Tracing the Density Impulse in Rural Settlement Systems: A Quantitative Analysis of the Factors Underlying Rural Population Density Across South-Eastern Australia, 1981–2001

Abstract

Rural population density has a very significant independent influence over important socio-economic and demographic characteristics of developed world rural communities. Additionally, it is a fundamental variable in public policy and planning, both expressing and influencing the relative cost-efficiency of servicing populations. Yet density is itself produced by more fundamental qualities (e.g. environmental resources, nature and time of colonisation) which may themselves change over time. Treating rural population density as a dependent variable produced by a wide variety of factors, we build and test two causal models that attempt to explain the observed pattern of rural densities across south-eastern Australia (n = 414 communities). We distinguish between a ''productivist'' model-applicable for most of white Australia's history-and a consumptionist model that takes account of recent counter-urbanisation trends. These models are applied to the entire study area and, in recognition of the study area's internal heterogeneity, to five clusters of communities. In the drier inland and remoter zones, the productivist model exhibits the greatest explanatory power, while in the more accessible and well-watered ''multifunctional'' zones, an expanded model that incorporates a measure of ''amenity'' produces the best results. The research finds that simple environmental factors, coupled with relative location within the national space economy, act as dominant controls over rural population density in early 21st century Australia.

Perceived density, social interaction and morale in New South Wales rural communities

“…As demonstrated by Smailes et al (2002) and Argent et al (2005), the density of rural settlement has demonstrably important effects on key attributes of communities, such as, inter alia, the diversity of occupations and local industries, their demographic and ethnic composition and residents' relative mobility. Thus, one might expect reasonably strong relationships to exist between rural settlement density and the level of social interaction and community morale.…”

“…Further, its overdetermined character means that a complex of environmental, historical, economic and social factors are usually at play in creating the particular density range and type (e.g. clustered, randomly distributed, linear) of any given rural community (Argent et al, 2005).…”

“…These results suggest that a link may also exist between community morale and the 'structured coherence' of a region (Cloke and Goodwin, 1992); that is, quality-of-life may be linked with a community's level of economic dependence upon local land uses, the cultural landscape, together with the settlement densities that these two factors are interrelated with (see Smailes et al, 2002;Argent et al, 2005). Smailes and Hugo (2003, pp.…”

Factors affecting farm size on the European level and the national level of the Czech Republic

“…It is also known that the topography is one of the main factors affecting the crop yield and the farm size (Kumhálová and Moudrý 2014). In addition to the regional, natural, and climatic differences, other factors affecting the AHS include the age and maturity of the cultural landscape, the farmers› characteristics or the cadastral subdivisions (Argent et al 2006). Changes in the farm size and continuation in farming are also affected in particular by the profitability of farming, primarily measured through productivity and financial returns, by the human capital as characterized by the farmers' age and education, and by the programmes in support of farming (Piet et al 2011).…”

Rural Population Density Effect on Socio-economic Characteristics: A Review

“…It is not easy to distinguish between cause and effect, while explaining the various planes of human density and the type and depth of their relationships with different social aspects. The complex nature of population density also implicates the involvement of the socio-economic, environmental and historical factors that help to create a specific density spectrum and kind, like, linear, clustered, or randomly distributed, in respect to any type of rural community Argent et al (2005).…”