- What is an urban area and a rural area?
- Characteristics of the urban area
- Characteristics of the rural area
- Peri-urban areas
We explain what is an urban area and a rural area and what are the characteristics of each. 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 town and to the field. These are the two spaces fundamental of habitat of the species human, in which the majority of the population.
Thus, when we speak of urban area we refer 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 now, two spaces in dispute 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 world trend is that little by little both habitats become more homogeneous, especially due to the rapid growth of that What they call the “urban spots”, that is, of the urbanized regions.
This is a feature of modern life, since in earlier times, such as medieval times, the boundaries between one thing and the other were very noticeable and very radical. In fact, most of the humanity originally lived in agricultural environments, in which the land was cultivated and a life lived 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, metropolis, megalopolis- in which a very important sector of the population concentrated, in what is known as the rural exodus, a consequence of the Industrial Revolution 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 a predominance of artificial and durable materials, such as concrete.
- They are home to 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 population density very high: many people sharing the same space.
- The economic activities industrial, especially those of the secondary sector (manufacture) Y tertiary (services). This makes cities depend on agriculture for their food.
- They centralize economic, cultural, scientific and technological development, public services and it is also the seat of the can political and Condition. It is not for nothing that the capitals of the countries are cities, and not rural areas.
- They have high margins of environmental pollution, due to the concentration of people, automotive transport and industrial activities.
Perfect examples of urban spaces are any of the world's great cities: London, New York, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Istanbul, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Moscow, etc. No matter its size or its historical importance, every population considered as 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 country regions, that is, geographic regions with an important presence of trees, plantations and a lot of green. In them there may or may not be wild life.
- 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.
- The productive activities of the primary sector, such as agriculture (farming, cattle raising, fishing) or extractive (mining). Its production of food It is much higher than the local demand, and thanks to this they can supply food to the cities.
- They can be a source of tourist attractions, since they are the National Parks and Nature Reserves.
- They have a low coefficient of cultural, scientific and technological production compared to cities.
- Its extensions are wide and its margins of contamination much smaller, although not for that reason non-existent: the substances used in mining or pesticides are an important source of pollution on a local scale.
Examples of rural areas are most of the agricultural productive regions, national parks and conserved areas, such as the cattle plains of Argentine Patagonia, the Jungle The South American Amazon, the vineyards of French Burgundy, the traditional rice fields of Cambodia, or the cotton fields on the banks of the Nile in Sudan.
Peri-urban areas
Peri-urban areas are known as a kind of intermediate region between the urban nucleus 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 are diffuse, unclear. However, it can already be seen features typical of the rural, such as a larger area, lower population density and the eventual appearance of small-scale agricultural activities.
They are also regions where slums can abound, such as the fringe conurbations that surround many Latin American capitals.
An example of peri-urban areas may be the suburbs of American cities, generally dedicated to families well-off from the 70's; or the extensive Buenos Aires suburbs that surrounds the capital of Argentina for almost 30 km, housing populations of all kinds.