School of the Built Environment at Leeds Metropolitan University

CUDEM (Centre for Urban Development and Environmental Management)

The Urban Fringe Study Group (UFSG) within CUDEM at Leeds Metropolitan University undertakes research and analysis of peri-urban spaces.This has included studies of green infrastructure in the UK and earlier Interreg projects on urban fringe space, most notably SOS I and SOS II.

The Urban Fringe Study Group will coordinate the research and analysis elements of SURF which constitute Work Package 3 and contribute to a range of overarching SURF outputs.

In addition the team will undertake a study of urban fringe governance in the Leeds City Region, which will be one of the SURF case study localities for comparison against other selected EU city regions. As part of this study it is intended to develop a network in the region to explore the issues and strategies around the core SURF themes of urban fringe sustainability and competitiveness. The lessons from this network will be shared with city regions internationally to develop ideas for future strategies.

Finally, the study group will provide support to the Aire Valley Partnership of Bradford City Council in looking at engaging communities in the urban/rural fringe of Airedale in contributing to the competitiveness the Leeds City Region.

Project aims:

Beyond the city region study and support to Bradford Council, work for WP3 aims to-

Provide a body of knowledge containing the present state of academic and practical knowledge concerning the planning and development of urban fringes.This will be used to construct a conceptual framework which will be used to steer the project and will show the relevant themes, issues, processes and their relationship.

This will be done through:

• Providing a template for 'theme' analysis for testing and implementation.
• Forming thematic groups and enabling networking across themes.
• Reviewing and disseminating a baseline inventory of previous Interreg and other relevant projects.
• Organising an expert network which will be consulted throughout the duration of the project.
• Identifying urban fringe policy networks
• Giving a broader research context to the work, including producing reports and papers reflecting the findings of SURF.