Peri-urban Rural Areas Research Articles

Learning from the countryside: Designing in Chinese rural-urban areas

The current transformation of the countryside in the rural hinterland of Chinese city regions faces challenges in conserving an extensive architectural and landscape heritage. The villages situated in these regions represent the historical core of metropolitan areas. By examining the hinterland territories, we can readily recognize the features of the Chinese urban-rural continuum that G. W. Skinners has defined in his studies spanning from the 1940s to the 1970s on rural marketing networks, cities, and the hierarchy of the local system. These local systems present a morphology that continually adapts to geographical and cultural contexts, offering rich architectural and rural urbanism solutions that seamlessly harmonize the urban and rural functions. Today, this part of the settlement is extremely vulnerable to the pressure of urban expansion as towns evolve into cities and cities transform into metropolitan regions. The conventional top-down planning practice in these areas lacks innovative tools capable of integrating both “urban” and “rural” features simultaneously. Scholars such as M. Davis and G. Guldin have recognized the Chinese hybrid rural-urban settlement as a potentially “new form of settlement for humanity” (Guldin, 1997). In this article, we present a holistic design approach aimed at shaping this hybrid settlement into a “green city,” applying the model we first used in 2010 – 2013 in Huiyang in the Pearl River Delta, a region characterized by Hakka villages territorial system, to two other cases in city regions: Pidu in the Chengdu metropolitan area and Kandun in the Ningbo metropolitan area. These regions are characterized by their respective Lin Pan and Seawalls territorial systems, which we have more recently studied. The aim of the paper is to illustrate how drawing inspiration from local countryside architecture and rural urbanism enables the development of individual planning solutions as an alternative to the current planning practice in peri-urban rural areas, which tends to homogenize countryside landscapes to urban blocks.

Transitions towards Sustainable and Resilient Rural Areas in Revitalising India: A Framework for Localising SDGs at Gram Panchayat Level

Twenty-first century rural development (RD) demands a new paradigm of sustainability capable of addressing the difficulties and leveraging on the possibilities, such as climate change, demographic shift, international competitiveness, and rapid technological progress. Amidst these challenges, it is necessary to have a guiding framework from a long-term perspective that aids the integration of current RD policies while allowing space for location and community-specific innovations for implementing sustainable and resilient development strategies. India has witnessed several schemes and programmes for RD with exclusive objectives, varied focus areas, and separate domains, resulting in compartmentalisation in policy frameworks and disjointed implementation. Such initiatives were also often ideated from an urban perspective when it came to peri-urban rural areas or offered a generalist rural perspective (when referring to other rural regions, including those nested in ecological zones, thereby disregarding their local relevance). Accordingly, this study proposes a synchronised SMART village framework to tailor existing RD approaches for sustainable transformations aligned with the sustainable development goals and with a possibility of scaling its applicability in the local context. We initially conducted a bibliometric analysis to gain a comprehensive understanding of the emerging transformative approaches to RD, such as smart village (SV). Though in its nascent stage, the SV initiatives in India primarily envision information and communication technology enabled transformations in rural areas, often forcing villages to establish the relevance of such interventions. The study recognises key challenges to RD in India by using the problem tree analysis and further defines a SMART village framework that can be catalytic in transforming rural areas towards a sustainable and resilient state.

Transitions alimentaires dans les espaces ruraux périurbains franciliens : une approche par l’assiette des ménages agricoles

L’article propose d’analyser la participation des ménages agricoles aux transitions alimentaires dans les espaces ruraux périurbains de l’Île-de-France par le biais de leurs pratiques et représentations en tant que mangeurs. Par une méthodologie exploratoire d’entretiens avec une vingtaine de ménages agricoles issus de toutes les filières de la Seine-et-Marne (France), nous montrons comment du point de vue de la pratique, les transitions alimentaires sont des processus hybrides, qui relèvent de la coexistence entre plusieurs systèmes alimentaires. Notre étude révèle également la création d’espaces sociaux locaux autour de l’alternative alimentaire, ce qui interroge la capacité de tous à s’approprier les transitions alimentaires, soit par refus de l’alternative, soit par incapacité économique à y participer.

