We explain what an urban area and a rural area are and what the characteristics of each one are. Also, what are peri-urban areas.
What is an urban area and a rural area?
When we talk about urban spaces or urban areas, or rural spaces or rural areas, we refer, respectively, to the city and the countryside. These are the two fundamental habitat spaces of the human species where the majority of the population is located.
Thus, when we talk about an urban area we are referring to city life, in its multiple varieties, linked to industrial production; while the rural area is linked to agricultural production and country life. These have been, for many centuries, two disputed spaces in human populations, as well as two complementary spaces.
In the abstract, it seems very easy to distinguish the rural (agriculture, the countryside) from the urban (the city, the urban center) but The global trend is that little by little both habitats become more homogeneous especially due to the rapid growth of what they call “urban spots”, that is, urbanized regions.
This is a feature of modern life, since in previous times, such as medieval times, the borders between one thing and the other were very noticeable and very radical. In fact, most of humanity originally lived in agricultural environments, cultivating the land and leading a life in contact with the rhythms of nature.
But the emergence of new activities and modes of production, over the centuries, ended up creating large urban units -cities, metropolises, megalopolises- in which a very important sector of the population was concentrated, in what is known as the rural exodus, a consequence of the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century.
See also: Rural landscape, Urban landscape
Characteristics of the urban area
Broadly speaking, urban areas are characterized by the following:
- They consist of urbanized regions, that is, in which there are buildings, public works and predominance of artificial materials and durable, like concrete.
- In them is found the largest percentage of the current population: According to the World Bank, around 56% of humanity lives in urban areas. This means that they are regions with a very high population density: many people sharing the same space.
- They predominate industrial economic activities especially those in the secondary (manufacturing) and tertiary (services) sectors. This makes cities depend on agriculture for their food.
- centralize economic, cultural, scientific and technological development public services and is also the seat of political power and the State. It is not for nothing that the capitals of the countries are cities, and not rural areas.
- have high margins of environmental pollution due to the concentration of people, automotive transportation and industrial activities.
Perfect examples of urban spaces are any of the major cities in the world: London, New York, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Istanbul, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Moscow, etc. No matter its size or historical importance, any population considered a city is an example of an urban area.
Characteristics of the rural area
For its part, the rural area is characterized by the following:
- They consist of rural regions, that is, geographic regions with important presence of trees, plantations and lots of greenery. There may or may not be wildlife in them.
- They contain the smallest percentage of the world's current population, 46% of humanity according to World Bank data. This means that they have a low population density: fewer people spread over large areas of land.
- They predominate productive activities of the primary sector such as agriculture (agriculture, livestock, fishing) or extractives (mining). Their food production is much higher than local demand, and thanks to this they can supply food to the cities.
- They can be source of tourist attractions since the National Parks and Natural Reserves are located there.
- They have a low coefficient of cultural, scientific and technological production compared to cities.
- Its extensions are wide and its much smaller contamination margins although this does not mean they are non-existent: the substances used in mining or agrotoxins are an important source of pollution at a local scale.
Examples of rural areas are most productive agricultural regions, national parks and conserved areas, such as the cattle plains of Argentine Patagonia, the South American Amazon Rainforest, the vineyards of French Burgundy, the traditional rice fields of Cambodia, or the cotton growing plots on the banks of the Nile in Sudan.
Peri-urban areas
A type of area is known as peri-urban areas. intermediate region between the urban center and the rural space and which tends to be found in the peripheral regions of large cities.
It is not an easy area to delimit, since its borders with the urban area are diffuse, unclear. However, in it rural features can already be seen such as a larger area of land, lower population density and the eventual appearance of small-scale agricultural activities.
They are also regions in which precarious settlements may abound like the marginal conurbations that surround many Latin American capitals.
An example of peri-urban areas can be the suburbs of American cities, generally dedicated to wealthy families from the 70s onwards; or the extensive Buenos Aires suburbs that surround the capital of Argentina for almost 30 km, housing populations of all types.
Continue with: Urbanization
References
- “Urban space” on Wikipedia.
- “Rural space” in Wikipedia.
- “Peri-urban space” in Wikipedia.
- “What are rural, urban and peri-urban areas” (video) on Argentine Public Television.
- “Distinctions between rural and urban” in UN Habitat.
