Urban Planning and Regional Organization: Key Concepts
Urban Planning Concepts
Conurbation: A continuous urban agglomeration created by the parallel growth of two or more cities that join without losing their independence.
Rururbanization: A transitional space between the country and the city where mixed crops and rural and urban lifestyles coexist.
Industrial Estate Services: Areas on the periphery with business and technology parks and business estates of detached buildings with fewer resources, which emerged from the 1950s to 1960s.
Urban Layout: The arrangement of buildings. It can be closed, with attached buildings extending over a large area, or open, with ample space between buildings.
Historical Center: The urbanized part of the city from its beginnings, now occupying a small area, but of great value because it contains historic old buildings.
Urban Area: A city surrounded by vast suburbs built, economically dependent on the central city.
Shantytowns: Slums that emerge on land illegally, or on rustic green areas, and without planning or organization.
Metropolitan Area: An urban agglomeration formed by a major city and several surrounding towns that maintain socioeconomic relations.
Megalopolis: An urban agglomeration that is an extension of an urban area, forming supraregional discontinuous fractures without significant connections.
Metropolis: Metropolitan areas that are at the top of the urban system hierarchy. They can be national, regional, or subregional, according to their population or influence.
Eixample: A space created by the bourgeoisie, based on ideas of order, economic benefit, and hygiene, which have become areas of activity and tertiary cities.
Citadel: Homes located inside the courtyard of a house near bourgeois or industrial facilities, hidden behind a wall, escaping from municipal control.
Garden Districts: Created at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, originating from naturalistic ideas and principles that defended the approach to nature and hygienist ideas that outdoor spaces improve health.
Political and Administrative Organization
Political-Administrative Organization: The constituencies on which public authorities exert their authority and govern.
Municipality: The basic territorial entity, whose function is to provide services to the residents. Power is vested in the council, composed of the Mayor and Councillors.
Province: A local territorial entity formed by a grouping of municipalities. Power is vested in a council integrated by a president and MPs.
Autonomous Community: A territorial entity that includes a set of provinces or can be uniprovincial, with legislative autonomy and capacity for self-government on some issues.
Region: A territorial entity grouping several municipalities.
Mancomunidad: A territorial entity formed by the free association of municipalities where they delegate some of their functions to manage their common interests.
Consell Insular: Government bodies and local administration with wide powers on islands.
Imbalance: Economic, demographic, and social imbalances between different communities.
Status of Autonomy: Grants powers to the regions on regional planning, urbanism, and housing.
ERDF: Finances investments to reduce regional imbalances.
ESF: Funds actions to develop human resources.
Cohesion Fund: Finances exclusively environmental and public investment in European transport networks in countries with per capita GDP less than 90% of the EU average.