Dichotomous classification and implications in spatial planning: A case of the Rural-Urban Continuum settlements of Kerala, India

Kerala State in India has a unique Rural-Urban Continuum (RUC) settlement pattern where it is difficult to distinguish between urban from rural. However, like all the Indian States, the RUC settlements of Kerala are also divided into rural and urban, and this dichotomous classification forms the basis of spatial planning, governance, and management. The current situation has resulted in the spread of urban characterized settlements towards the environmentally fragile areas of the state. Despite several discussions regarding the RUC nature of settlements, details about the spatial characteristics of Kerala are missing in the literature. Accordingly, the paper explores the RUC settlement pattern of Kerala in two parts. The first part assesses the RUC pattern based on the existing Indian census definition. The result reveals that the urban and rural definitions do not hold validity in Kerala. The second part explores the settlements based on the topographic distribution, followed by a detailed analysis of the spatiotemporal dynamics of the built areas in three levels of detailing. The study reveals a spread of built-up areas across diverse topography and variation among the built-up areas of different urban areas. While the lowland regions indicated a dominance and clustering of built-up patches, in the midlands and towards the highland study areas, the built-up areas are smaller and more fragmented with an affinity towards the transportation corridors. Therefore the study helped characterize the spread of reclassified settlements and the changes in built-up areas across diverse topography and emphasized the requirement to move away from dichotomous classification as followed in some developed countries. The study recommends an RUC code for Kerala and an Eco-sensitive Regional Planning approach for a better spatial planning process. A modified and refined planning framework is also proposed as a final output from the research.

Automated summary

Kerala State in India has a unique Rural-Urban Continuum (RUC) settlement pattern. While it is difficult to distinguish between urban and rural settlements, the existing dichotomous classification forms the basis of spatial planning, governance, and management. However, the current situation has resulted in the spread of urban characterized settlements towards environmentally fragile areas. Despite several discussions about the RUC nature of settlements, detailed information about the spatial characteristics of Kerala is missing in the literature.