Factors affecting urbanization in the rural areas

Edited by prof. Asta RaupelienėBy overviewing thedevelopmental trends of Lithuanian cities, rapid growth in the urbanization of smaller suburb areas is observed. The aim of the research is to determine the factors impacting the urbanization of rural areas. The built-up areas of Kaunas district municipality and factors impacting their distribution are the object of this research. The largest built-up areas are in the subdistrictswhere citiesare deployed as well as in subdistrictshaving the best living and recreational circumstances. When conducting theresearch, factors impacting the distribution of the built-up areas have been analysed. In Kaunas district municipality,beneficial circumstances for the urbanization development exist since the population growthin the last 7 years corresponds to the optimistic scenarios projected in the generalplan. It has been determined that 3 factors have the greatest impact on the built-up areas: the area of the subdistrict itself, the distance to the centre of the region and the market value of the landVytauto Didžiojo universitetasŽemės ūkio akademij