---
id: ch1-anim-rural-urban-flows
type: spine
title: "Watch: a day of rural-urban flows"
readingTime: 1
standalone: true
core: false
teaser: "Six flows cross the border between countryside and town all day long. Watch them start one by one, then see the outline PoliRural+ plans for."
parent: null
diagram: anim-rural-urban-flows-en
recallQ: "Name three flows that run from the countryside to the town and three that run back, and say what the final outline in the animation stands for."
recallA: "Food and raw materials, workers and commuters, and ecosystem services such as water and clean air go to the town; goods, services and jobs, visitors to nature and heritage, and waste and pollution go to the countryside. The outline is the functional area: the territory people actually share, which PoliRural+ plans for instead of each side of the administrative border."
highlights:
  - "Linkages are two-way flows, not a one-way dependency"
  - "Countryside to town: food and raw materials, workers, ecosystem services"
  - "Town to countryside: goods, services and jobs, visitors, waste and pollution"
  - "Plan for the functional area, not for the administrative line"
status: accepted
concept: rural-urban-linkages
lang: en
lens: generic
depth: intro
formalism: none
visuality: visual-first
lengthBand: tldr
genre: animation
state: edited
carriers: prose|animation
---

The animation draws the exchange that D2.2 describes in words. The countryside sends **food and raw materials**, **workers** and the **ecosystem services** cities depend on; the town returns **goods, services and jobs**, sends **visitors** to natural and cultural attractions, and sends its **waste and pollution** out to the countryside. The flows keep moving because they never stop: they are the everyday traffic of one territory.

Watch the dashed **administrative border** in the middle. None of the flows respects it. That is why the last thing to appear is the **functional area**, the shared territory that EU cohesion policy plans for and that PoliRural+ adopts as its frame (D2.2, §1.4–1.5). The full list of ten linkages is in [rural-urban linkages](#c/rural-urban-linkages).

If your device is set to reduce motion, you see the finished picture without movement.

**Sources:**
- D2.2 Rural-urban linkages and opportunities post COVID-19, §1.4 Territorial Cohesion, §1.5 Rural-Urban Linkages, Annex D Rural-Urban Linkages — [PDF](https://www.poliruralplus.eu/docs/140/Attachment_0_57.pdf)