Urbanization in Spain: Trends, Factors, and Historical Impact

Posted on Dec 15, 2024 in Geography

The most important phenomenon of recent decades is increasing urban populations. This is a universal phenomenon and occurs in both industrialized and underdeveloped countries.

It means the progressive urbanization of the population, a concentration in cities, which implies an increase in urban population. The criteria for defining what constitutes an urban center are primarily numerical. In Spain, populations with 10,000 or more inhabitants are classified as urban, while those with 2,000 or fewer are considered rural villages.

To analyze and understand the city, one must study various aspects of it:

The site of the city: This is the particular place where the city is built, which affects, to some extent, its landscape and growth. For example, in the Gulf of Cadiz.
The situation: Refers to the position of the city in its relationship with the environment, that is, the large geographical or economic area where it lies. Cadiz is located in southern Spain, opposite the Strait of Gibraltar.
The morphology of the city is the city that combines flat buildings and land uses. The plan consists of open spaces and built areas. Land use refers to the use of space according to the needs of the residential, industrial, commercial, infrastructure, and equipment sectors.
Urban functions: These are economic activities that take place in the city and are differentiated between basic and non-basic. The first are those that are the raison d’etre of the city, and the latter are used to meet the needs of the population.
The urban structure: Refers to the distribution of urban space in different areas of the city in relation to land use, for example, areas of industrial parks, recreational areas, residential areas, parks, etc.
Urban policy: The set of objectives for brand management and smooth control of the city. This is reflected in the laws of land and urban planning.

Development Process: Factors and Consequences

Throughout the twentieth century, the urbanization rate in Spain has been growing. Between 1900 and 2000, the urban population grew from 32.2% to 78%, meaning the urban population has multiplied by 5.

This process has not been the same in all cities.

Between 1969 and 1979, when the rate of urbanization increased the most because of migration from rural to urban areas, the largest cities had higher rates.

But since the 1980s, big cities have begun to slow their growth because of the big problems they are facing: housing shortages, price increases of apartments, employment crisis, etc. Therefore, in recent years, small and medium-sized Spanish cities have grown more.

The distribution of Spanish urbanization has many contrasts. The most prominent is that inner cities, the Castilian region of León, Extremadura, and La Mancha have urbanization rates much lower than the coast, except, of course, Madrid, which has the highest rate in the country. The Spanish urbanization rate is close to the European average.

Factors Involved in the Process of Urbanization

The reasons for development refer to the growth of economic activities in cities because they attract labor. There are also historical, cultural, or geostrategic reasons that make a city grow in a given time.

The main factor has been industrialization and concentration in the region of Catalonia, the Basque Country, and Madrid. These places have become the most urbanized, but tourism has caused a large increase in urbanization, especially on the Mediterranean coast, such as Benidorm, Torremolinos, and Marbella.

Another factor to consider is the influence of a large city on the environment. Thus, the nuclei near these large cities increase their population, for example, in Madrid or the Seville Aljarafe area.

Another factor is the fact that primary activity has been declining, and the labor force of the field is going to cities, namely, migration from rural to city. But in recent years, agricultural techniques have developed, such as irrigation, crops under plastic, etc. Given in Almeria, Murcia, Valencia, and the Canary Islands, these have attracted a lot of manpower to nearby cities.

Impact of Urbanization

The first consequence is the depopulation of rural areas in many parts of Spain. The municipalities of fewer than 10,000 people have lost a lot of people since the mid-twentieth century.

Another consequence is demographic, since the transition to living in cities involves changes in the population: The cities have a younger population and are home to a lower birth rate.

But the most serious consequence is the deterioration of the environment, high energy consumption, degradation of passage, water consumption, air pollution, etc.

Types of Spanish Cities Throughout History

Much of the cities of Spain are historically significant. Each era has left its mark in the shape of the cities. The first cities of the peninsula are from the days of Phoenician and Greek colonization (eighth century BC). The city of Cadiz, which is 3,000 years old, stands out, but others on the Catalan coast and the Mediterranean are also important.

The Roman Era represented a step in the consolidation of the cities. The Romans created their own model and founded many towns, some on existing stocks of pre-Roman times and new ones, among which are Italica, Zaragoza, Merida, etc.