Transforming Living Models of the People in the Urban Process

Urbanization, industrialization and transformation of livelihoods of peri-urban communities are issues of concern for many urban areas in the country. The process of adjusting administrative boundaries has turned the peri-urban rural areas into inner cities due to the requirements of the expansion of urban space. Villages change towards industrialization, urbanization, and modernization. Followed by cultural change, many new factors appear intermingled or superimposed on the traditional culture layer. In that drastic change trend, Dong Son villages are no exception to the rule. The process of transforming the livelihood model of people living in peri-urban areas in general and Thanh Hoa urban areas, in particular, is taking place strongly. How this transformation is associated with sustainable livelihoods has not only received special attention from experts and scientists but also received the attention of managers and policymakers.

Suburbanisation of the Rural Areas and the Implementation of Local Authorities' Own Responsibilities: Needs and Challenges

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to analyse population trends in the rural areas surrounding large cities and to identify the resulting new needs and challenges for the implementation of the own tasks of the authorities of these administrative units. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study was carried out using statistical data made available by the Statistics Poland (SP), which enabled the study of value increments and the observation of trends, including changes in environmental infrastructure. Findings: Rapid population growth and rejuvenation of the population living in rural peri-urban areas were observed. The dynamic population growth has created needs that must be met immediately by local authorities. Such needs include the fast implementation of investments related to the obligation to provide an adequate number of school and kindergarten places for the growing number of children, as well as environmental protection, e.g. through the collection and disposal of waste produced by the growing number of households. Practical Implications: The results of the study seem to be of a significant practical importance - local authorities need to analyse current demographic trends, forecast future population levels and plan resources for investment to carry out their own responsibilities in response to changing community needs. Originality/Value: The article introduces an element of novelty, as most studies describing the course and effects of suburbanisation omit the issue of changing the age structure of the population and its direct implications for local authorities.

Peri-urban agriculture and alternative food networks in Athens: Solidarity dynamics, spatial planning challenges and institutional reforms

The article discusses the role of alternative food networks (AFN) in local food supply, food sovereignty and the preservation of peri-urban agricultural production especially in metropolitan areas. Within a context of prolonged economic and financial crisis, a growing engagement of local public and national institutions in short food supply chains helps to revitalize the local economy, strengthen rural-urban linkages and contributes to sustainable development. The analysis focuses on how newly emerging AFNs reflect the contemporary dynamics of agriculture, food-chain and land use in rural peri-urban areas of Athens. By examining the links between the current economic, environmental, social and institutional challenges the discussion focuses on the potential of formal and informal civic practices to enhance revitalization of peri-urban agriculture and support institutional change policies through a more agro-ecological approach of the metropolitan food system. A mixed method approach was used, comprising qualitative and quantitative research as well as spatial data collection and mapping representations. The analysis shows that bottom-up claims for food security had a favorable impact on the promotion of sustainable food production, consumption and distribution systems and a transformative effect on food-related public policies and the institutional framework. Gradual legitimization of many informal alternative retail channels and self-production schemes in time of crises were able to strengthen the links between urban and peri-urban environment building agricultural ‘pockets’ of resilience to food crisis. However, poor land management and zoning control are the major constraints to sustainable agricultural production and farmers’ resilience in the Athens metropolitan area.

