Urban-rural relations in Europe Typology of urban and rural characteristics developed by the ESPON 1.1.2 project Kaisa Schmidt-Thomé 14.12.2006 Sevilla JRC/IPTS Rural typologies -workshop
ESPON 2006 Programme Programme under Interreg III Expectations: New knowledge and evidence on European territorial trends and impact of EU policies Integrated territorial analysis, tools and scenarios Purposes: Support to policy development A scientific network and platform for applied European territorial research 30 applied research projects in total Budget 17 million Euro (14+1+2 mill. Euro)
Themes of Trend Analysis Urban system and polycentric development Urban-rural relations Small and medium-sized cities Accessibility and Transport networks Telecommunication Demography and migration Enlargement (and the spatial tissue) Natural and technological hazards Natural heritage Application of ESDP in MS Governance related to urban and territorial policies Cultural heritage Information society
Territorial Impact Analysis Structural Funds Pre-accession aid EU Infrastructure Policy EU R&D Policy EU Agricultural Policy Energy trends and impact of EU Energy Policy EU Fisheries Policies Structural Funds in urban areas
Cross Thematic Analysis Integrated tools for the spatial development Spatial scenarios and orientations Territorial dimension of the Lisbon process Europe in the World Integrated analysis of transnational and national territories (Zooming in) Economic dimension in territorial development Environment policy (scoping) Social dimension (scoping) Mix of Nuts 2 and 3 areas in territorial analysis
Does the dichotomy make sense? Urban and rural vs. rurban Theory of urbanisation as a backbone for the conceptualisation (incl. differential urb. theory) Urbanisation as Demographic change Structural change of the economy Behavioural patterns, lifestyles, images and ideas View also from the direction of rurality transformation towards post-productivist countryside two-fold picture: ruralities have to do increasingly with images, perception vs. the images are firmly connected to the existing landscapes
Challenges How to capture the key dimensions, to pay attention to both the long-term historical trends and the everyday life nowadays? How to get comparable data on them? How to locate assets, strengths, instead of just problems? One should not force the dichotomy on territories rather one should see urbanity/rurality as one dimension among others Suggestion: Urbanity / rurality relates to: - how it looks like in the area - what takes place there
ESPON 1.1.2 approach Motivation: urban and rural still important as mindscapes that influence human behaviour Starting point: structural and functional relations (long-term urbanisation vs. everyday flows) First exercise: Capturing and comparing the array of notions used by the Member States Developing a harmonised definition: two dimensions of urbanity vs. rurality 1) urban influence 2) human intervention Relating series of data to the developed typology
Urban influence High (vs. low) influence assumed in case of: Presence of a European level Functional Urban Area (FUA data from the project 1.1.1) and / or High population density (> 107 inhabitants / km 2 = the average of EU 25 + 4 )
Human intervention High, medium or low degree of intervention assumed according to land cover data (CORINE 1990) Three broad categories : built-up areas, agricultural areas, residual areas / wilderness" 1) high human intervention: at least the share of artificial surface above average (3,48%) 2) medium human intervention: at least the share of agricultural areas above average (50,36%) 3) low human intervention: only the share of residual land use above average (46,16%)
High urban influence, high human intervention Low urban influence, high human intervention High urban influence, medium human intervention Low urban influence, medium human intervention High urban influence, low human intervention Low urban influence, low human intervention
Final Report contains also: What else was done? review of EU policies and initiatives: any sensitivity towards urban-rural issues? review of a series of urban-rural policies and initiatives from the Member States (collected via a questionnaire): good practices to follow? tests of the urban-rural typology at national level case studies to complement the analysis on functional urban-rural relations: a series of urban-rural situations identified case studies on land and property markets: connection with urban sprawl and urban containment presented policy recommendations based on the work
Case study findings: urban-rural situations Increasing global-local interconnections Growing size and declining number of commuter catchment areas Growing interdependencies within larger urban regions Medium-sized cities of the more urbanised countries are increasingly viable Role of rural areas as arenas of consumption are growing in significance
More info about the project Lead Partner: Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, Helsinki University of Technology 8 project partners and 3 subcontractors plus 3 observing partners www.espon.eu / Thematic projects http://www.espon.eu/mmp/online/website/content/projects/259/649/index_en.html Kaisa.Schmidt-Thome@tkk.fi, Christer.Bengs@sol.slu.se