The metropolitan region is a form of urban territory in which city and landscape re-array into an urban landscape system characterized by multiple modes of organization and dynamic socio-spatial processes. Perspectives on the operative relationship between landscape and city emerging in recent decades present new ways to understand, order and act in metropolitan territories. To what extent landscape as permanent underlying substructure, or as physical open space system, or as metabolic process has a bearing on the future of the metropolitan region are the broader lenses of these perspectives. In European metropolitan areas, historical accretion and mature planning cultures have lead to distinctive urban-landscape configurations with their own particular morphologies, systems and dynamics. The aim of this issue is to present state-of-the-art research engaging with the metropolitan landscape in European urban regions from the perspective of spatial planning, urbanism and landscape planning disciplines. Presented papers focus on three specific research fields: Landscape planning for peri-urban areas, metropolitan landscape characterization, and landscape design in metropolitan contexts.