The main contribution of Roman urbanization is the orthogonal plane, a grid, and urban design around two axes or crossing lines called decumanus thistle. The Roman level is a widely used geometric plane after the founding of new towns, especially in America with the Spanish conquest.

The Medieval Period saw a period of depopulation of the cities due to invasions and insecurity. With the process of the Reconquista, new towns were founded, such as Segovia, Avila, and Salamanca, which served as places of defense of the territories.

The Muslim conquest created a new kind of city, the Muslim city, which was located at strategic and defensive points, for example, near a river or a ravine. The houses were built close together on top of each other and were protected by a wall. The plane of the Muslim town was totally irregular, with winding street paths, twisted, broken, dead ends, and many blind alleys called battlements that are very representative of the Muslim city.

The Christian City of this time, however, devoted to agriculture, was a small walled area with narrow streets and centered around a square where the church was.

In the Modern Age, with increasing demographic and cultural development, the cities grew, urban infrastructure improved, and the streets were remodeled. Main squares were also created where the municipality was located and where holidays were held, for example, the Plaza Mayor of Madrid.

During the eighteenth century, enlightened reformism changed the ways of the city, seeking improved aesthetic beauty of the surroundings. Sanitary conditions were also improved, and monuments, avenues, boulevards, bridges, and infrastructure were built.

The nineteenth century was very important to Spanish cities. These continued to grow, and further reforms were developed, such as public works.

The confiscation took religious land for sale in the cities that were built or were incorporated into the city, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Seville.

Industrialization, which started around 1860, brought the problem of where to locate industries and where to house the workforce that migrated to industrial cities. Because of these needs, plans were put in place to regulate the growth of the city and remodel the interior space.

These plans can include the construction of slaughterhouses, cemeteries, electricity, water supply, street paving, and, above all, opening new roads to conform to the movement that began at that time and will continue to progress in the twentieth century. This is called Haussmannization.

In the late nineteenth century, Ensanche plans took place, which are very interesting contributions to urbanism. They consisted of building an entire area of the city, planning all the streets, buildings, services, etc. It was usually an orthogonal grid or with blocks of large proportions for middle-class families because the extensions were habitable zones of high quality. The expansion of Barcelona, designed by Ildefonso Cerdá in 1860, is emphasized.

Urban Landscape in the Twentieth Century

In the twentieth century, the intense process of urbanization has brought a major change in the urban landscape. It has encouraged housing construction since this is one of the main problems that worsened due to emigration from the countryside to the city in the 1960s. The state enacted laws for the construction of social housing, for example, the Act of 1911 Affordable Homes.

But more work under construction was made with the Franco regime, since after the civil war, many cities had to be rebuilt. There were several construction plans through organizations like the Association of Home Work.

In the Franco regime, in many cities, downtown areas were demolished to build apartment buildings, offices, or banks without respecting the heritage of the city.

Suburbs and slums also expanded in the outlying areas of major cities. People were staying there who were destitute neighborhoods of self, no services or infrastructure, such as Pozo del Tio Raimundo in Madrid or Seville South Range.

Although planning legislation was developed, which agreed to introduce planning, that is, the implementation of zoning or distribution of uses and functions within the city into separate spaces, these laws were not often met. Such laws were the Law of the Land of 1956.

New urban forms also appeared, such as:

Garden City, based on the ideas of British Architects, whose goal was to bring nature into the city. These are neighborhoods with low houses and gardening.
The linear city that was a project architect Arturo Soria, and trying to build housing around the roads between cities, while retaining the relationship with the natural environment.
The housing estates, construction of entire neighborhoods are in areas close to the city but dominated the block of flats in high-density, small size, and low-quality construction.

Urban Planning in Democratic Spain

Democracy brought a breakthrough in land laws, much greater control, and the attempt to create cities for citizens. Most importantly, the drafting of legislation and the Land Act of 1976 and urban planning (Plan) made by each municipality.

These plans set mandatory for building lines, property, roads paths, etc. That is, they include the objectives of where you want to develop the city.

