Understanding Urbanization and Its Impact on Spanish Cities
1. Urbanization
The urbanization process is the continuing concentration in the city and subsequent dissemination to its environment:
– Population
“The main economic activities and innovations
1.1 The Pre-Industrial Urbanization
Understand the origin of cities to industrialization in the nineteenth century. The characteristic features are:
– The urbanization rate did not exceed 10%, with the average size of cities around 5,000-10,000 people.
– The factors that contributed to urbanization were military-strategic, political, administrative, economic, religious, and cultural.
– The stages:
In ancient times, the first Spanish cities appeared linked to the Phoenician and Greek colonization.
Romanization led to the founding of many cities; their functions were military and political (control of the territory), administrative, and economic.
The decline of Roman power and the Germanic invasions led to de-urbanization from the third century.
In the Middle Ages, there was a new phase in two separate developments.
Muslim Area: Muslims founded new cities such as Madrid, Murcia, or Almeria, and also took advantage of previous settlements revitalized: Toledo, Zaragoza… With the progress of the Reconquista, the Muslim cities came under Christian rule, and their inhabitants were expelled or segregated into separate neighborhoods (morerías).
Christian Area initially had little urban life, but in the tenth century, municipalities were created based on new or recaptured cities from Muslims. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, urbanization reached a peak thanks to the revival of trade, which favored cities situated on the banks of trade routes in major ports and along the Camino de Santiago.
In the modern era, urban experiments fluctuated depending on the demographic, economic, and political moment.
1.2 The Industrial Development
It extends from the beginning of industrialization in the nineteenth century until the 1975 economic crisis. Its characteristic features are:
– The rate of urbanization experienced tremendous growth.
“The new provincial division set in 1833 encouraged the growth of cities chosen as capitals and the development of modern industry in those cities.
– The stages:
o Until the mid-nineteenth century, the concentration in the cities was small.
o From the mid-nineteenth century until the Civil War, urban growth doubled.
o The Civil War and Postwar (1936-1959), urban growth slowed. The cities suffered deterioration and supply problems. Despite the adoption of autarkic policies, growth occurred in the cities where it was installed. The industry formed in the triangle of urban-industrial development in the Northeast with vertices in Madrid, Barcelona, and Bilbao.
o The development stage (1960-1975) was the most significant economic and urban growth of the century. The factors that allowed it were the industry and, to a lesser extent, tertiary activities.
1.3 Post-Industrial Urbanization
The crisis of 1975 introduced changes in the urbanization process that affected Spain since 1980. The urbanization rate has slowed its growth, the reduction of natural growth, and the cessation of natural exodus…
2. Urban Morphology
Morphology is the outward appearance that presents the city. It is influenced by factors such as location and the urban situation, the plan, construction, and land use.
The site is the concrete space that the city occupies. It depends on the physical environment, especially the role of the establishment of the city. For example, cities founded for defensive purposes settled on hills.
The situation is the relative position of the city with respect to a wide geographical area. It is related to the role of the city concerning the environment.
The plane is the combination of free and built-up areas of the city, including buildings, streets, plazas, and parks. Usually, it responds to three types:
o Irregular Plane: features narrow streets and winding paths with undefined squares (Toledo, Cordoba, Santiago).
o Radiocentric Plane: it has a center with radial streets that start, cut by others which form rings around a center, may be regular or irregular (Vitoria).
o The Grid Plan: consists of streets that intersect at right angles (widening of Madrid, Eixample).
– The construction includes the urban and building aspects.
o The plot is one of the buildings. It may be compact or closed if the buildings are arranged side by side over large areas, or open if the buildings leave large gaps between them.
o The building may be collective and high (blocks and towers) or individual (exempt or terraced houses).
The land uses are the different uses of urban space: business and commercial, residential, industrial, equipment…
3. The Urban Structure
The urban structure is the division of the city by area and characteristic functions. It consists of:
– The Old Town, which is the pre-industrial urbanization,
– The expansion of the industrial age
– The current edge.
– 3.1 The Pre-Industrial City: Old Town
The old town is the urbanized part of the city from its origin to the beginning of industrialization in the mid-nineteenth century. It occupies a small area of the city today, but it has great cultural heritage value.
3.1.1 The Pre-Industrial Era
The old town usually has some common features:
“Almost all the cities were surrounded by walls. Its aim was defensive.
