Can linkage of peri-urban and rural areas ensure adaptive climate governance?

Can the ‘peri-urban’—areas around and between cities—be the key to addressing the triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss?

At a time when cities are struggling to remain inclusive, safe, sustainable and resilient habitats against climate emergencies, the linkages of peri-urban and rural areas are attracting much attention.

Several ideas and plans emerged during the Twelfth Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF12) organised by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) in the Egyptian capital of Cairo from November 4-8, 2024. Among these, urban-rural linkages (URLs) with local actions pledged for sustainable cities and communities.

URL actions are based on the premise that urban and rural areas should not be treated as separate entities when development plans, policies and strategies are made. UN-Habitat has been promoting URLs through the URL Guiding Principles and Framework for Action.

As of now, UN-Habitat is working with 11 countries (mostly in Africa) to strengthen integrated planning and development in the urban-rural nexus. Nearly 20 countries have adopted URL in their national urban policies.

What is ‘peri-urban’?

Major arguments under the concept of URL centre around the location of peri-urban areas and how the peri-urban-rural linkage (PURL) would contribute to addressing rapid urbanisation and climate emergencies.       

With a plethora of competing definitions existing on peri-urban—for example by population density, economic activity, travel patterns, urban infrastructure, bio-regions and so on—it broadly means the area between urban and rural, or, around the urban areas. In other words, it means the hinterland of urban areas.

Among humankind’s visible footprints in altering the planet is the establishment of cities, their regulated and unregulated growth, and their spread beyond, between, and around their limits. 

Thus, it is no exaggeration that the planet has entered an epoch within the Anthropocene. According to the first multicounty research project on peri-urban areas, ‘Peri-cene' is defined as a ‘peri-urban eco-Anthropocene’. It is a new kind of global human-environment system, shaped by peri-urbanisation.

The Peri-cene Project, under the able leadership of renowned futuristic explorer Joe Ravetz from the University of Manchester, provided the first-ever global assessment of peri-urbanisation, with its climate impacts, risks and vulnerabilities.

Total peri-urban land around the world at the moment could be in the order of 1.8 million sq km, with a growth rate of three per cent per annum equal to the size of Austria or UAE. Interestingly, during the last 25 years, the peri-urban land areas have doubled with the slow growth of urban land areas. 

Nearly 4.4 billion people live in urban areas worldwide. Interestingly, India does not reside anymore in rural areas. The country has one of the largest urban populations globally. India’s urban population has experienced a six-fold increase since 1951, growing from 62.4 million to 377.1 million in 2011, spread across 7,935 towns/metropolises. By 2030, 590 million Indians will be urban. Similarly, 19 per cent of Odisha’s population resides in urban areas, which is expected to increase up to 21 per cent by 2030. Meanwhile, the growth of peri-urban areas accounts for nearly 40 per cent of the urbanisation in the state.

The challenges of urbanisation and achieving the United Nations-mandated Sustainable Development Goal 11 (making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, and resilient) and Goal 13 (Climate Change Actions) is a top priority in India. Cities are projected to become hotter in future, with almost no inhabitants unaffected by the prevailing carbon-intensive activities. Increasing temperatures across India, especially in Delhi in 2024 during the pre-monsoon and flooding of almost all cities during the monsoon, is a pointer towards this crisis. India will have an increase in the intensity, frequency and duration of heat waves in the coming decades especially in urban centres. The fight against climate change and the struggle to achieve more sustainable and equitable urbanisation are two sides of the same coin.

Lots to be done

Cities around the world have yet to address the twin challenges of climate change and sustainable urbanisation. This is despite UN-Habitat informing the world about the threat of climate change in cities and human settlements in 2011 with its Global Report on Human Settlements 2011: Cities and Climate Change. Meanwhile, the World Cities Report 2024- Cities and Climate Change, released by UN-Habitat on November 5 in Cairo during WUF12 revealed that climate action, as currently implemented in urban areas, does not reflect the urgency of the threat posed by climate change.

Notably, peri-urban settlements suffer equally or even more as compared to urban centres due to exposure to extreme weather caused by climate change. In contrast, peri-urban development is also likely to reduce the resilience of urban areas. This will happen as it will clear natural barriers like mangroves, block the natural drainage of rainwater, disrupt natural water cycles, etc.

Ironically, the peri-urban areas are administrative overlapping areas which are being left unattended. The city or municipality or notified areas share the administrative boundaries of village panchayats. In Odisha, the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) overlap in delivering governance. Despite the district administration facilitating the coordination of governance, the peri-urban areas due to their geographical locations and distance from administrative offices are, at worst, neglected in development visions. Major cities like Cuttack and Bhubaneswar have been facing the impacts of extreme weather due to climate change. The unregulated alteration of peri-urban areas of both the cities, example by blocking natural drainage systems, have contributed in failing to address climate change impacts. Further study to understand the peri-urban areas in the context of climate change for these twin cities would be urgent. For emerging urban centres, it would be wiser to consider the PURL in devising developmental plans, disaster plans and climate change plans. Planning in silos for rural development and urbanisation does not make any sense. 

For example, Pattamundai municipality in Kendrapara district of Odisha, constituted from 17 villages, is surrounded by 15 village Panchayats. The municipality solely depends on the surrounding villages for food and services. These village Panchayats can be placed into the category of peri-urban areas. However, there are minimal considerations of the linkages between rural and urban while planning for the development or addressing climate change impacts, present and projected, of either the municipality or the surrounding village Panchayats. The solid waste management would be a major crisis in such emerging urban centres if not considered PURL immediately. Natural drainage systems, wetlands and swamps in the peri-urban areas of Pattamundai must be identified, preserved and protected.  

In 2023, following Tamil Nadu, the Odisha Government formulated the Odisha Rural-urban Transition Policy to proactively recognise the challenges of inadequate access to social infrastructure and civic amenities and services in peri-urban areas. However, the policy didn’t take off quite well. Peri-urban Panchayats, village Panchayats surrounding the municipalities or urban centres, can be identified, recognised and integrated into regional development planning. In its 2023 Government Order, the Tamil Nadu Government recognised peri-urban Panchayats that are abutting to cities for financial support. Can we go further to institutionalise them with a robust policy framework for the peri-urban Panchayats by inserting them into the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments?   

In Cairo, the Peri-cene Research Project released the PURL Compendium based on the Research and its unique Library of 21 case studies on November 5. This is an addition to the UN Habitat’s ongoing URL work. It is imperative to understand and explore further the linkages between peri-urban and rural areas and govern the peri-urban areas collaboratively. Exploring and understanding PURL and integrating peri-urban areas in development plans would minimise the adverse impacts of climate change and unregulated urbanisation in both urban and rural areas.  

Avilash Roul is International Advisor in Climate Change Risk and Transboundary Rivers, GIZ. He was part of the Peri-cene Research Project

Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth