How to Best Classify Rural in Metropolitan Areas? The Turkish Case

ABSTRACT

The relationship between the urban and the rural is complex and it is increasingly difficult to make a distinction between them. In Turkey a new metropolitan law has reformed administration to classify formerly rural areas in 30 metropolitan municipalities as ‘urban’, effectively eliminating the rural-urban distinction. An evidenced based analysis and classification of urban and rural is needed to support relevant policies and planning.This review proposes an approach which results in three categories of area: predominantly rural region (PRR), intermediate rural region (IRR) and predominantly urban region (PUR) which would provide a more effective basis for policy and planning.

KEYWORDS:

• Rural-urban relationship
• rural definitions
• geographical information systems
• metropolitan area
• administrative reform

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).