– The plane used to be irregular, with narrow winding streets. However, there are examples of radiocentric, linear (Camino de Santiago), and grid (Tarragona, Castellón, and Aranjuez…)
“The urban area was closed, while many homes had patios, yards, and gardens. In the building, predominantly low-rise townhouses were present. There were also outstanding buildings, which varied by historical period: churches, mosques…
“The land uses were diverse, with homes intermingling workshops, shops, warehouses, and public buildings. This does not preclude a certain expertise to the various guilds of craftsmen and merchants.
City-social groups coexisted, and there was a certain hierarchy: the center was the most prominent place, where the main public buildings were located, and the elite lived in the city, while political power and religious workers resided in the periphery, with ethnic and religious minorities in separate districts (suburbs).
Common features of the old town vary in population.
The Roman city, usually has a regular plane, derived from the military camp: checkerboard streets and two main routes from north to south (thistle) and from east to west (decumano). At the junction of the two, one finds the forum. Examples include Zaragoza, Leon, Merida, Barcelona, Valencia, and Tarragona…
In the Middle Ages, ancient helmets were configured in most Spanish cities.
“The Muslim town, had a core walled Medina, where the main buildings were located: the mosque, the souk or market, and the residential neighborhoods. Beyond were the suburbs or neighborhoods for workers, which over time also finished with walls.
“The Christian city, was also walled. Its center was once a castle or a church, with open spaces for holding the market. Its plans were diverse: irregular, radiocentric (Vitoria-Gasteiz), linear (Logroño), or checkerboard (Villareal). Its most outstanding buildings were churches, noble palaces, and town halls.
In the Renaissance, new neighborhoods of regular planes were created beyond the ancient gates. Older places were settled in the market, with new streets or squares left from main streets, featuring rectilinear layouts.
The main buildings were municipalities, located beside the church, palaces, and convents…
In the Baroque and the Enlightenment, the town was embellished. Wide and straight streets were created, laid out in perspective, along with large squares, gardens, tree-lined avenues, and new neighborhoods.
3.1.2 The Transformation of the Industrial Age
The pre-industrial city suffered significant changes as a result of the industrialization process that took place between the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth century.
These transformations can be summarized as follows:
– The plan experienced internal reform and renewal policies that affected the most valued areas. In the rest, a process of morphological and social deterioration began.
Waves of internal reforms in the nineteenth and first third of the twentieth century consisted of the correction and alignment of streets and the opening of new streets and squares, a task facilitated by confiscation. In the second half of the nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth century, new squares and major roads were built.
Political waves of renewal in the 1960s aimed to improve returns to urban land.
– The plot thickened in the industrial age to gain more space, and some buildings were reused for other functions. Family buildings were replaced by apartment buildings with a different style. In the 1960s, buildings became vertical and adopted a more modern style that clashed with surrounding buildings. The only exceptions were the old quarters of cities, which prompted a conservation policy that, by preventing any reform, resulted in the deterioration of old buildings and their progressive abandonment by the people.
– The land use of the old experienced a gradual outsourcing that culminated in the 1960s, consolidating the old business as a commercial center of the city. This resulted in the displacement of residential uses.
3.1.3 The Problems and Changes in the Post-Industrial Era
Today, the old quarters are complex urban areas that suffer from different problems:
– The street layout is inappropriate for modern traffic, causing saturation and loss of seats. To address this problem, we have pedestrianized streets.
– The building faces deterioration of some historic buildings. Some endure significant deterioration, with houses that do not qualify for modern living, occupied by people with low income. Others are new or rehabilitated housing at high prices, occupied by high-income groups.
3.2 The Industrial City: Widening and Neighborhoods
Between the mid-nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth century, cities that introduced modern industries attracted a large rural population and spread outside the pre-industrial walls.
Most cities that exceeded the old walls knocked them down, as their defensive function had been nullified by the progress of artillery. Their place was taken by round trips or boulevards, which differentiated the old from the new city. Extensions were created for the bourgeoisie, industrial areas, and workers’ neighborhoods with gardens.
3.2.1 The Bourgeois Widening
The bourgeois widening is a new space that meets the demands of urban growth of the bourgeoisie. It reflects their ideas of order, health, and economic benefit.
