Spain’s Urban System: Hierarchy and Relationships
Spanish Urban Hierarchy
Metropolis:
- National Cities: The large metropolitan areas of Madrid and Barcelona have populations exceeding 3 million. They offer highly specialized services, numerous offices of multinational and domestic companies, and high-technology industries.
- Metropolitan Regions: These are mid-sized metropolitan areas, including Valencia, Seville, Bilbao, Malaga, and Zaragoza. Their populations range between 500,000 and 1.5 million. They have diverse functions and services.
- Sub-Cities: Smaller metropolitan areas such as Vigo, A Coruña, and Palma de Mallorca, with populations between 200,000 and 500,000. They also have diversified and specialized functions, but their influence is at a subregional or regional level.
Medium Cities:
Their population is between 200,000 and 500,000. Their functions are less diversified, focusing on business services, social administration, and the provincial boundary.
Small Cities:
Populations range from 10,000 to 50,000. Their functions are scarce and specialized.
Urban Relations in the System of Cities
The cities within an urban system are interrelated. These relationships are measured by economic flows of people, political interactions, management, and more.
- Madrid maintains strong relations with other cities, especially Barcelona.
- Barcelona has a weaker influence overall but strong connections in the eastern mainland and Balearic Islands.
- The metropolis of the northeastern quadrant (Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Bilbao, Zaragoza) maintains intense relationships.
- In the rest of the system, relations between cities are smaller and less complete. The area of greatest disconnect is around Portugal (except Galicia). In the southern sub-plateau, there are wide disconnected spaces, and the relationship between cities of Andalusia and the Levant is not very intense.
System of Cities
Madrid is the core of Spain. It is characterized by tertiary functions and maintains relationships with the main Spanish cities.
Peripheral Urban Axes:
- The Galician Atlantic Axis: Covers the coast between Ferrol and Vigo, with inland extensions. It specializes in trade.
- The Cantabrian Axis: Includes the Asturias triangle (Oviedo-Gijón-Avilés), Santander, and the Basque triangle (Bilbao-Vitoria-San Sebastián). It is in an adjustment phase, with a progressive loss of industrial dominance and urbanization.
- The Mediterranean Axis: Extends from Girona to Cartagena. It is the most dynamic and diverse, with a large share of industry and services.
- The Ebro Valley Axis: Links the Cantabrian and Mediterranean axes, with Zaragoza as its main city. It is very dynamic.
- The Andalusian Axis: This is a twofold axis. The coastline axis, between Almeria and Huelva, is dynamic and specializes in trade, tourism, and agriculture. The Guadalquivir Valley axis, between the Atlantic coast and Jaén, is less dynamic.
The interior of the peninsula lacks integrated urban axes. It is dominated by small cities specializing in trade and agri-food industries. In the Balearic and Canary Islands, the formation of urban axes is hampered by territorial fragmentation into islands. The main factor is tourism development.