Abstract
Nowadays, around half of the global population lives in urban areas. This rate is expected to increase up to two-thirds by the year 2050. Most studies analyze urban dynamics in wide geographic ranges, focusing mainly on cities. According to them, the global population is spatially distributed (and polarized) in two extremes: large urban agglomerations and rural deserts. However, this remark is excessively general and imprecise. For this reason, it remains essential to analyze these dynamics at other spatial scales. A close-up look in thinly populated regions shows how urban dynamics are also noticeable. In this paper, we analyze spatiotemporal patterns of population distribution in a predominantly rural area by applying a local-scale approach. These patterns are represented by using spatial networks with nodes representing the human settlements and links showing hierarchies between nodes. This case study is conducted in a small municipality located in northwestern Spain. It is a predominantly rural area with a very particular spatial pattern of population distribution.
Highlights
Nowadays, around half of the global population lives in urban areas. is rate is expected to increase up to two-thirds by the year 2050
The generalized lack of future job opportunities in rural areas explains the massive migration to cities. us, the population flows that developed countries experienced in the Complexity last two centuries are being replicated nowadays in developing countries, but more rapidly
It explains the exponential growth rates experienced in large cities located in developing countries without adequate infrastructures to support their urban growth. e emergence of pseudourbanization or false-urbanization processes [6, 7] helps to understand the majority of negative dynamics related to these areas in terms of poverty, marginality, social deprivation, and increasing violence rates
Summary
Around half of the global population lives in urban areas. is rate is expected to increase up to two-thirds by the year 2050. Is case study is conducted in a small municipality located in northwestern Spain It is a predominantly rural area with a very particular spatial pattern of population distribution. In 2007, the rate of urban population at a global scale exceeded 50 percent by showing how the major relevance of urban dynamics is relatively recent. It is notorious in the last two centuries with the emergence of the industrial revolution. Us, the population flows that developed countries experienced in the Complexity last two centuries are being replicated nowadays in developing countries, but more rapidly It explains the exponential growth rates experienced in large cities located in developing countries without adequate infrastructures to support their urban growth. In Balsa-Barreiro et al [8], it is observed how the global wealth is moving towards the global East, while traces related to the increase of population and urbanization rates are shifting to the global South
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