Case Studies

Although most agri-food systems operate under urban influence as a global phenomenon, these SAMUTERs operate in areas close to large cities in metropolitan or urban-regional contexts, with strong pressures on land and water use, but with the comparative advantage of proximity to large fresh produce markets. They develop on different agrological bases (sedimentary plains, countryside, mountain areas, etc.), but always under direct urban influence, which is the functional criterion that differentiates them. Traditionally irrigated SAMUTERs abound, given the frequent location of cities next to river meadows and on historically irrigated coastal plains. These agrosystems usually cultivate highly fertile soils, manage old hydraulic infrastructures of high heritage interest and keep alive multifunctional landscapes of high strategic interest, which provide supply, regulation and cultural services to territories under heavy pressure from urbanisation.