periurbanization

Periurbanization refers to the process by which urban areas extend into surrounding rural regions, transforming land use, demographics, and economy at the urban fringe. It encompasses suburbanization but emphasizes the transitional zone where urban and rural characteristics mix and where new residential, commercial, and industrial development progressively replaces farmland or natural habitats.

Drivers include population growth, housing demand, rising land values, economic restructuring, and improved accessibility from roads and public transit. As cities grow, land on the urban fringe becomes more attractive for development due to lower costs and planning regimes encouraging expansion.

Patterns involve dispersed, low-to-medium density settlements, expansion along highway corridors, growth of commuter belts, and sometimes ring-like corridors around historic cores. Agricultural land is converted to housing, retail, logistics, or light industry. Periurban zones may experience social change and the emergence of service economies.

Impacts are mixed: loss of fertile land and biodiversity, increased travel distances and traffic, pressure on water and energy resources, and variable access to services. Governance challenges arise from jurisdictional fragmentation and the need for coordinated planning across municipalities and regions.

Measurement and policy include monitoring land-use change with remote sensing and census data, and policy responses such as regional planning, urban containment, transferable development rights, infrastructure provision, and protection of agricultural land and ecological networks.

The phenomenon is widespread globally, historically in Europe and North America and increasingly in rapidly urbanizing regions of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, where periurban areas host both housing expansion and new economic activity.