Sustainable Rurbanity - Resources, Society, and Regulatory Systems

Rurban transformation processes are closely linked to changes in land use and soil management, influencing the level and stability of soil functions. Intensification and extensification of agriculture, as well as land use homogenization and diversification, occur side by side as a rurban assemblage, affecting, among others, primary productivity, cycling of nutrients, water, and carbon. A critical challenge is reconciling trade-offs between soil functions valued by private beneficiaries (e.g., farmers prioritizing production) and public beneficiaries (e.g., carbon sequestration and nutrient retention) under climate and socio-economic perturbations. Tree-based systems could play a pivotal role in addressing these trade-offs as has been demonstrated for temperate and semi-arid regions. However, empirical evidence on how such systems enhance or exacerbate trade-offs remains limited, especially under the diverse social-ecological conditions of rurban farms.

In the sub-Project A2: RurbanSoilFunctions: Synergies and trade-offs in soil functions of rurban spaces we are together with the University of Kassel and international partners in Morocco from the University of IAV Hassan II. In our department we want to identifies and characterizes farming practices using data from statistics, expert knowledge, and farm surveys. Then we will evaluate economic risks and gathers detailed information on farm management, incomes, and adaptation strategies. Building on this, we will apply farm-level modelling to assess how different land-use options contribute to stable and robust farm income under uncertainty, taking into account farmers’ resources, constraints, and risk attitudes. Then we will expand this approach by integrating economic, ecological, and social objectives into a multi-criteria model. It analyzes how farms and landscapes can balance income, food production, and ecosystem services such as soil functions. The model also explores trade-offs, the role of tree-based systems in multifunctional landscapes, and differences across farm types.

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