Rural to Urban Transistions and the Periurban Interface

The project delves into the aspect of rural to urban transitions and the periurban interface in India and Pakistan and essentially attempts to understand, Identify and map, peri-urban areas in these countries. It is a project led by the East-West Center, the USA and executed in collaboration with SaciWATERs in India and SDPI, Sustainable Development Policy Institute in Pakistan.

This project brings experts, scholars, and promising young students and professionals from India and Pakistan together to develop mutual interests and relationships based on a shared exploration of the challenges and impacts of rural to urban transitions and peri-urban interfaces in the South Asia region. In both countries peri-urban areas occupy large portions of the landscape, are home to millions of people, and face serious environmental and human health problems that are often neglected by both rural and urban administrations.

Partner organizations and colleagues in this project are working collaboratively to collect and integrate socioeconomic and ecological data from censuses and surveys with information on land cover, water resources, and infrastructure from remotely sensed images and thematic maps to produce databases and maps. These will be analyzed to assess and compare environmental and human health issues and related governance challenges in rural, urban, and peri-urban areas within the delineated study areas.

Project results will be summarized and shared with decision makers, scholars, and citizens interested in the extent and population of peri-urban areas, the environmental and human-health problems of these areas, and issues of governance. By conducting this project bi-nationally the participants are trying to understand how similar phenomena are manifested differently in the two countries and how different approaches may or may not work for resolving some of the issues emerging from these manifestations.