Current Urban Development Objectives

At present, the objectives of the laws are aimed at revitalizing the historic centers to protect and prevent the destruction of buildings with historical value. Restorations are made in areas of the city as a whole, modernizing and adapting the conditions to the needs of people. To do so, it is obliged to respect certain types of environment.

Currently, much of urban neighborhoods are being developed. Middle-class families are looking for places in residential environmental quality and affordable prices, which will make developments in this area.

Service centers or suburban leisure parks and industrial estates are also implemented, thereby creating what is called an urban agglomeration that is joining the main city and other peripheral nuclei.

The development of these forms of construction has, in many places, erased the boundary between the city and nearby nuclei because everything is already developed. This phenomenon is called a metropolis, forcing them to build fast roads, loops, or develop adequate public transport because these nuclei function as dormitory towns for workers. From this also comes the concept of metropolitan area, that is, a city that integrates a number of nearby towns that can still maintain a rural character.

Functions of Cities

The functions of the city are strictly urban activities. Throughout history, they have been mainly related to trade and craft workshops.

It is said that a city performs a specific function if that activity is the most representative of it, e.g., tourist cities, university towns, religious cities.

Before the industrial revolution, the city population was engaged in trading and processing textiles, weapons, pottery, utensils of all kinds, etc.

Industrialization was a big change because a city offers many advantages for these industries to implement, such as accessibility, abundant labor, a large market of contact with other cities, etc.

Today in cities, there is a great mix of features. It is difficult to classify a city by a single function, as in cities, there are many activities.

Urban Structure: Areas of the City

A city can be divided into several zones or sectors according to the dominant role in each of them.

Central Sector or CBD (Central Business District)

It is the commercial, financial, and service sector. It shows the main shops, banks, offices, and headquarters of major companies. The features are:

Easy access to good communications: railway stations, underground, bus terminals, etc.
Very high-density pedestrian traffic, especially road traffic, therefore, problems with parking and traffic jams.
Concentration of the tertiary sector (small houses and almost no industry).
High price of land (it is the most expensive in cities), hence, it is built up to a significant height (this is the area of the city’s skyscrapers).

Residential Areas (Homes)

The properties occupy most of the cities. Broadly speaking, there are two types of dwellings: single-family (apartments) and multifamily (blocks).

Within residential areas, one can distinguish:

Old or historic core: housing in the form of old blocks of multifamily, generally quite degraded. The area is mostly occupied by retirees, immigrants, and marginal populations of low purchasing power. This, except in cities where, because of its special historical or monumental nature, the area has been rehabilitated, then going to be a high-price area.
Widening of the nineteenth century: quality multifamily housing for the middle class. The high price of these areas, the much more expensive housing prices, encouraged many to be upgraded to become a commercial office or high level (think of the example of Madrid, and in the streets of Salamanca-Serrano, Goya, Velázquez, etc., are the headquarters of many companies and most luxurious and expensive shops of the city).
Peripherality of the twentieth century: there are two main types:
- Low-cost residential areas (urban workers): Multifamily for the lower-middle class.
- High-priced residential areas with houses for the upper class.

Industrial Areas

There are several types:

Within the city, small industries, discrete and less polluting.
Industrial estates on the outskirts of cities and along roads of communication (rail, road), to larger industries and/or contaminants. Built mostly in the decades of the 1950s and 1960s.
New industrial areas (business parks), located near the city and well-reported, with good and many services to enterprises, primarily related to new technologies.

Business Areas

The main one coincides with the CBD, but there are shopping areas scattered throughout the city. Recently, there has been a tendency to create large commercial premises on the outskirts of cities, uniting trade and entertainment venues (cinemas, bars, restaurants): Park Corridor is one example.

Suburban Areas

Areas that until recently were not in the city but that this growth has been absorbed, and still mixed industrial and rural areas (in the case of Madrid, Vicálvaro, Vallecas, etc.). In these areas, you can see large industries (tending to vanish), agricultural areas, residential areas, and fallow land speculation (this is the name given to agricultural land until recently and now appears abandoned, while actually waiting to build on them and thus drive up their price).

Metropolitan Area

People who are economically dependent on the city but are independent (Torrejón, Alcalá than Madrid). Generally, these populations grow in line with national highways.