The continuum of urbanity: a synthetic concept for research on urban-rural mixtures
This perspective presents a new framework to improve ecological contributions to understanding how urban, rural, and wild attributes can co-occur and mix within specific locations, producing configurations that cannot be understood through binary contrasts. We focus on mixed conditions and the processes that sustain dynamic mosaics of mixed urban-rural sites. This framework complements others that avoid the urban-rural binary, and supports integrated social and ecological research across landscapes of mixture.
Authors
- Adam Bosch
- D Maddox
- Winslow D. Hansen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3868-9416)
- Leonard Nevarez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-2309-5860)
- Elizabeth M. Cook (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4290-7482)
- R. Freudenberg
- Christopher T. Solomon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2850-4257)
- Karen C. Seto (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4928-2446)
- Steward T. A. Pickett (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1899-976X)
- Daniel L. Childers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3904-0803)
- Dexter H. Locke
- Russell Urban-Mead
- Shannon LaDeau
- Dawa Zhaxi
- Christopher Boone
- J. Morgan Grove
- Weiqi Zhou
Institutions
- Regional Plan Association (US)
- University of Southern California (US)
- Vassar College (US)
- US Forest Service (US)
- State Street (United States) (US)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Hudson Valley Community College (US)
- Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies (US)
- Yale University (US)
- Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences (CN)
- Arizona State University (US)
- Barnard College (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- npj Urban Sustainability
- Published
- 2026-01-29
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-026-00347-8
- Primary Topic
- Land Use and Ecosystem Services
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Agriculture
- National Natural Science Foundation of China