Rural Development. Challenges and opportunities for Europe

This paper is based on and developed from the EDORA project (European Development Opportunities for Rural Areas), part of the ESPON 2013 Programme, where a new delimitation of the European regions, based on economic and structural variables, were constructed. 1 Two regional typologies play a central role in the analysis: The first is a typology of demographic change based on the demographic equation and developed in the context of both the ESPON Programme, and DG Agriculture's SERA (Study on Employment in Rural Areas) project. The second is a structural typology and focused on economic transformation and restructuring, a typology that was developed in the EDORA project. These two typologies will be used as a framework to explore patterns of demographic and economic change within urban and rural areas at different stages in the process of transformation, from more or less pure agrarian economies to the new rural economy or the "new rurality", with its orientation towards market service activities, where the location to urban areas is of great importance. Four types of rural regions are founded and analyzed from a demographic and structural point of view. The distribution of the demographic types allows the roles of natural population increase, migration and total population change in different kinds of rural areas to be distinguished.

2012

Rural areas cover most of the European Union and are inhabited by nearly half of its population. They provide living space and a means of livelihood for millions of people, is the source of much of the food, provide a number of basic raw materials for the industry as well as they represent a category of recreation space, attractive to visitors. The specific character of rural areas within the European Union is determined by their social and cultural identity. Each of the rural areas has a unique geographical location, natural resources, history, ethnic structure of the population, religion and traditions, urban network, and economic potential. They are characterized by a distinctive way of life, closer relationships between people, direct contact with nature, which is a symbol of healthy living environment. Understanding their nature goes beyond the narrow framework of agriculture and includes contemporary views on multifunctional agriculture, economic diversification of the farm fo...

Land Degradation & Development, 1990

Based on the findings from the research project: ‘Alternative Uses for Land and the New Farmworker—Segregation versus Integration’, this paper analyses broad lines of development and available options for rural areas in the European Community. Taking into account various limitations on agricultural, forestry, and nature conservation activities, the emergence of three agro-structural regional types is likely to occur: —rural areas with intensive agriculture;—rural areas constituting mainly agrarian-touristic peripheries, which exploit their endogenous development potentials on the basis of quasi-tourism—less-favoured areas with a tendency towards depopulation, which may serve as ecological balance areas.—rural areas with intensive agriculture;—rural areas constituting mainly agrarian-touristic peripheries, which exploit their endogenous development potentials on the basis of quasi-tourism—less-favoured areas with a tendency towards depopulation, which may serve as ecological balance areas.

After the Industrial Revolution, the precarious equilibrium which regulated the co-evolutionary process between man and nature, has decidedly leaned in favor of a society which is continuously in search of new spaces to be explored and inhabited. According to the data in the Inventario dell'uso delle terre in Italia (Inventory of land use in Italyiuti), from 1990 to 2008 land take is estimated at 500,000 hectares; 75% of the time, this occurs to the detriment of farmland. The ability to evaluate and monitor said phenomenon is essential, first of all, in order to provide the decision makers with valid instruments and, secondly, to lay the basis for a new culture which, placing agriculture at the center of a new, regenerative view of the landscape, is able to outline new ways of organizing the territory which take into account the connections between that which is anthropic and the matrix in which it is inserted, in full respect of the principles of sustainable development.

Manheimer Geographisce Arbeiten, 1998

This paper intends to present and discuss the causes and consequences of the land use changes occurring in the area, based in the information from a case-study located in the municipality of Alcoutim. This study has been developed under an European research project regarding Belgium, Denmark and Portugal,“Monitoring and Managing Changes in Rural Marginal Areas: a comparative research”.

This volume stems from research work conducted in PLUREL - a 6th Framework project on: Peri-urban land use relationships. It refers to the concept of urban - rural region which focuses on the development of peri-urban areas and on factors of intra-regional interdependence. While following this approach, generalizations that pertain to the European scale are here supplemented with, and ilustrated by selected findings concerning the region of Warsaw - one of PLUREL's case study regions.

2003

European Commission (1999). European Spatial Development Perspective, towards balanced and sustainable development of the territory of the EU. Office for Official Publications of the European Community, Luxembourg. European Commission (1999): European Spatial Development Perspective. A strategy for balanced and sustainable development in Europe. European Issues in the debate. A synthesis of the transnational seminars and the Commission Forum on the ESDP.-Luxemburg.

European Countryside, 2013

Peri-urban agriculture in metropolitan regions is exposed to severe urbanisation pressures related to land and labour availability, thus limiting farming activities. Nevertheless, peri-urban agriculture reveals specific characteristics that contribute to the local food supply and the management of a multifunctional countryside near towns. This paper seeks to investigate agricultural land-use and farming-system characteristics in peri-urban areas within Rural-Urban Regions (RUR) across the EU27. The RUR model, which includes an allocation of urban, peri-urban and rural areas, is developed and applied in spatial and statistical analyses to identify relationships between urbanisation and agriculture. The results indicate that metropolitan agriculture compensates shrinking land bases by increasing the intensity of the labour and turnover generated, and is furthermore specialised at developing horticultural produce that is oriented towards urban consumer markets.

Journal of Rural Studies, 1994

This paper is an attempt to look into the future of the rural areas of

Review on Agriculture and Rural Development, 2018

The rural area is an extremely varied area, agricultural area, the area occupied by forests and grazing the surface of non-agricultural lands (Riviera sea, etc.) and rural agglomerations is a separate entity from the urban areas characterized by a high demographic concentration and vertical and horizontal structures. Being often under the impact of old production systems, characterized by accelerated development and irrational of industry, the countryside has been subject to economic transformation, social and environmental, which mostly resulted in exodus and impoverishment of the rural population. Given this situation, are downright remarkable efforts of developed countries and not only to balance rural-urban ratio, reconciliation and revival of rural areas is kept of unique material and spiritual values. Rural areas are the result of interactions between man and nature, between interdependencies relations, who are specific to diversity of social actions and their natural environm...