Where city meets country. Is the peri-urban interface a concept that counts?

Is there anything different about the management of natural resources in the peri- urban interface (the zone around major towns or cities where rural and urban economies interact) that warrants special treatment in terms of research and policymaking? Researchers from the Universities of Birmingham, Nottingham and Wales have been working with counterparts from India's University of Agricultural Sciences and Karnatak University, Dharwad, in the state of Karnataka, to examine the use and management of natural resources within the peri-urban interface of the twin city of Hubli-Dharwad. They assessed the practical worth of treating such zones as distinctive socio-economic environments fitting neither town nor country stereotypes.