The relationship between humans and the environment at the urban-rural interface: Research progress and prospects

Abstract

The relationship between human and environmental systems at the urban-rural interface faces many challenges from urbanization. Since the 1980s, the environmental effects caused by urbanization at the urban-rural interface have been studied intensively. In recent years research has focused on the detection of changes in land-cover and land-use, projections and driving force analysis, natural and agricultural ecosystem evolution and conservation, as well as environmental pollution at the urban-rural interface. Many researchers have proved that the environmental system at the urban-rural interface is vulnerable to disturbance by human activities and urbanization, and usually shows serious degradation and pollution. The feedback effects of the changes in the environmental systems on human, social and economic systems have also been the subject of research. Some research has proved that the loss of natural and agricultural ecosystems at the urban-rural interface not only affects the local residents' livelihoods, but also affects the local social capital, and can even cause social conflict. At present, researchers of the human-environment relationship at the urban-rural interface often take single-disciplinary approaches, which are inadequate to meet the demands of a comprehensive understanding of the intricate interaction between the human system and the environmental system at the urban-rural interface. A great deal of attention has been given to macro and meso scale processes, such as the influence of external social, economic and political factors on the environmental systems at the urban-rural interface. However, the role of local agents, such as farmers, at the micro scale has been the object of much less attention, both in terms of research and management. In fact, the urban-rural fringe is presented as an area in which multiple forces operate at different scales on environmental systems and in which local and individual actors have an important part to play. So, future research on human-environment relationships at the urban-rural interface should adopt interdisciplinary and multi-scale approaches.