In-between coast and inland: a long-term assessment of demographic dynamics, agriculture and urban growth in Rome prefecture

Abstract

Southern European urban areas have experienced a rapid transition from the impressive population growth typical of the post-industrial period to the most recent de-concentration patterns reflecting discontinuous expansion, land consumption and the abandonment of cultivated areas around the central city. Based on long-term demographic data, the present study investigates the long-term changes in population density (1871–2013) observed in Rome’s province focusing on the disparities growing between coastal and inland areas. Demographic dynamics at the local scale have been compared with the evolution of the primary sector (workers in agriculture, number of farms, cultivated land) along the study period. Our results indicate no linear, one-way path towards urbanization but a rather cyclic path alternating urbanization and suburbanization waves coinciding with the dispersed expansion of Rome and the consolidation of the gap in population density between coastal and internal areas. Results of this study were finally discussed in the light of the future development of the Mediterranean urban areas and the (changing) relationship with peri-urban agriculture and the conservation of coastal forests.