Impact of Agricultural Land Loss on Rural Livelihoods in Peri-Urban Areas: Empirical Evidence from Sebougou, Mali

This study was part of a larger analysis of the framework of sustainable rural livelihoods in the face of urban sprawl in peri-urban rural areas of Mali. Contrary to the existing literature, which has mostly focused on issues of land rights in Mali due to the fact of urbanization, this study analyzed the consequences of urbanization in the city of Ségou on the major sources of livelihoods for residents in the neighboring rural municipality of Sebougou. Three villages in the municipality of Sebougou were selected due to the fact of their proximity to the city of Ségou. We interviewed 120 randomly sampled family heads using a structured questionnaire. The respondents were owners of farmlands or people who had lost their land as a result of urbanization. We analyzed the data using multi-linear and logistic regression models. The results showed that age, occupation, land size, and level of education had significant positive impacts on the farmers’ annual family income, while family size and gender exerted negative effects. Low-yield lands and youth emigration increased the likelihood of farmers losing their lands to urbanization. Conversely, land size, yearly income, and age had negative predictive effects on agrarian land loss. The results highlight the need for land management authorities to implement policies to protect agricultural land.

The Level of Job Satisfaction of Young Farmers Subsidized by European Rural Measures: Evidence from Northern Greece

This paper examines the job satisfaction of a sample of 182 young farmers from northern Greece who are beneficiaries of support policies, as well as the factors influencing it. The results indicate that young farmers are little satisfied in their job and the practices applied by institutional bodies are the main cause of their job dissatisfaction. Nevertheless, they like the content and nature of their job. Residing in peri-urban rural areas, the intention to continue exercising the farming profession, the sense of achievement, training opportunities, and optimism have positive effects on job satisfaction. However, considering that young people in mountainous areas have a strong sense of job dissatisfaction and claim that they are less likely to continue farming there is a need for integrated development of the countryside focused on the local needs of each area.

Testing the performance of field calibration techniques for low-cost gas sensors in new deployment locations: across a county line and across Colorado

Abstract. We assessed the performance of ambient ozone (O3) and carbon dioxide (CO2) sensor field calibration techniques when they were generated using data from one location and then applied to data collected at a new location. This was motivated by a previous study (Casey et al., 2018), which highlighted the importance of determining the extent to which field calibration regression models could be aided by relationships among atmospheric trace gases at a given training location, which may not hold if a model is applied to data collected in a new location. We also explored the sensitivity of these methods in response to the timing of field calibrations relative to deployment periods. Employing data from a number of field deployments in Colorado and New Mexico that spanned several years, we tested and compared the performance of field-calibrated sensors using both linear models (LMs) and artificial neural networks (ANNs) for regression. Sampling sites covered urban and rural–peri-urban areas and environments influenced by oil and gas production. We found that the best-performing model inputs and model type depended on circumstances associated with individual case studies, such as differing characteristics of local dominant emissions sources, relative timing of model training and application, and the extent of extrapolation outside of parameter space encompassed by model training. In agreement with findings from our previous study that was focused on data from a single location (Casey et al., 2018), ANNs remained more effective than LMs for a number of these case studies but there were some exceptions. For CO2 models, exceptions included case studies in which training data collection took place more than several months subsequent to the test data period. For O3 models, exceptions included case studies in which the characteristics of dominant local emissions sources (oil and gas vs. urban) were significantly different at model training and testing locations. Among models that were tailored to case studies on an individual basis, O3 ANNs performed better than O3 LMs in six out of seven case studies, while CO2 ANNs performed better than CO2 LMs in three out of five case studies. The performance of O3 models tended to be more sensitive to deployment location than to extrapolation in time, while the performance of CO2 models tended to be more sensitive to extrapolation in time than to deployment location. The performance of O3 ANN models benefited from the inclusion of several secondary metal-oxide-type sensors as inputs in five of seven case studies.

