Beyond & between - launching the global compendium of Peri-Urban-Rural Linkages.

From space, the human impact on the planet can be seen with the spread of cities - but cities themselves are spreading into much larger areas – ‘beyond, around and between’. Most peri-urban sprawl consumes land and resources, and amplifies flood and fire, along with inequality, exclusion, and expropriation of local livelihoods. The crucial peri-urban interface is often a site of conflict and destruction, alongside innovation and enterprise. In both global south and north the ‘peri-urban-rural-linkages’ (‘PURL’) face huge challenges, but also new synergies and opportunities.

This Compendium contributes into the UN Habitat series of URL (‘Urban Rural Linkages’). Building on the global perspective of the Peri-cene project, this provides insights from a Policy Lab of 21 city-regions, from global south to north, with in-depth studies from India and the UK. The findings show how urban and rural areas are linked and inter-dependent through the intermediate zone of the peri-urban – in resources, infrastructure, housing, travel, food, material flows, human flows and ecosystem services. Typically, such linkages are highly negative, extracting resources, disrupting livelihoods, polarizing inequalities, leading to waste and sprawl. But there is growing potential for positive thinking, with an ever-growing array of social and ecological innovations, adaptive pathways and local-global synergies. Working with the ‘PURL’ (‘Peri-Urban-Rural Linkages’) principles, we can start to minimize negative impacts and maximize opportunities, not only within peri-urban areas themselves, but across the wider urban and regional systems.

This PURL Compendium sets out the underlying principles: takes a global overview of the challenge: tells the stories of selected city-regions in South and North: and points to shining examples of the PURL in practice. It also provides a founding text for the ‘Peri-Urban Initiative’ and similar to take forward (https://www.periurban.in/

This Urban Library event will launch and present the PURL Compendium: debate the questions raised: highlight key examples of worst and best practices: and map the forward pathways for policy, enterprise and civil society.