Peri-urbanisation , also periurbanisation, relates to a process within the phenomenon of urban sprawl. The expression originates from the french word périurbanisation.
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It is used—even in official statistics of INSEE[1]—to describe the urbanisation of former rural areas in the urban fringe, both in a qualitative (e.g. diffusion of urban lifestyle) and in a quantitative (e.g. new residential zones) sense. It is frequently seen as a result of post-modernity. Hence, the concept tries to fill the gap between suburbanisation and exurbanisation.In science, the term was used initially in France and Switzerland.
Whilst the word suburb describes a mainly monofunctional—e.g. residential—area developed around or next to the urban center, a peri-urban area is more distant to the core city and tends to have a higher land-use diversity (e.g. individual houses, agricultural land, leisure residences). Due to the latter fact, peri-urbanisation is often called rurbanisation. Peri-urban areas, which are less dependent on and even begin to compete with the urban center regarding functionality, are often called postsuburbia.
The rurban space, also known as the outskirts or the urban hinterland, is the structure resulting from the process of peri-urbanisation. It can be described as the "landscape interface between town and country",[2] or also as the transition zone where urban and rural uses mix and often clash.[3] Alternatively, it can be viewed as a landscape type in its own right, one forged from an interaction of urban and rural land uses.
Its definition shifts depending on the global location, but typically in Europe where urban areas are intensively managed to prevent urban sprawl and protect agricultural land the urban fringe will be characterised by certain land uses which have either purposely moved away from the urban area, or require much larger tracts of land. As examples:
Despite these 'urban' uses, the fringe remains largely open with the majority of the land agricultural, woodland or other rural use. However the quality of the countryside around urban areas tends to be low with severance between areas of open land and badly maintained woodlands and hedgerows.