A city region is defined as: “a larger urban centre or conglomeration of smaller urban centres and the surrounding and interspersed peri-urban and rural hinterland”. 

The term ‘city region’ not only refers to megacities and the immediate rural and agricultural areas surrounding them, but also to small and medium-sized towns that link remote small-scale producers and their agricultural value chains to urban center and markets in developing countries. Although contexts differ across cities and regions, urban-rural partnerships and inter-municipal cooperation always extend beyond traditional administrative boundaries. In our approach, we focus on food systems as the functional tie that binds a territory together. 

A City Region Food System is defined as “all the actors, processes and relationships that are involved in food production, processing, distribution and consumption in a given city region”.

Additionally, city region food systems are connected to many other rural and urban sectors (e.g. food security, economic development, water and waste management, energy, transport, health, climate change, governance and spatial planning, etc.). By taking this into account, economic, social, and environmental sustainability linkages can be acknowledged.