Review: Some years ago, there was a move by Prof. Alice Coleman's Land Utilisation Survey to create a new map of the UK based on 'scapes. This 'scape' theory suggested that land use could be divided into three main categories and two transitional zones. The argument was simple - land use change occurs at the margins and it is here that the work should focus. That work (at least according to internet research) is now defunct and there seems little to show for the ideas. However, the notion of marginal change has been around for longer and now, in the guise of the 'peri-urban' returns in this text to highlight issues pertinent to urban change.

The cases described here are taken from the developing nations - those where urban change is most extreme and where resources are least. The aim is to describe such change and its impacts and to demonstrate how it can be more sustainably managed.To achieve this, the book is divided into five parts. The first of these seeks to define the concept and the range of topics it encompasses. For these purposes, the first chapter is the most useful especially for the novice because it outlines the key concepts and highlights the remaining chapters. The defence of the peri-urban is strong: it it argued that it is the main place of change in the global South and that is there that policy needs to focus. The three subsequent chapters in this part look at some of the main ideas and organisations involved. Chapter two looks at the work of SCOPE (the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment) which has contributed much to the development of this topic as well as contributors to this book. Chapter three examines research into this area which can inform policy whilst chapter four comes from the other direction to assess how well policy fits in with research. Part two looks at the opportunities presented by the growing urban situation rather than the threats contained. The common theme is food production. As with earlier-developing cities such as London, the opportunity exists to create primary production close to the market. Although not referred to as the 'market gardening' of the global South there are striking parallels. The range of cases is interesting here going from vegetables to marketing strategies to cattle. There are also interesting cases showing how scale impacts upon the work and how some groups live by expanding the ways they earn money (from pastoralism to a range of jobs including office work). Part three moves on to examine cases of peri-urban management, how it is implemented and how it does/doesn't work. As one might expect, in areas of considerable need and few resources there are going to be difficulties encountered. The part starts with a look at the problems of policy-making. Next, we see some of the social and environmental costs created by the construction of this zone. Of course, the zone isn't just for the people that live there, it's also a zone of change for other urban dwellers. Transport plans which might help some can also create problems for the peri-urban dwellers especially the poor. At this stage, one might think that the text is just reporting issues that have been found but there is far more to this text. The sub-title of the book "approaches to sustainable natural and human resource use" shows the direction that the writers are taking - this is not just reporting policy, the aim is to inform policy along a specific paradigm. That this is going to prove difficult is the theme of the final two chapters in the section looking at the problems in W. Africa. Part four takes all this work and tries to suggest ways forward. In some ways this is 'back to the future' as cases suggest that "appropriate-scale" technology be used in recycling schemes showing that the (Intermediate Technology) IT work in the 1970s was not lost. Another contribution suggests the use of sustainability indicators to produce GIS-style work that can show the nature, rate and location of change. The two final chapters in this part look at an IT project in Kenya and the value of citizen participation in Nigeria. Part five is a single, reflective chapter summarising the work and its contribution to the wider debate.

This is a very useful text about a key area in urban development. The construction of text into overview, resource use, issues and solutions makes the debate far easier to understand. Since developing world cities and issues are a key teaching focus this book becomes a great guide to the work. Senior students would find much of interest but, lacking the visual elements of many texts, this work might be more suited to educators to use as part of their own work. There's a very wide variety of examples both conceptually and geographically. For those beyond the school system, this text should be seen as a key reader in areas such as sustainability and resource management.