The Province of Valencia is located in the centre of the region of Valencia (eastern Spain). The province is about 10,700 km2, and has 266 municipalities and a population of over 2.5 million inhabitants. The vast majority of the province’s inhabitants (95%) reside in urban areas, the largest being the capital city of Valencia on the Mediterranean coast. The region is economically diverse (with tourism, industrial, service, governmental and agricultural sectors), but unprecedented growth and development in the previous decades has been unbalanced, resulting in complex territorial, social, economic and landscape realities and tensions that must be addressed at the regional scale.

The University of Valencia and the Valencian Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FVMP) will collaborate with other regional and local stakeholders in this Living Lab to analyse some of the region’s exceptional experiences to illustrate the importance of implementing rural-urban territorial processes, particularly as they pertain to business and labour markets, public infrastructure, and sustainable food systems. They will also explore how shifting from a sectoral-based, short-term view to a territory-based, comprehensive long-term view could help the region better manage challenges in the future.