Peri-urban area
Also called: Urban fringe · Topic: Human Settlements and Urbanisation in India · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
A peri-urban area is the edge zone of a city, where town and countryside mix. Farms, new housing colonies, factories and waste dumps sit side by side. It often falls between village panchayat control and municipal control, so planning and services are weak. It takes in the city's waste and many of its migrants. Over time it feeds the growth of census towns and satellite towns.
Example
The fringes of Delhi-NCR are a good example. There, fields, new housing, industrial units and garbage dumps share the same stretch of land beyond the main city.
Don't confuse with
- Urban sprawl: the process of a city spreading out in an unplanned, thinly built way. The peri-urban area is the place where much of that spreading happens.
- Satellite town: a separate, named town near a big city, such as Gurugram near Delhi. A peri-urban area is a mixed, partly rural zone, not a town.