At the time of its creation, the expansion plan adopted a regular rectilinear grid with wider streets than the old ones. The plot was low density, with open blocks on one or two sides, featuring large spaces occupied by gardens. The dominant land use was residential bourgeois due to high prices of land and buildings. The first extensions were made in the most dynamic cities (Barcelona and Madrid).
Over time, the expansion experienced changes. The plot thickened to build blocks on all four sides, and buildings became verticalized, especially in the 1960s. Land use in the expansion began receiving tertiary activities, stretching from the historic center along its main streets, especially in high-demand areas of Madrid and Barcelona.
3.2.2 The Industrial Working-Class Neighborhoods and Suburbs
The workers who migrated to industrial cities could not settle in the historic areas because they were expensive and inhabited by the bourgeoisie. Nor could they settle in the bourgeois widening due to high prices, except in basements and attics. Thus, they settled in slums that emerged around the suburbs, along roads and paths.
At the time of its inception, these areas adopted a disorganized plan. The plot was closed and dense, with predominant housing of small size and quality, either single-family or apartments. Residential land uses interspersed with industries, workshops, and warehouses. The transport infrastructure, services, and equipment were scarce.
Today, the old industrial areas and working-class neighborhoods have become more central in urban space, which has increased the value of the land they occupy.
– The obsolete industrial areas or those in crisis have undergone an industrial casting process, which has been occupied by tertiary uses (shopping centers or recreational areas) or residences.
– In the less valued areas, there are lots or abandoned buildings.
3.2.3 Garden Neighborhoods
The garden suburbs were created in the late nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth century. They are the result of the dissemination of naturalistic and hygienist ideas in Spain. As a result, proposals emerged to bring the countryside to the city, which became concrete in the garden districts and in certain projects, such as Arturo Soria’s Ciudad Lineal.
– The garden city resulted in neighborhoods of single-family houses with gardens. Initially planned for the proletariat, it played a prominent role in the Cheap Housing Act, inspired by the colonies of England and urban utopian ideas (socialist attempts to improve the living conditions of workers in industrial cities). The law sought to eliminate poor housing in the suburbs, adopting a model of monotone single-family homes, small-sized with small gardens.
– The Linear City of Arturo Soria was conceived as a street 40 feet wide, lined with blocks consisting of detached houses with orchards and gardens. Basic services (water, sewer…) and transport (tram) were provided. It sought to recover social segregation of different levels, including housing and price, but only workers settled there. The project was only partially carried out in the northeast area and is now heavily modified.
3.3 The Periphery and Recent Urban Transformations
3.3.1 The Residential Neighborhoods in the Periphery
The residential neighborhoods in the periphery respond to different types and have fairly homogeneous characteristics.
– The slum of substandard housing or illegal slums emerges above ground, rustic or green, and lacks urban organization. The houses are self-built with scrap materials and lack basic services such as light, water, or sanitation.
– Housing neighborhoods of official promotion (some UVA were built on a provisional basis for a maximum period of five years) had their greatest development between 1940 and 1960. They were created as sheltered housing built with state aid and with limited sale price or rental. In most cases, they formed open neighborhoods with houses or blocks, characterized by low quality of construction and serious deficiencies in equipment and services.
– The housing estates by private developers emerged since 1960. They adopted an open frame or tower blocks with large spaces between houses for gardens or parking. Soon, H-shaped blocks proliferated, excessive in height and density, creating a cluttered street layout.
– The closed block districts resurfaced in the 1980s and 1990s as a way to retrieve the organization of the streets.
– Single-family housing areas at the periphery proliferated from the 1980s, encouraged by the desire of the middle class to connect with nature. They feature breathable, individual buildings or terraced houses, with free land use primarily residential.
4. Problems of the Spanish Cities
Spanish cities face many problems. Their solution falls under urban policy, which is the responsibility of each municipality.
– The problems resulting from congestion are numerous:
o Densification and constructive pressure on undeveloped space.
o The high price of purchasing or renting housing.
o The need for many supplies and equipment.
o Traffic management and transport.
– The economic problems are due to excessive terciarization of urban activities, thus promoting diversification. The objectives are:
o To avoid the disappearance of agricultural activities in the urban environment.
o To promote or revitalize the industry.
o To spread advanced tertiary activities, which are very focused on the city center to the periphery or into secondary towns.
– Social problems are more common in large cities, as individuals are more prone to stress, isolation, unemployment, and uprooting. These include: crime, prostitution, or alcoholism.
