Introduction
Fringe regions form the confluence of the transition zones of urban and rural areas with a mix of both characteristics. Such regions can be easily detectable by their form, with various shades of neither rural nor urban features found in the immediate outskirts of cities. Different literature refers to these areas as the peri-urban, suburban, rurban, rural-urban continuum, composite settlements, gragara, and desakota settlements, depending on the region’s size, scale, and settings. The fringe regions span various scales ranging from a city’s peri-urban areas to a matrix of the intercontinental areas. The complex forms of such developments are often polycentric. The lack of official recognition and definition of such regions is a significant cause of concern in the fast urbanizing world.
The majority of the countries differentiate rural and urban based on a strict dichotomous definition, which is often the farther ends of a rural-urban spectrum. The countries develop their...
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Cyriac, S., Firoz C, M., Rajendran, L.P. (2022). Neither Rural Nor Urban: A Critical Review of the Fringe Dynamics of Settlements. In: Brears, R.C. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Futures. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87745-3_311
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