Defining Towns: A Comparative Analysis of Criteria to Delineate Urban Areas Poonia Malvika*,* *Ph.D Research Scholar, Department of Geography, University of Rajasthan, India * malvikapoonia@gmail.com
Abstract The process of urbanization is related with socio, economic and political development of a nation. Developing countries possess higher chances of future urban growth at a faster pace in comparison to the developed western world. In this backdrop the definitional aspects of urban and rural areas is important to assess to understand this varied process at international level. This study is an attempt to analyze while comparing the criteria which a country uses to demarcate urban and rural area's spatial boundary. After studying the global scenario in brief, two countries have been selected to present a comparative definitional and delineation processes of developing country (represented by India) and developed country (represented by USA). These two countries being modern day democracies also show varied level of urbanization and future growth perspectives, such as India being a country with mere 31% of urban population and U.S.A. being a country having 71% of population. But ironically India is housing population of an almost entire USA only in its urban areas (377 million), that's why in India there are many issues and concerns regarding urban area classification, which will be addressed in the paper. There are some characteristics that manifest themselves in an area giving them the identity of being urban or rural. But this is something that is peculiar to one place or another, because no two places can be exactly same in character, whether it's two urban or two rural areas. The author questions, what is the need of applying blanket criteria over entire country to designate a place as urban; while it is rural in spirit and vice versa. The author feels that there has to be a case by case analysis of an area, only after such deliberations classification of that place as Urban or Rural should take place. This is however in full contrast to the popular demand for a universal definition of ‘urban’ among the scholars around the world. The frequent classification and then declassification of large villages as ‘census towns’ in India proves that one size does not fit all, especially when it comes to classifying urban units. Top Keywords Towns, Criteria, Delineate, Urban, India, United States. Top |