Vol.:(0123456789) Environment, Development and Sustainability https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-019-00511-4 1 3 Structural and functional improvement of urban fringe areas: toward achieving sustainable built–natural environment interactions Mohsen Goodarzi 1  · Nafseh Haghtalab 2  · Iman Saeedi 3  · Nathan J. Moore 2 Received: 8 October 2018 / Accepted: 4 November 2019 © Springer Nature B.V. 2019 Abstract Applying ecological approach in the planning and design of urban fringe areas has gained signifcant attention in the current decade, and a myriad of research has been conducted using these principals. However, integrating these principles with socioeconomic criteria has been discussed loosely. This could be due to two diferent realms of thinking which are associated with disciplines of ecology and social–economical sciences making a suc- cessful coexistence between these them quite challenging. The purpose of this paper is to achieve sustainable built–natural environment interactions in urban fringe areas by taking socioeconomic factors along with ecological principles into account. In this study, change detection analysis from 1994 to 2016 is conducted to show the trend of urban construction and the natural environment’s reaction to urban expansion. The structural elements of the urban fringe area including river systems, green patches, and landform are extracted to ana- lyze their behavior in interaction with urban construction through looking at all segmenta- tions of each element’s continuity from north to south. Socioeconomic factors infuencing these changes are also discussed and analyzed. The results show broad changes between the southern and northern parts in terms of the continuity and function of structural ele- ments. Finally, considering structural and functional improvement potentials and restric- tions, short-term and long-term strategies for rehabilitation and improvement of the struc- ture and function of the urban fringe areas are provided. Keywords Urban fringe · Landscape · Structural elements · Built environment · Natural environment * Mohsen Goodarzi goodarzi@msu.edu 1 School of Planning, Design and Construction, Michigan State University, 552 W Circle Dr, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA 2 Department of Geography, Environment and Spatial Science, Michigan State University, 673 Auditorium Rd, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA 3 Department of Landscape Planning and Design, Malayer University, Malayer-Arak Road, Malayer, Iran