The rural-urban fringe of Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia. The rural–urban fringe, also known as the outskirts or the urban hinterland, can be described as the  landscape interface between town and country, or also as the transition zone where urban and rural uses mix and often clash.espite these 'urban' uses, the fringe remains largely open with the majority of the land agricultural, woodland or other rural use. However the quality of the countryside around urban areas tends to be low with severance between area of open land and bad maintained woodlands and hedgerows.