NEWRUR : urbaN prEssure on RURal areas
These deliverables show a bibliographical analysis realised in two steps; on the one hand a bibliographical review of each country involved in this project (D1.1a), on the other hand an European bibliographical review (D1.1b).
D1.1a : A bibliographical review of each country involved in the consortium: France, Spain, UK,
Germany and Greece
D1.1b : An European contribution in a separate
volume
Summary
The complete version can be asked to Cemagref, who was Newrur first work-package co-ordinator.
Back...
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
This bibliographic investigation was based on an analysis about urban systems and national forms of urban expansion, as well as rural/urban confrontation modes and the national-planning techniques in effect in each of the countries over the past 40 years. This bibliographical analysis was used to constitute the D.1.1a
With the bibliographical contributions, the Spanish team, in charge of Work Package 1, realized a compendium of all countries involved in the consortium. The common analysis method that was adopted and designed to enable a transversal analysis of the national bibliographical data was based on the issues listed here.
1.
How is the phenomenon of peri-urbanisation approached in each of the partner countries?
2.
How are urban structures defined?
3.
What are the consequences of the urban entities on their environment, notably in terms of the type, intensity and development of peri-urbanisation?
4.
What are the recognised influences of the urban system on the type and features of the peri-urbanisation phenomenon?
In this report you can find a brief summary of the national contributions to these themes:

Definitions of the peri-urbanisation phenomenon .
One conclusion is that this phenomenon does not exist in certain countries. For example, in Germany, the term

"peri-urbanisation" does not exist and research deals essentially with policies capable of regulating urban expansion. Studies in United Kingdom do not explicitly define “peri-urban” itself and pay more attention to the effects of urban proximity on the “restructured” rural areas as a whole. Typological and analytical approaches, however, are very rare. On the contrary, other countries, for example France and Greece, have a wide variety of definitions and interpretations concerning the peri-urbanisation phenomenon. In this context, all the partner countries concentrate on apprehending the different stages of the dynamics of the phenomenon and the resulting territorial structuring.

Definitions of national urban structures.
Some concepts like urban units, urban or rural areas, urban poles, peri-urban belts, urban districts and the like .

Theoretical and methodological approaches.
Here each country has listed the investigations about the empirical problems by applying these concepts to the national realities.

Environment and urban space.
The environmental influences onto the character, intensity and evolution of the peri-urbanisation. So in Germany owing to development of ecological conscience, the concepts as “decentralised concentration” or sustainable urban landscape have established valid patterns to analyse the peri-urban phenomenon. The concept of greenbelt in UK is linked with the peri-urban phenomenon although there is a polemic referring to the advantage about the environment and the disadvantages about the economic interests.
In France, peri-urban areas become attractive centres, however this does not always result in a physical change in land use, for example parks and gardens, aquatic centres and relaxation zones, etc. It is showed when the people speak of green zones reflect a new manner of approaching rural areas. In Spain, there is not theoretic studies respecting to the environment influence of the urban unities, the importance of the environment aspects at public opinion may be an start point to build healthiest cities in the next years.

A general interrogation on polycentric and monocentric urban systems .
However, this question concerning urban forms produces a wide range of interpretations and is based on different analysis scales. For example, the metropolitan area of Athens is termed "macrocephalic" if all its satellites are included. This situation is consistent with the overall European trends. However, the hierarchical Greek structure is not the result of an economic hierarchy as is the case in Germany. In UK, the concept of the regional city is seen to be an emergent urban type with a dispersed form; its outer parts are envisaged as containing dispersed settlements and complex cross-directional flows, so linkages to the central-city are not dominant. Thus, in UK the mono or polycentric system is central in the metropolitan refl ection, it isn’t a recent question due to the relationships between the Nort-American and English cities with the colonisations. France shows the general characteristics of the European urban frame however, the weight of Paris is much higher, for this reason we can say that at national level this country has got a monocentrism morphology. In Spain, the crucial role of geography has produced a very particular spatial structure with fairly evenly distributed smaller towns in certain regions, compared to other more monocentric regions. In this context, two major scenarios may be proposed.; in the first, the progression in population benefits primarily the satellites of the larger cities, in the second, the processes involving internationalisation and services give the large cities the competitive advantage.
Finished this first point, there are bibliographical reviews about the situation of the NEWRUR’s countries, viz; P.II
France, P.III Spain, P.IV United Kingdom, P.V Germany and finally P.VI Greece. They develop deeper the urban system, spatial organisation and peri-urban process according with the urban reality in their countries.
Back...

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
In this work we have want to approach to the urbanization process in Europe, the writing is separated in several headings which are summarised in the following lines.

Introduction: urbanization process in Europe.
In this epigraph we have introduced a brief summary about the historical context of the urbanization process in
Europe, the main studied themes have been the intensity of urbanisation and how this is measured.

Official concepts of the urban zone and the rural-urban dichotomy .
We have introduced an approximation of the concepts rural and urban areas and common criteria to measure the rurality; we have emphasized the relationship between rural and urban as a classical peri-urban phenomenon. In this point we have referred about the changing urban rural cooperation, the future of urban-rural relationship in
Europe, the classifications that different studies have realised and finally the effect of the globalisation in this type of relation.

On the diverse attempts to define and delimitate the urban zones in Europe .
We have explained concepts like urban unit, the F unctional U rban R egions (FUR), the E uropean F unctional U rban
A rea (EFUA).

European urban system and hierarchical model of cities .
Here we have analysed the competition between cities; the typologies of the cities according to their hierarchical position like global cities, corridor zone, remote regional cities etc. or one typology of the European urban structure. Finally we have done a comparison of the European and North-American urban system.

Peri-urbanisation and European peri-urban areas.
This heading shows the characteristics of the peri-urbanisation process and the tendencies toward on the one hand the recovery of the urban polarization “simple peri-urbanisation” and on the other hand the independent urban expansion ways of the polarisation field in the big cores “dispersal city”.

City and environment .
In reference with the environment in the city we have underlined the importance of the economic and social element in the urban environment; the concept of urban sustainability demonstrates it. The natural resources management is dealt though the consideration of the environmental problems into a spatial planning. Other considered issues have been the building of the European Environment Indicator System based on the contributions of the SPESP and finally, how is the development of this perspective being measured in the urban growth?

The question of monocentric and polycentric urban system .
Firstly, we have developed the concept of centrality and the concept of polycentrism underlining the intra-urban and interurban levels, and secondly we have referred the demographic, economic and planning studies concerning to the polycentric in Europe.
Back...