In-Between Sprawl and Neo-Rurality: Sparse Settlements and the Evolution of Socio-Demographic Local Context in a Mediterranean Region

Rosanna Salvia,Ilaria Zambon,Massimo Cecchini,Luca Salvati,Pere Serra

doi:10.3390/su10103670

Abstract

Dispersed urbanization during the last half century has transformed metropolitan regions into well-connected, low-density residential areas. However, this kind of urbanization has changed irreversibly the traditional rural landscape around cities, leading to a new definition of ‘rurality’. The present work discusses the intimate relationship between urban sprawl and new forms of rurality. Considering economic downturns and the possible impact on landscape transformations, our study focuses on a representative Mediterranean case of urban sprawl (the metropolitan region of Athens, Greece). In this area, urban settlements expanded rapidly into fringe land, producing relevant socio-demographic transformations that have determined uneven changes in rural landscapes. A spatially-explicit investigation of local-scale dynamics that characterize population residing in sparse settlements over a long time period (1961–2011)—encompassing distinct phases of urban growth and rural development—is relevant for analysis of local changes in the relationship between sprawl and new forms of rurality. A new concept of ‘rurality’—adapting to rapidly-evolving, mixed rural/peri-urban contexts—require reframing the relationship between rural landscapes, scattered settlements, economic cycles and socio-demographic aspects, in the light of a truly sustainable development of local territories.

Highlights

During the last half century, urban sprawl has progressively transformed metropolitan regions into well-connected and low-density residential areas [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
With the final objective to define a new concept of ‘rurality’ for territorial contexts characterized by dispersed urban settlements, indicator-based quantitative approaches are essential for understanding local transformations which alter the traditional urban-rural gradient typical of mono-centric cities in the Mediterranean region, allowing identification of new central and peripheral places, and the respective changes over time [29,40,41,42]
Multifaceted processes of landscape ’co-evolution’ among urban expansion and peri-urban contexts around metropolitan areas have been identified over the last decades, leading urban and rural elements to coexistence and latent conflicts [68]

Summary

Introduction

During the last half century, urban sprawl has progressively transformed metropolitan regions into well-connected and low-density residential areas [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. This recent kind of urbanization has intensively changed the traditional rural landscape, leading to a new definition of ‘rurality’ [1,3,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18]. With the final objective to define a new concept of ‘rurality’ for territorial contexts characterized by dispersed urban settlements (e.g., urban sprawl), indicator-based quantitative approaches are essential for understanding local transformations which alter the traditional urban-rural gradient typical of mono-centric cities in the Mediterranean region, allowing identification of new central and peripheral places, and the respective changes over time [29,40,41,42]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion