Rural and Urban Habitats: A Global Perspective

Rural Habitats Across the World

Rural populations across the globe total 3.4 billion people, but they are decreasing quickly, especially in emerging and developing countries.

Traditional Houses and the Environment

Traditional rural houses are characterized by their use of natural materials found in the environment, as well as by their functionality:

• Stone Houses: Durable homes which are characteristic of sedentary populations.
• Mud Houses: These are made of adobe. They sometimes have a wooden frame and often have roofs made of branches.
• Wooden Houses: These are found in forest areas, such as the equatorial forests of Africa and the Americas.
• Houses of Fur and Fabric: These can be found in areas where nomadic livestock activities are carried out.
• Cave Houses: These are also known as troglodyte homes because they are carved within rock.
• Ice Homes: Eskimos build these near the Arctic using cubes of ice.

Urban Hierarchies in the World

In a world that is becoming increasingly globalized and interconnected, the larger and most important cities have an influence that goes beyond the borders of the country they are located in. We can make a distinction between three different categories:

World Cities

Depending on their size and influence in the world, we can distinguish between different types of urban agglomeration:

• World Metropolises: These are large urban centers that integrate other smaller cities within their metropolitan areas.
• Megacities: These are cities with more than 10 million inhabitants.
• Megalopolises: These are large-scale urban agglomerations formed by the metropolitan areas of several cities being joined by their transport systems.
• Global Cities: Due to globalization, these cities have a global influence regarding certain activities.

Continental and Regional Cities

Continental and regional cities are cities with large populations that may be similar to the populations of world cities and megacities, but their influence is focused on smaller continental and regional areas.

• Continental Cities: These cities govern very large areas, and their influence can be felt across a whole continent or part of one.
• Regional Cities: These cities have a supranational influence, covering large areas of the continent.

World Cities in the 21st Century

Globalization also affects urban structure and urban morphology. The construction of large blocks of flats, large residential suburbs, business centers, as well as the variety and high density of transport and communication modes, are all common to the majority of large cities in the world.

Cities in Europe and Spain

• West: Fundamentally urban with many cities of different sizes. London, Paris, and the Rhine axis are among the most developed and vibrant cities in Europe.
• Central East: Here we find isolated towns of great size that are of national and regional importance, such as Vienna, Warsaw, Budapest, and Bucharest.
• South: This consists of countries with oversized capitals like Athens and Lisbon. All these countries have a rich and varied historical heritage.

American Cities

The model of the traditional colonial city still persists in many American cities, as does the North American model, which consists of a large business center and an enormous space used as a residential area.

• USA and Canada: On the northeast coast, we should mention cities created during the 17th century during British colonization: Boston, New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia.
• Mexico and Central America: In Mexico, as in all of Central America, we can still find historical colonial cities. Mexico City and São Paulo are the largest cities in Central and South America.
• South America: The cities of Brazil, especially São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, have experienced a process of very rapid growth.