City-Rural Interdependence
Leeds and the Yorkshire countryside around it depend on each other every day. Explore that two-way link, and how city commuters moving into villages brings both challenges and opportunities.
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The city and its countryside 🔄
A city and the countryside around it are not separate worlds. **Leeds** and the rural areas of Yorkshire around it depend on each other every single day. This module looks at that **interdependence**, both ways, and at what happens to rural villages when city workers move in: the **challenges** and the **opportunities** of a changing countryside.
The words you need 🔑
Five ideas run through this topic:
The city needs the countryside 🌾
Leeds gets much of its drinking water from reservoirs in the Pennine hills nearby. This is an example of what?
- The city depending on rural areas for a resource it cannot produce itself
- Counter-urbanisation, as people move to the hills
- Nothing important, since cities are self-sufficient
- Rural decline caused by the city
A two-way street ⚖️
Interdependence runs in both directions between Leeds and rural Yorkshire.
Match each link to what it provides
- Water
- Food
- Jobs
- Tourism
- Reservoirs in the hills supply the city's taps
- Farms in the countryside feed the city's shops
- Rural residents commute into the city to work
- City people spend money visiting the Dales
How the city leans on the country 🏙️
Select the TWO ways a city like Leeds depends on the rural areas around it.
- It draws its water supply from upland reservoirs
- It relies on nearby farmland to grow food
- It collects all of its taxes from village residents
- It refuses to trade with the countryside at all
Moving out to the villages 🏡
Counter-urbanisation is the movement of people **out of the city into the countryside**, usually while keeping a city job and commuting back in. Around Leeds, families move to villages for more space, quiet and a perceived better quality of life, the **rural idyll**. Faster trains and home working make it easier. But their arrival changes the village, for better and for worse.
The village that changes 📉
When wealthy commuters move into a Yorkshire village, local young people often struggle to stay. Why?
- Newcomers push up house prices, so locals on lower wages are priced out
- The commuters take all of the local farming jobs
- There is no effect on local people at all
- Newcomers force the village shop to close immediately
Two sides of change 🌗
Counter-urbanisation and city links bring rural areas both problems and benefits.
Plan the village's future 🧭
An interactive activity.
How a village changes 🪜
An interactive activity.
Put it together 🧱
A city and its countryside show _____: they rely on each other. The city takes _____ from upland reservoirs and food from nearby farms, while villagers commute into the city for _____. When people move out of the city to live rurally, this is called _____. One problem it brings is that rising house _____ squeeze out local young people.
Explain the interdependence ✍️
An interactive activity.