Spanish Urban System: Characteristics, Changes, and Relations
Characteristics of the Spanish Urban System
The Spanish urban system is a set of interrelated cities. Key characteristics include:
Size
The size of cities generally follows the rank-size rule. The largest demographic category consists of 15 urban agglomerations exceeding 500,000 inhabitants. Following these, there are numerous cities with populations between 150,000 and 400,000, reflecting recent growth in mid-sized cities. Devolution has contributed to this territorial distribution.
Location
Most major urban agglomerations are located around the central agglomeration of Madrid.
Urban Functions
Cities perform various socio-economic activities:
- Primary cities
- Secondary cities: Specializing in industry or construction.
- Tertiary cities: Specializing in services.
Urban Hierarchy
- Metropolis: Metropolitan areas at the top of the urban system’s hierarchy.
- National Metropolises: Large metropolitan areas like Madrid and Barcelona, with diversified functions, national influence, and relationships with other international metropolises.
- Regional Metropolises: Mid-sized metropolitan areas (e.g., Valencia, Seville, Bilbao, Malaga, Zaragoza) with diversified functions, specialized services, and regional influence.
- Sub-metropolis: Small metropolitan areas with diverse functions and specialized services, but with sub-regional influence.
- Medium-Sized Cities: Provincial capitals with less diversified functions; their services are primarily within the provincial domain.
- Small Towns: Scarce and with limited specialized functions.
Relations in the Spanish Urban System
These relationships are measured by economic flows. Unidirectional flows indicate dominance/subordination, while bidirectional flows indicate integration/competition.
- Madrid has strong relationships with other metropolises, especially Barcelona.
- Influence is generally intense in the eastern regions and the islands, although weaker overall.
- The northeast quadrant exhibits the greatest integration.
- Other relationships are less complete.
The System of Cities and its Changes
The System of Cities
Characterized by the central location of the largest urban agglomeration (Madrid) surrounded by peripheral areas.
- Madrid: The core, characterized by its tertiary functions and relationships.
- Peripheral Urban Axes: Arranged in a semi-circular pattern around the capital.
- Galician axis: Specialized in trade.
- Cantabrian axis: Currently undergoing adjustment.
- Mediterranean axis: A highly dynamic axis with strong and diversified industry and services.
- Ebro Valley axis: A balanced and dynamic axis with industry and services.
- Andalusian axis: The coastal axis is dynamic and specializes in trade, while the Guadalquivir Valley cities are less dynamic and linked to agricultural activity.
- Peninsular Interior: Integrated urban areas, not currently specialized; small cities predominate in trade and agri-food.
- In the Canary Islands and Balearic Islands, axes are hampered.
Recent Changes to the Urban System
State Autonomy and Urban Systems
Autonomy has influenced the existing urban system, encouraging the construction of regional urban systems. These regional systems can be categorized as:
- Monocentric Primate Systems: The main urban area concentrates the population and regional functions, with no intermediate cities.
- Monocentric Systems: A main city concentrates the population and regional functions, but several intermediate cities exist, facilitating flow transmission.
- Polycentric Systems: Two cities share the population and regional functions, maintaining bidirectional flows.
Integration in Europe
The European hierarchy is based on the assessment of size, demographic features, transport, tourism, knowledge, industrial capacity, and decision-making power. This distinguishes between:
- Global Metropolises
- European Locomotives
- European Cities
- Potential Weak European Cities
The system is composed of several European city axes.
Globalization and Integration in the World System
The consequences of these changes have caused:
- The decline of some cities specialized in mature industrial sectors.
- Offered cities the possibility of improving their position in the global system through the implantation of international companies and organizations.