When growing urban centres pollute, the surrounding countryside and its inhabitants often suffer. Local governments and administrative systems are rarely equipped to respond. Where information and the institutions required to address the effect of urban pollution on rural areas (urban-rural burdens) are lacking, urban authorities have little incentive to create them. As a result the environmental benefits of urbanisation are lost and cities gain an unnecessary reputation for causing environmental damage.

A paper from the International Institute for Environment and Development in the UK reviews local environmental pressures that cross from urban to rural areas in low and middle-income countries.

All human settlements have an environmental impact on surrounding rural areas but the most severe pressures are usually found around rapidly growing and industrialising cities. It is easy to ignore the resulting damage, particularly when it crosses administrative boundaries, involves poorly understood ecological processes and harms groups that have few economic or political resources. Areas on the periphery of cities, some of which are home to particularly vulnerable groups, are often subject to rapid change.

The authors also describe how:

• Urban development changes the quality, quantity and direction of water flows, affecting the water available to people living both up and downstream and the ecology of human disease.
• Air pollution can cause problems at every level. Urban-rural impacts change when measures are taken to reduce personal exposure to hazardous pollutants or to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases.
• Urban demands change land use patterns in surrounding areas.
• Vulnerable groups often have to settle on hazardous sites in and around cities – for instance, illegal housing on steep hillsides prone to landslides, deep ravines, or land prone to flooding or high water caused by spring tides (tidal inundation).
• Standard methods to assess how cities transfer environmental burdens, such as ecological footprints, which measure the land/sea area required to support the lifestyle of a population, often focus on global resource use but ignore specific local resource implications.

More effective local governance requires legislation and systems that support inter-local government cooperation for water and solid waste management or reductions in air and water pollution. Some cities such as the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre have shown that it is possible to address environmental burdens at several levels simultaneously but these remain the exception.

According to the researchers, policymakers need to realise that:

• Urban development changes the scale at which the most severe environmental pressures are experienced; environmental management systems need to respond accordingly.
• Urban-rural pressures are particularly severe during periods of rapid urban development and industrialisation. The resulting burdens can easily evade both markets and responsible government agencies.
• Local urban governments and populations have little incentive to address urban-rural burdens but must be involved in finding appropriate solutions.

Source(s):
‘Rural–urban change, boundary problems and environmental burdens’ by Gordon McGranahan, David Satterthwaite and Cecilia Tacoli, IIED Working Paper Series on Rural-Urban Interactions and Livelihood Strategies, Working Paper 10, December 2004 Full document.

Funded by: Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA)

id21 Research Highlight: 27 July 2005

Further Information:
Gordon McGranahan, David Satterthwaite and Cecilia Tacoli
Human Settlements Programme
International Institute for Environment and Development
3 Endsleigh Street
London WC1H ODD
UK

Tel: +44 (0)20 7388 2117
Fax: +44 (0)20 7388 2826
Contact the contributor: gordon.mcgranahan@iied.org; David.Satterthwaite@iied.org;

International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), UK

Other related links:
Livelihood diversification and rural-urban linkages in Vietnam’s Red River Delta

The urban part of rural development: the role of small and intermediate urban centres in rural and regional development and poverty reduction

'Urbanisation by default: changing rural existences and livelihoods in southern Africa'

'Using information for better environmental management in India '