The Rural Connection as a Re-construction of a Territorial Structure: Sustainable Spatial Criteria to Delimit Rural Settlements Following an Algorithm

Abstract

Economic development is reflected in aggressive environmental and spatial dynamics in the cities, and a consequent depletion of rural social space by the loss of population in the last 50 years. Urbanization has caused irreversible changes in rural environments mainly associated with agriculture. Some cities today are like microchips, which relate humanly through spatial processes in accordance with real physical infrastructure networks. Due to these metamorphoses and given the current economic and environmental context, how do we imagine or desire future urban structures and spaces to be? Can rural areas still maintain territorial connections and acquire urban importance? Rural settlements which are located in areas between cities, form the most characteristic settlement model in Europe, and present in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula a variety of interesting examples for thought on planning and land management, architecture and sociology. Galicia has the uniqueness of having 30,767 rural villages. So which rural centers can contribute to a more sustainable multinuclear model? This research proposes the selection of rural settlements in regard to their authenticity, morphology, landscape and socio-economic conditions as well as determine spatial boundaries through a genetic algorithm based on sustainable criteria, adding leverage to the territorial model.