Urban Sprawl

Overall there are two main strands to the future agenda for urban and rural development:

·         Urban problems and opportunities need to be managed outside of their context, at a wider level; rural contexts. Otherwise urban sprawl will continue at the rate it is currently growing, and will remain the dumping ground for unworkable urban systems.

·         The rural region is the optimum unit for strategic governance and integrated development planning

An overall picture begins to emerge and connection are made. By working at this more strategic level, the particular challenges of the urban areas can be addressed and solutions can emerge.

Firstly, the urban agendas for each community – economy, demography, housing, transport, agriculture, tourism and environment – need to become and integrated system which operates as one. The solution to urban sprawl and monocentric development lies within integrated development models for rural-urban regions’.