Rural Suburbanisation and Village Expansion in the Rhine Rift Valley: A Cross-Frontier Comparison

• Published in: Geografiska annaler. Series B, Human geography Human geography, 1988, Vol.70 (2), p.275-290
• Main Authors: Wild, M. T., Jones, P. N.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bgi / Prodig; Cities; Communities; Dwellings; Field surveys; Houses; Housing; Human geography; Population density; Population growth; Retirement communities; Suburban areas; Urban geography; Urbanization. Country-town relationships; Villages
• ISSN: 0435-3684; 1468-0467
• DOI: 10.1080/04353684.1988.11879572

Rural suburbanisation is a pervasive process of increasing geographical significance within Western Europe, but there is a dearth of cross-frontier studies. The adjacent urban hinterlands of Freiburg and Colmar in the Rhine Rift valley, characterised by an intensely nucleated rural settlement pattern dominated by the Haufendorf form, were selected for investigation. The spatial pattern of population changes and occupational structures is examined, and it is concluded that the variable incidence of rural suburbanisation can be related to factors such as the type of agricultural specialization and environmental quality as well as accessibility. In order to evaluate the physical impacts of rural suburbanisation at a community level, field surveys were undertaken in six sample villages. Significant contrasts in the density and configuration of village expansion, in the intensity and scale of village core modernisation, in the integration of new housing areas, and in the types and qualities of new housing provision were found between the Alsace sample villages and the Baden sample villages. It is suggested that differences in national planning legislation and policies provide only a partial explanation of these contrasts. The paper concludes that there is scope to extend the study through an investigation, also on a comparative basis, of the many complex social changes accompanying these physical transformations.