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Beyond the Urban/Rural Territorial Categories

February 7, 2023 por Carlos Salazar - Editor: Daniel Peciña-Lopez Leave a Comment

Este artículo está también disponible en / This post is also available in: Spanish


There is consensus in considering Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) as the second most urbanized region in the world, with around 80% of its population living in cities and the remaining 20% in rural areas. However, what would happen if we were to change, or adapt, the parameters for defining what can be considered urban territory?

The dualistic classification (if it is not urban, then it is rural) serves to facilitate the understanding of territorial reality. However, we run the risk of caricaturing the development dynamics that occur in an environment. For this reason, in LAC countries where territorial analysis exercises have been carried out using wider ranges of categories of analysis of degrees of urbanization, we find classifications that are closer to reality. These ranges include a very rich gradient of intermediate municipalities that do not necessarily respond to characteristics defined by the dualistic approach of urbanization/rurality. In this context, the concept of peri-urban has been developed, which makes it possible to connect realities that tend to merge and which we will discuss in a later entry.

With this article we begin today a series of blogs whose objective is to bring to the table the importance of designing territorial public policies that take into account the wealth of information of the different territorial gradients as well as the territorial dynamics that transcend political-administrative boundaries.

A practical example to better understand territorial gradients

To provide a better understanding of the importance of this topic, we invite you to travel to Colombia. In 2015, a study was conducted in the country to better understand its territorial reality. This study, called Mission For the Transformation of the Countryside found that the country was divided into four categories according to the urbanization-rurality relationship:

  • Cities and agglomerations
  • Intermediate
  • Rural
  • Dispersed rural

The study concluded that close to 60% of the country’s municipalities should be considered rural, and that more than 30% of the country’s population would be rural. This situation contradicts the data of the traditional classification, which considers that only 26% of the population resides in rural areas.

imagenes del campo colombiano, con vacas, café, palmeras y verduras

This analysis also brought other binding issues to the table. One was that each of the urbanization-rurality classifications had different indicators of multidimensional poverty and income poverty. It also showed how indicators of social inclusion and productive inclusion varied for the capeceras and dispersed population within the same jurisdiction. As part of this study, moreover, RIMISP found that the dispersed population may live close to population centers (it estimated that in 2014 82.5% of the dispersed population lived within 20 km of an urban core of 20,000 or more inhabitants, and 65.6% within 10 km).

Why should we go beyond exclusionary territorial categorization?

The immediate result of classifying complex realities into exclusive categories (urban/rural, for example) leads to the design of recipes that homogenize particularities and, therefore, to the inefficiency of public policies to address the problems inherent to the nature and specificities of the territory.

On the contrary, one of the benefits of broad territorial categorization (as in the case of Colombia) is that, in addition to offering solutions that are closer to reality (with a territorial approach), when they are approached from the perspective of regional convergence and gap closure, they make it possible to define needs, design specific indicators and, above all, assign responsible sectors and investments to focus on the problems encountered.

Territorial classification according to their level of development

In 2015, Colombia’s National Planning Department conducted an exercise to classify the country’s municipalities and departments into 7 categories according to their development environment (robust, intermediate, or early) and their urban functionality. This exercise found great disparities in terms of quality of life, economic, environmental, institutional and security between territorial entities and therefore different public policy responses.

Within the same jurisdiction we also see this tendency, both in land use planning based on a classification that divides the territory into urban and rural land, and in territorial planning, which usually ends where the political-administrative limits of the territorial jurisdictions end, without taking into account the dynamics that affect the territories themselves but occur outside of them.

An IDB study (in Spanish) on Municipal Interdependencies showed how the exchanges that take place between economic agents from different political-administrative jurisdictions to satisfy a need (e.g., the provision of goods and services) led to the establishment of interrelationships that link the demand of one jurisdiction with the supply of the other, producing externalities that, despite being caused within the limits of one, affect the other.

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The exercise made it possible to measure the nature, magnitude, and direction of these interdependencies and to recommend public policies to accelerate the interdependencies that generate positive externalities and to regulate those that generate negative externalities, as well as proposals for territorial associativity that allow economies of scale and synergies in the benefits of the implementation of public policies.

The IDB is committed to territorial diversity

It is essential that the design of territorial public policies consider the wealth of information of the different territorial gradients. Moreover, it is also important that decision makers understand that these policies are implemented in territories with complexities that transcend simplifying approaches to reality.

To achieve this objective, the IDB is committed to a territorial and multisectoral approach in each of its operations.  In particular, the Housing and Urban Development Division has the Supramunicipal Thematic Group, whose purpose is to address territorial phenomena considering the particularities of the environment and regardless of the political-administrative boundaries in which they occur.

In future articles of this series we will address in more detail some of the territorial issues that transcend the traditional territorial categories: urban-rural links, territorial typologies and taxonomies, functional areas, peri-urban territories and municipal interdependencies. Do not miss our blog series!

Related content:

Metropolitan Dialogues: Steps towards the Institutional Construction of Metropolitan Governance

Filed Under: Gobernanza metropolitana Tagged With: governance, territorial categories

Carlos Salazar

Carlos Salazar Echavarría is an architect from Universidad Javeriana with a specialization in Regional Planning and a Master's degree in Regional Development from Universidad de los Andes, and a Master's degree in International Affairs with emphasis in Urban and Social Policies from Columbia University in New York. His research interests are related to the development of innovative and sustainable solutions to the problems inherent to territorial development. He has been a consultant for UNDP, World Bank, The Earth Institute and USAID programs in countries such as Mexico, Kenya, Ghana, Belgium and the United States, and for organizations such as the National Planning Department, the Latin American Center for Rural Development - RIMISP, the German Federal Ministry of Environment and private companies in the construction sector. Additionally, he was the Sustainability Manager of Findeter, leading the implementation of the Sustainable and Competitive Cities programs, operational director of the Strategy for Overcoming Extreme Poverty of the National Government (ANSPE - Red Unidos), Director of Urban Planning of AECOM Technical Services, Advisor to the Presidency of the Republic, Banco de la República and Pax Christi International, among others. He is currently Lead Specialist in the Urban Development and Housing Division for the Colombian Representation of the Inter-American Development Bank.

Editor: Daniel Peciña-Lopez

Daniel Peciña-Lopez is a specialist in international affairs, development and communication. He has more than 10 years of professional experience in diplomatic delegations, and international organizations in cities such as Washington DC, New York, Chicago, Madrid, Mexico City and Hong Kong, among others. Daniel is Master of International Affairs from Columbia University, Master of Science from the University of Oxford Brookes and Licenciado from Universidad Complutense de Madrid. In 2010 Daniel received the First National Award for Excellence in Academic Performance, from the Ministry of Education (Government of Spain) for being the university level student with the highest average GPA score in the country. He currently works as an external relations/communication consultant at the Inter-American Development Bank.

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Este es el blog de la División de Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano (HUD) del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo. Súmate a la conversación sobre cómo mejorar la sostenibilidad y calidad de vida en ciudades de América Latina y el Caribe.

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