THE urban area and rural area are concepts used in geography to differentiate two types of geographic spaces.
In such a way, the countryside also called field is one that is not part of urban environments being used for the development of activities of agriculture, livestock, extractivism, forestry, environmental conservation, rural tourism (ecotourism), among others.
The people who live in the countryside form the rural community.
Countryside
already the urban areas are municipal areas that have gone through the process of urbanization promoted above all, by the industrialization.
Furthermore, the population density of urban areas is higher than that of rural areas. People who live in cities constitute the urban community.
These have several infrastructures that are often not found in the countryside: paved streets and avenues, housing, industries, hospitals, schools, shops, water supply, sewage systems, public lighting, among others.
Urban area
An important factor to be highlighted is that one depends on the other, that is, urban areas acquire products from the rural area. In turn, the rural area acquires products and services offered by urban areas.
Remember that the phenomenon of rural exodus it is when people who live in rural areas go to urban centers in search of better living conditions: jobs, housing, health care, schools, etc.
For the most part, this social phenomenon generates many problems in urban centers, such as population increase, disorderly growth of cities, slums, violence, among others.
Rural and Urban Areas: Differences
To better understand this difference, analyze the table below:
Countryside |
Urban area |
|---|---|
| called rural environment | called urban environment |
| Main activities developed: agriculture and livestock |
Greater infrastructure |
Natural landscape |
humanized landscape |
| Housing: farms, farms and farms | Housing: houses and buildings |
| Located outside urban centers | Greater job offer |
| undeveloped area | Intense urbanization process |
| low population density | high demographic density |
| scattered settlement | concentrated settlement |
| Primary Sector of the Economy (extraction, agriculture and livestock) | Economy Sector: secondary (industry and energy production) and tertiary (commerce and services) |
Learn more about this topic:
- urban geography
- urban hierarchy
- Geographic space
- Natural and Humanized Landscape
- Enem geography: subjects that fall the most