– The existence of environmental problems manifests in several ways:
o The existence of an urban microclimate, characterized by high temperatures and more precipitation than the surrounding countryside. The city is an island of heat caused by traffic and heating…
o Air pollution from traffic and heating systems creates a hood of dust and smoke that affects health.
o High noise levels.
o The production and waste disposal.
o The disappearance of green spaces in the interior and the urban environment.
5. The Production and Management of Urban Space
The problems identified determine the importance of managing urban space and its administration.
5.1 Urbanism
The organization of urban space is the responsibility of urban planning. This has a theoretical dimension, urban theory, and practical, urban approach, which includes the entire municipality, i.e., urban and rural land, and aims to design new spaces for future growth and transform existing ones according to the social demands of each historical period.
5.1.1 Urban Development in the Industrial Age
– Between the second half of the nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth century, the first attempts at urban planning coincided with the time when urban growth exceeded the pre-industrial city walls. The most prominent were:
o Stabilizing the plane. Geometric planes were established for urban expansion; street alignment plans specified that routes should be straight and have a certain width for traffic.
o Consolidation plans. They are related to the spread of hygienist ideas on the safety of the city sewer, water supply, street cleaning…
o Improving services and urban facilities, public parks, streetcars, lighting, and paving.
– In the era of autarky (1939-1960), planning focused on three objectives:
o The reconstruction of cities hardest hit by the Civil War (Guernica, Guadalajara, Oviedo). The proceedings were slow and limited.
o The drafting of legislation on housing (subsidized housing, housing…).
o The organization of urban growth. This was addressed by the Land Law and Town Planning, which provided planning at different levels: national (National Urban Development Plan, which was in previous studies), provincial, urban, and for each urban area. The most used were the general urban plans, which divided the city into zones with different functions (administrative, residential, industrial) and fixed the necessary equipment and services for each zone, although in most cases, practical accomplishments turned away enough from the projects.
– At the time of development (1960-1975), the land law and zoning were maintained, but urban development led to the emergence of a number of problems in cities.
Sometimes valuable heritage items were eliminated, characterized by excessive height and density, and the low quality of buildings and lack of green spaces.
Urban congestion and environmental problems associated with it, such as air pollution and water, increased. In some large cities (Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Sevilla), polygons were created to address congestion on major access roads.
5.1.2 Town Planning in the Post-Industrial Age: Since 1975
In the post-industrial era, Spanish urban planning reflects the implementation of state autonomy, social democratization, and globalization processes.
– The implementation of the state of autonomies.
– The Urban General Plan (General Plan) is the basic tool for integrated urban planning of a municipality. It plans urban development for a number of years:
o Land uses (urban, developable, and undeveloped)
o Floor area or building density.
o Roads.
o Equipment and environmental protection measures.
– Partial Plans PGOU materialize for each urban area, and the Special Plans order specific areas, degraded areas, and the old town.
6. The Spanish Urban System
The Spanish urban system consists of a set of interconnected cities. It consists of some elements: cities and the relations established between them.
6.1 The Elements of the Urban System: Size, Features, Area of Influence, and Urban Hierarchy
The cities of a system are characterized by their size and roles. They exert their influence over a more or less extensive area, occupying a position in the hierarchy of the urban system.
THE SIZE OF CITIES
The size of the population of cities is set according to the rank-size rule. This gives each city a ranking or order number in the system according to the size of its population.
– The increased geographic size corresponds to fifteen agglomerations exceeding 500,000 inhabitants. Of them, over three million is the Madrid metropolitan area, which ranks first in the system, and the metropolitan area of Barcelona, whose size is greater than would normally fall within the second largest of a national system, forming a bipolar system.
– Then fall five agglomerations exceeding 800,000 inhabitants: Valencia, Seville, Bilbao, and Malaga City Astur, and eight of over 500,000 (Zaragoza, Alicante, Elche, Bay of Cadiz, Murcia, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Granada, Vigo, and Palma de Mallorca).
– Behind them, there are a large number of cities between 400,000 and 150,000. This is due to the recent growth of medium-sized cities.
– Spatial distribution of cities by size is characterized by the location in the center of the peninsula of the largest urban agglomeration, Madrid, surrounded by major urban agglomerations.
URBAN FUNCTIONS
The urban functions are socio-economic activities performed by the cities outward, not aimed at inner city service. According to their primary function, the functions may include: primary, secondary, or tertiary.