Gospodarstwa opiekuńcze odpowiedzią na potrzebę społeczną

Polish and European society is aging which means that more and more persons will require permanent or temporary care. According to CSO data, persons of retirement age accounted for about 1/5 of Polish society in 2015. According to demographic projections, their share is to increase. In the face of the increasingly aging population, the alienation of persons of retirement age is a more and more acute problem. A larger scope of care achieved through the development of new institutional solutions may be a response to the elderly’s needs. Care Farms, which are introduced in Poland – following economically developed EU Member States, including the Netherlands – are one example of such a solution. They are part of elderly policy which is a response to a social need, i.e. the social inclusion of the elderly, the sick, those in need of support. The elderly, which are often lonely, need to be encouraged to start being socially active, even to be presented with a pattern of changes. Lack of integration applies primarily to numerous peri-urban rural areas. In addition to identifying the problem, the study aims at analysing and assessing elderly policy, and proposing new social and health policy instruments to sustain the elderly’s activity and social inclusion. The study contains specific examples of effective elderly policy, which is successfully implemented in other EU Member States, and examples of activation by holding integrative seminar and workshop meetings. Such forms of activity serve to establish and maintain contacts, and to improve the quality of life. At present, several Polish agri-tourism farms extended their offer to include care services for the elderly. Such a form of activity is not only a response to the elderly’s needs, but also a way of improving the financial standing of an agricultural family by, among others, diversifying sources of income.

Integrated Urban Regeneration: The Opportunity of Enhancing the Open Spaces

The paper, draws the attention of the debate a reflection on the possibility of developing, in some urban areas, strategies and actions for the regeneration and redevelopment of the city; bringing to the attention not only the improvement of the spatial and functional dimension of the rundown neighborhoods, but also of the social and environmental dimensions. The valorisation of these areas may benefit from the theory of Ecosystem Services [, which appears to be able to renew the traditional approaches, to land use planning from the perspective of urban metabolism [; in this regard are of great interest those forms of planning of degraded urban fringes that take into account the minimal standard of space and/or rural services by to each inhabitant in order to make an area sustainable. The contribution starts from careful analysis of the rural peri-urban areas of Tuscany, polarized between two apparently conflicting dynamics between them (use of land abandonment and agricultural soils), to develop a reflection about the possibility of experiencing urban regeneration processes that include in inside them, innovative forms for the design of open spaces, with the aim both to recover a portion of depressed urban areas both to create new public spaces, modeled according to the forms of multifunctional agriculture and identitarian landscape [. An urban regeneration directed not only to the built space, but also to the open space and to the promotion of effective projectuality through proper analysis of services, which could be offered by rural areas and serve needs expressed by residents.

Farms as a resilience factors to land degradation in peri-urban areas

The purpose of this study was the analysis of the effects induced by urban pressures on the socio-economic and territorial characteristics of the rural peri-urban areas in order to identify planning and intervention strategies aimed at enhancing the quality of agriculture and landscape. A survey was conducted in the surroundings of Parma on farms located in the vicinity of urban areas. The structural, productive and social characteristics of the family-farm units were analyzed. The survey updated an identical survey, carried out in 1986, in which it was examined a sample of 208 farms. The units surveyed were evaluated in two aspects: the “vitality”, which takes into account the structural characteristics (size, production, labour force, etc.), and the “stability”, in which a crucial role is played by the age of the conductor and the presence of a successor. It was found that only 28% of the original farm sample is still alive, one third has disappeared, 30% was absorbed by existing farms, 8% has been abandoned. The factors most favourable to the survival resulted those referred to the vitality, especially the physical and economic size of the farm, the presence of cattle, the percentage of land in property, the presence of young labour. Among the factors that predispose to the abandonment, the urbanization processes were found to be determinants, in terms of expansion of both the built-up area and of that planned as urbanisable. The research has highlighted the importance of the vitality of the farms together with a context that has maintained its original rural features. These combined aspects can better define what we call the resiliency of the landfarms system i.e. the capability of positively reacting to the variable modifications of the internal and external conditions.

