Urbanization is one of the most important challenges contributing to important trend of replacing agricultural land with high-value land uses, such as housing, as well as industrial and commercial activities, as a result of significant population growth. To face these challenges and improve urban sustainability, integrating an embedded concept of spatial planning, taking into account urban and peri-urban agriculture, will contribute to mitigating food security and the negative impact of climate change, while improving social and economic development.

This project aims to analyze land use/cover changes in the Casablanca metropolitan area and its surrounding cities undergoing rapid urban growth. To achieve this, time series of remote sensing data were analyzed in order to investigate the spatio-temporal changes in LU/LC and to evaluate the dynamics and spatial pattern of the city’s expansion over the past three decades, at the expense of agricultural land. The study will also examine the relationship between urbanization and agricultural land use change over time. The results of this study show that Casablanca and its outskirts experience significant urban expansion and a decline in arable lands, with rates of 45% and 42%, respectively. The analysis of SDG indicator 11.3.1 has also shown that land consumption in the provinces of Mediouna, Mohammedia, and Nouaceur has exceeded population growth, due to rapid, uncontrolled urbanization at the expense of agricultural land, which highlights the need to develop a new conceptual framework for regenerating land systems based on the implementation of urban and peri-urban agriculture in vacant sites within the urban and peri-urban areas. This will offer valuable insights for policymakers to investigate the measures that can ensure sustainable land use planning strategies that effectively integrate agriculture into urban development.