– The primary cities specialize in primary sector activities.
– The secondary cities, in some cases, specialize in industry, such as the Basque Country, Catalonia, and Asturias.
– Tertiary cities specialize in services, which today define the status and influence of a city. These services may include business, financial, commercial, transport, and administration…
URBAN AREA OF INFLUENCE
The duties performed turn outwards to the cities in central places that supply goods and services to a more or less extensive area, called the area of influence.
SPANISH URBAN HIERARCHY
We distinguish the following categories:
– Metropolis. Metropolitan areas are found at the top of the hierarchy of the urban system. Their population exceeds 200,000-250,000 inhabitants.
National cities are large metropolitan areas of Madrid and Barcelona. Their population exceeds 3 million. They have more diversified functions: highly specialized services. Their area of influence is national and maintains close relations with other international metropolises.
– Metropolitan regions are average metropolitan areas. Their population is between 1.5 million and 500,000 inhabitants. They have diverse functions and services.
Subregional or regional metropolises of second order are small metropolitan areas with a population between 500,000 and 250,000-200,000. They have specialized functions and services.
– Average cities. Most provincial capitals are not included in the preceding paragraphs. Their functions are less diversified.
– Small cities or towns. They have a population between 10,000 and 50,000. Their functions are scarce and specialized, although some equipment may have a certain expertise (secondary and vocational education).
The cities of the urban system are interrelated. These relationships are measured by economic flows (goods, capital, investment), people, and other types. When flows are unidirectional, from one city to another, they indicate relations of domination and subordination; when they are bidirectional, they indicate integration-competitive relationships.
In the Spanish urban system, relations between cities are characterized by these traits:
– Madrid maintains a strong relationship with the other metropolises, especially with Barcelona.
– Barcelona has a weaker overall impact but is intense in the eastern mainland and Balearic Islands.
– The northwest quadrant is the largest area of integration, as its five main cities have strong relationships (Madrid-Barcelona-Valencia-Bilbao-Zaragoza).
– In the rest of the system, relations between cities are smaller and incomplete. Flows dominate the cities with rural areas or nearby towns.
6.2 The City and Its System Changes
The mainland urban system inherited from the industrial stage is characterized by the location in the center of the largest urban agglomeration in the country, Madrid, surrounded by peripheral urban axes and a few urbanized interiors without integrated axes.
– Madrid is Spain’s main urban center. It is characterized by its tertiary sector and maintains relationships with the main Spanish cities.
– The peripheral urban axes have a semi-ring around the capital.
o The Galician Atlantic axis is specialized in trade.
o The axis includes the triangle of Asturias, Cantabria, Santander, and the Basque triangle, which has ramifications inward (Leon, Burgos, and Logrono) with progressive loss in industry.
o The Mediterranean axis extends from Girona to Cartagena. It is the most dynamic axis, with a very diversified industry and a strong emphasis on services.
o The Ebro Valley axis links the Cantabrian and Mediterranean axes, with Zaragoza as its main city. This axis is dynamic, balanced between industry and services.
o The Andalusian axis is twofold. The coastline axis between Almeria and Huelva is dynamic and specializes in trade, tourism, and agricultural technology. The Guadalquivir Valley axis, between the Atlantic coast and Jaén, is less dynamic, with cities linked to agricultural activities, local industries, and other tourist activities.
– The interior of the peninsula lacks integrated urban axes, dominated by small cities specializing in trade, food, and agriculture.
6.2.1 Recent Changes in the Urban System
The implementation of the State of Autonomies influenced the existing urban system, favoring the establishment of regional urban systems.
Regional urban systems respond to different types:
– Monocentric primate systems: a major conurbation concentrates population and regional functions, with no intermediate levels of cities. In these systems, there are unidirectional relations and dependence (Madrid, Aragon, Cantabria, Catalonia, Murcia, and Baleares).
– Nested monocentric systems: a major city concentrates population and regional functions, but several intermediate levels of cities, among which hierarchical flows are transmitted (Comunidad Valenciana, western Andalusia, La Rioja, Navarra).
– Polycentric systems: two or more cities share population and regional functions and maintain bidirectional flows together, and unidirectional with other cities of lesser rank (Galicia, Asturias, Basque Country, both Castile, Extremadura, Andalusia, and Canary East).