Perception, demand and user contribution to ecosystem services in the Bilbao Metropolitan Greenbelt

Peri-urban ecosystems are often managed as recreation areas or to enhance aesthetic value on the urban fringe. Scholars and land-use practitioners lack a current understanding of the supply of and the demands for these peri-urban ecosystem services (ES). In this study, we analysed the perceptions of 500 users and interest groups regarding the ES provided by the Bilbao Metropolitan Greenbelt (BMG) ecosystems in northern Spain, and we compared these perceptions to the demands for ES. The objective of this study is to understand user preferences and to thereby better orient land use planning. The results show that the demand for ES in the BMG did not correspond to what users perceived these ecosystems to provide. The respondents' perceptions appeared to be related to the management practices in the area, whereas their demand was related to the benefits they would like to obtain from the BMG. The interviewees were in favour of improvements to peri-urban rural areas, and the results suggested that the authorities should highlight the role of the BMG ecosystems with respect to regulating services and historic and cultural values to improve people's awareness of the ecosystems' capacity to provide benefits to society. Application of this framework also highlighted that there were differences in the perception of and demand for ES among different user groups. This holistic method of matching user demand with policy could be a useful tool to reorient ES-based land planning.

Farms as a resilience factors to land degradation in peri-urban areas

The purpose of this study was the analysis of the effects induced by urban pressures on the socio-economic and territorial characteristics of the rural peri-urban areas in order to identify planning and intervention strategies aimed at enhancing the quality of agriculture and landscape. A survey was conducted in the surroundings of Parma on farms located in the vicinity of urban areas. The structural, productive and social characteristics of the family-farm units were analyzed. The survey updated an identical survey, carried out in 1986, in which it was examined a sample of 208 farms. The units surveyed were evaluated in two aspects: the “vitality”, which takes into account the structural characteristics (size, production, labour force, etc.), and the “stability”, in which a crucial role is played by the age of the conductor and the presence of a successor. It was found that only 28% of the original farm sample is still alive, one third has disappeared, 30% was absorbed by existing farms, 8% has been abandoned. The factors most favourable to the survival resulted those referred to the vitality, especially the physical and economic size of the farm, the presence of cattle, the percentage of land in property, the presence of young labour. Among the factors that predispose to the abandonment, the urbanization processes were found to be determinants, in terms of expansion of both the built-up area and of that planned as urbanisable. The research has highlighted the importance of the vitality of the farms together with a context that has maintained its original rural features. These combined aspects can better define what we call the resiliency of the landfarms system i.e. the capability of positively reacting to the variable modifications of the internal and external conditions.

How to visualise the invisible: Revealing re-use of rural buildings by non-agricultural entrepreneurs in the region of Roeselare–Tielt (Belgium)

Peri-urban rural areas are undergoing profound change in many regions, including the northern region of Belgium, Flanders. One driving force is the gradual conversion from an agriculturally based economy to a much more diverse economic base. Re-use of rural buildings by nonagricultural entrepreneurs is a part of this economic diversification. This re-use is changing not only the rural economy but also the social structure and spatial and environmental quality. However, re-use of rural buildings is chronically and severely underestimated. In most cases these activities are prohibited by spatial legislation, which results in their exclusion from census data. Standard methods based on measuring land use change do not measure this transformation either, as these new activities do not necessarily lead to a change in land use. This paper presents a survey method for describing and quantifying this hidden re-use of rural buildings by non-agricultural entrepreneurs. Several datasets were combined in a GIS environment. This led to an inventory which was further refined by confirming the knowledge of local civil officers and local authorities. Field visits provided final confirmation of the data. A case study using this survey method gave profound quantitative insights in the re-use dynamic for the region of Roeselare–Tielt in the north western part of Belgium. In the rural areas of this region, 1015 addresses were detected housing a non-agricultural activity. Further information was gained about the type and the age of the detected activity and the type of building in which these activities are taking place. The most common activities are (building) contractors, trade or commercial companies, landscapers, transport and woodworking companies. Furthermore, 35% of all detected enterprises are located in (former) farm buildings. These results then formed the starting point for individual interviews and focus group discussions on the current policy on this non-agricultural dynamic. Studying the re-use dynamic in the rural areas of the north western part of Belgium (Flanders), provides further knowledge on the economic diversification of rural areas under high urbanisation pressure. The results also illustrate that the current policy lacks both data and efficiency. A clear discrepancy was found between the legal rules, spatial reality and the policy attitude towards the reported illegal non-agricultural economic dynamic. We call for increased awareness of the non-agricultural re-use of rural buildings, given the effect on future spatial planning.

