CO NC EP T A ND S CO PE
OF R UR AL G EO GR AP HY
The word “Rural” has been derived from the Latin word
“Ruralis” meaning “countryside”
In general a rural area or countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Whatever is not urban is considered rural.
Rural Geography is the subfield of human geography that deals with the phenomenon which are typical of the rural space.
Rural geography includes the study of social, economic, land use and settlement patterns in areas which may be recognised by their land scape characteristics as countryside
.
Rural Geography includes the study of social, economic, land use and settlement patterns in areas which may be recognised by their landscape characteristics as
“Contryside”.
According to Shrivastava “Rural area is an area where people are engaged in primary activities that they produce the things for the first time in cooperation with nature.
According to H.D. Clout “the study of recent social, economic, land use and spatial changes that have taken place in less densely populated areas which are commonly recognised by virtue of their visual components (Low density population, extensive land use, occupation and life style) as countryside”
According to Soren Larsen “Rural geography focuses on the spatiality of rural life and environment.
According to Canadian Census “ Rural area is a sparsely populated land lies outside the populated land.
According to Michael Sofer “the study of rural geography deals with phenomena which are typical of the rural space. It deals with rural settlements, their characteristics and the socio-economic processes of change that occur in the rural space of the developed and less-developed countries.
According to Michael Woods “Rural geography may be simply defined as the study of people, places, and landscapes in rural areas, and of the social and economic processes that shape these geographies.
According to Jerzy Banski “Rural geography is a well-grounded geographical discipline studying the contemporary social and economic phenomena on going in rural space.
According to G.D. Macdonald “Rural Geography is an amorphous field, covering as it does diverse aspects of the human’s use of the physical environment in a rural setting. If focus upon primary uses of the land including Agriculture, Pastoralism, Forestry and conservation.
According to Paul Milbourn “Rural geography has emerged as an increasingly important sub discipline of human geography during the last two or three decades. Important research themes within rural geography include migration, sociocultural change
and conflict, economic restructuring, agri food systems, ‐ nature and environment, governance and politics, and welfare.
According to Dictionary of Human Geography
“Rural geography is the study of people, places, and landscapes in rural areas and the processes and
practices through which rurality is produced and contested”.
The Pierre George has presented in his Precis de geographie rurale (1963) about the rural geography which deals fundamental feature of rural life and the objectives and difficulties of agricultural production in different physical, economic and social
environment.
According to G.P. Wibberely (1972), the word rural describes those part of a country which show unmistakable signs of being dominated by extensive uses of land, either at the present time or in the immediate past.
SCOPE OF RURAL GEOGRAPHY
One might urge that in a rapidly urbanizing world the countryside is of decreasing significance and does not merit special investigation. It is certainly true that more people are living in cities, but such a trend has both formal and functional implications for the surrounding countryside.
In formal terms, land is abstracted from agricultural and other rural uses and is covered with bricks, mortar and tarmac. This is shown by figure 1 which attempts to provide a simplified summary of some of the themes that are of importance in rural geography.
The right hand column lists nine major demands or pressure on rural land. Some of these, such as food production, gathering and recreation would remain
as “rural” users of land. Others including housing and manufacturing industry, are less obviously rural. If occurring over a broad area, such uses might involve the conversion of sections of the countryside in to townscape. These demands on rural landforms areas of actual or potential conflict which need to be resolved by efficient land use planning.
RURA L LAND Farmland
Forest
Water surface
sSettlement
Food Production Manufacturing
Industry Housing
Communication Water gathering
Recreation Nature conservation
Military requirements
Mineral extraction LAND USE,
LAND SCAPE COMPONENTS
DEMANDS ON RURAL LAND
FIG. 1 : COMPONENTS OF RURAL GEOGRAPHY
