Morphological Polycentricity in Southern Europe: Evidence at the National Level

• Published in: Theoretical and empirical researches in urban management Vol. 13; no. 4; pp. 73 - 93
• Main Authors: Nikolopoulos, Panagiotis, Gkouzos, Andreas, Papadaskalopoulos, Athanasios
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies - Research Center in Public Administration and Public Services 01.11.2018; Academia de Studii Economice - Centrul de Cercetare in Administratie si Servicii Publice (CCASP); Research Center in Public Administration and Public Services Academy of Economic Studies; Research Centre in Public Administration & Public Services
• Subjects: Competitiveness; Economic crisis; Economic growth; Land use; Morphology; Physical Geopgraphy; Planning; Regional development; Regional Geography; Regional planning; Rural and urban sociology; Spatial distribution; Sustainable development; Territory; Urban areas; Urban development; Greece; Europe; China; Italy; Southern Europe; Portugal; Latin America; Spain; territorial balance; urban primacy; ranksize distribution; polycentricity; functional urban areas
• ISSN: 2065-3913; 2065-3921

Polycentricity constitutes a thoroughly discussed notion in the European spatial planning agenda. It is mostly seen as a tool for balanced regional development, European competitiveness and sustainable development, with main purpose to counterbalance the concentrated urban configurations of northwest-ern Europe. One of the lagging territories in terms of urban development –among others- is the European Continental South, which, in addition, was severely hit by the recent economic crisis. Therefore, the scope of this article is to monitor the change of national urban systems in terms of morphological polycentricity in the member-states of Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain, for the period 2000-2014, in order to assess their urban development potential. Thus, the measures of urban primacy and rank-size coefficient are utilized to monitor the change in the degree of morphological polycentricity among the main Functional Urban Areas (FUAs) of the aforementioned countries, and the spatial distribution of FUAs over the na-tional territory is estimated in order to identify the territorial balance aspect of polycentricity. The results indicate mixed outcomes for the examined countries. Despite the undeniably low levels of the derived polycentricity for Greece and Portugal, the polycentricity degree in Greece remains stable, while in Portu-gal there is a trend that favors polycentric development. As for traditionally more polycentric countries, the polycentricity rates of Spain and Italy show marginal change. In terms of territorial balance, Greece and Spain seem polycentric, while Portugal and particularly Italy are characterized as less polycentric in this respect.