Altitudinal range shift detected through seedling survival of Ceiba aesculifolia in an area under the influence of an urban heat island

Changes in the position along the elevational gradient for plant species are a predicted consequence of global and local climate change. Within the area of influence of cities it is necessary, for conservation and ecological restoration, to understand the effect on plant communities of climate change and urban heat islands, that can increase the temperature around cities as much as 8 °C when compared with peri-urban rural areas. We explored patterns of seedling survival of Ceiba aesculifolia, a tropical tree species, along an altitudinal gradient in a slope facing the city of Morelia, in Michoacán, México, because the city has followed a trend of increasing mean annual temperatures with a difference of at least 4 °C when compared with the surrounding rural areas. The highest survival was found between 2200 and 2230 m a.s.l. (100% after 1 year of planting and 75% after 2 years), 160 m higher than the altitudinal limit of the remnant adult trees in the study area, and close to the highest limit reported for the species at a regional scale (2200 m a.s.l.). There was a significant effect of altitude on survival among experimental plots ( P < 0.0001) and the interaction between elevation and distance from the north side of the experimental area was significant ( P = 0.017). For restoring populations of C. aesculifolia within our study region, assisted migration through the establishment of populations at the elevational limit or higher than its historical range might be necessary in areas close to cities that already are under the effects of increased temperatures, but might be necessary also in rural areas for ameliorating the expected effects of global climate change in tropical rural areas.

Peri-Urban Rural Areas in Greece: The Case of Attica

Peri-Urban Rural Areas in Greece: The Case of Attica

Orphan prevalence and extended family care in a peri-urban community in Zimbabwe.

An orphan enumeration survey was conducted in 570 households in and around Mutare, Zimbabwe in 1992; 18.3% (95% CI 15.1-21.5%) of households included orphans. 12.8% (95% CI 11.2-14.3%) of children under 15 years old had a father or mother who had died; 5% of orphans had lost both parents. Orphan prevalence was highest in a peri-urban rural area (17.2%) and lowest in a middle income medium density urban suburb (4.3%). Recent increases in parental deaths were noted; 50% of parental deaths since 1987 could be ascribed to AIDS. Orphan household heads were likely to be older and less well-educated than non-orphan household heads. The majority of orphaned children were being cared for satisfactorily within extended families, often under difficult circumstances. Caregiving by maternal relatives represents a departure from the traditional practice of caring for orphans within the paternal extended family and an adaptation of community-coping mechanisms. There was little evidence of discrimination or exploitation of orphaned children by extended family caregivers. The fact that community coping mechanisms are changing does not imply that extended family methods of caring are about to break down. However, the emergence of orphan households headed by siblings is an indication that the extended family is under stress. Emphasis needs to be placed upon supporting extended families by utilizing existing community-based organizations. Orphan support programmes may need to be established initially in high risk communities such as low-income urban areas and peri-urban rural areas.

Spatial changes in the population of Lorraine: findings from the 1990 census

Spatial Changes in the Population of Lorraine front the latest census (1990). — The population of the Lorraine région — 2,305,726 people in 1990 — has decreased by 0.6 % since 1982. This decrease is explained by the net migratory out flow due to the crisis in the steel, coal and textile industries. As in the rest of France, the population of the Lorraine region is characterized by spatial disparities with two inverse trends working simultaneously : regional concentration and local deconcentration. On the one hand we can notice a regional concentration in the central zone — i.e. the large urban areas around Nancy and Metz — and the border area next to the German Sarre, whereas population decreases in the region's external zones consisting in rural areas and the iron and steel industries field. On the other hand the second and opposite trend affects urban population ; it has moved towards rural peri-urban areas in the whole Lorraine, though mainly in the central zone.