recessions, may represent a risk in term of sustainability and livability of modern urban area and requires a punctual spatial planning activity to restore an image of inclusivity and equality that the "European city" once had. This chapter discusses flexible and generalized notions to evaluate urban expansion modes that are essential to envisage well informed socio-territorial policies to contrast unbalanced trajectories of regional development. Admitting that this trend of land development is getting a common feature of a growing number of cities in advanced economies, providing instruments of evaluation of the ongoing situation supports the decision-making process for improving the quality and equity of future urbanization in metropolitan areas around the world. Socially cohesive and spatially equitable cities seem to be the necessary antidote to urban crisis in Mediterranean regions, and especially in economically weaker and socially fragile realities.