Urban-rural continuum: an overview of their interactions and territorial disparities

This study provides a quantitative analysis of the interactions between urban and rural areas and related territorial disparities in the European Union. Themes such as population changes, access to services, broadband internet connectivity, house prices, tourism, and land-use/cover flows are examined by mean of indicators computed with the most recent data at the highest spatial resolution. The degree of urbanisation (cities, towns and suburbs, rural areas) is used to identify territorial differences and to compare EU regions. Results show that rural and remote areas are lagging for relevant territorial assets compared to more urbanised typologies, with strong variations from region to region depending on the analysed themes. The study provides quantitative and graphical information by applying a descriptive statistical analysis of the indicators and a spatial multicriteria assessment for helping on decision making processes. It concludes summarising the most important outcomes with a set of policy recommendations.

PERPIÑA CASTILLO Carolina;  VAN HEERDEN Sjoerdje;  BARRANCO Ricardo;  JACOBS-CRISIONI Chris;  KOMPIL Mert;  KUCAS Andrius;  AURAMBOUT Jean-Philippe;  BATISTA E SILVA Filipe;  LAVALLE Carlo; 

2023-05-31

John Wiley and Sons Inc.

JRC131397

1757-7802 (online),   

https://rsaiconnect.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rsp3.12592,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC131397,   

10.1111/rsp3.12592 (online),