The role, specific situation and potentials

of urban areas as nodes in a

polycentric developmentESPON Project 1.1.1

Lead partner Nordregio

Third interim reportECP-meeting Oct. 2003, Italy

A Spatial Organisation of Cities

characterised by: • Functional Division of Labour,• Economic and Institutional Integration,

and • Political Co-operation.

Polycentrism

Levels and issues

REGIONALOpportunity: Synergy of urban complementaritiesFocus: Networking - co-operation - integration

NATIONALProblem: Unbalanced national urban system Focus: Peripheral cities and regions

EUROPEANProblem: Unbalanced European territoryFocus (1): MEGAs and regions outside the 5tagonFocus (2): International flows outside the 5tagon

ConceptsConcepts

PoliciesPolicies&&

PlansPlans

Governance Governance

InternationalInternationalFlowsFlows

TIR focus:TIR focus:European European territoryterritory

• Yellow regions are below 44% of EU15 average

• Pronounced East-West divide

GDP per capita in PPS,

EU 27+2, 2000

• Gain: Green

• Loss: Red

• A mosaic with East-West catch-up trends

Change in share of EU

27+2 GDP/capita 1995-2000

Cities in Europe

• No universal definition of a city• Functional Urban Areas (FUAs): Commuting

catchment areas or relevant counterparts

• FUAs are building blocks in our analysis for potential polycentric urban regions

• 1,595 FUAs in EU 27+2

• Two bananas: From England – to Italy – to Hungary

• Next step:– Trends

FUA population

• Best potential accessibility in Pentagon

• No correlation between size and accessibility (i.e.

“function matters”)

Multi-modal accessibility of FUAs (EU 27+2)

Functional specialisation

• Six additional indicators for functional specialisation– Transport– Tourism– Manufacturing industries– Knowledge– Decision centres of private companies– Public administration

• Concentrated within countries

• Concentrated to the Pentagon

• No “European” nodes in accession countries

Transport Airports & harbours

• The Alps and the Mediterranean coast …

• … and cities like London, Paris and Rome

TourismNumber of Beds

• NUTS 3-level data not available for UK and France

• Strongest FUAs in the Pentagon and in Spain

• Low GVA in acc. countries

• Small FUAs may be global!

ManufacturingGross Value Added

• A balanced picture: universities are found all over Europe

• Capitals are strongest

Knowledge Number of students

• Extremely concentrated

• Stockholm is the only “European” centre outside Pentagon

Business head-quarters

Top 500 (turnover)companies

Public admini-stration

National service centres

HierarchicalHierarchical

• 64 MEGAs

• Clusters of MEGAs: – England, Be-Ne-Lux,

Germany

– Italy, France, Switzerland

– Czech Rep, Poland, Hungary

• Solitary MEGAs• Tissues of FUAs

Typology of FUAs

Three types, based on the seven indicators

• Polycentric: Midlands, Randstadt,

Rhine-Ruhr, Po Valley, Ostrava/Krakow

• Monocentric: Paris, Madrid, Athens,

Berlin, Stockholm

Polycentricity of 149 grouped FUAs on

the basis of proximity

Top-Down:• Solitary MEGAs• Potential polycentric

FUA-regions

Bottom-Up: • SWOTs• Programmes

Potentials outside 5tagon

Policy optionsRegional potentials• Infrastructure investments: NB: hard and soft measures • Strategic planning and co-operation• EU: Turn funding from nodes to links / new obj 2 measures for PcR /

SWOT based programs / Guidelines on PcR

More balanced national urban systems • Division of labour between national nodes • Second tier of cities in mono-centric and acceding countries!

• EU: funding the 2nd

tier / encourage national planning in EU-context

EU competitiveness and territorial cohesion • Identify and strengthen potential new global integration zones - NB:

dense urban systems in acceding countries!• EU: TENs, EU institutions, funding for PcR: e.g. obj.2 measures for

PcR beyond decay and reconstruction / Interreg on joint urban strategies.

Key choices made in the work

• To deal explicitly with two concepts of polycentrism:– MEGAS– Functional polycentrism

• Deliver the list of FUAs

• Include transnational links

Challenges the next period

• Feedback check on operationalisation of FUAs and MEGAs

• To integrate the top down identification of potential polycentric regions and the bottom up verification of practical experience on planning and governance

• To further develop the analysis of potential polycentric regions (e.g. the FUA-group analysis)

• The contradictions between policy recommendations at different levels (e.g. the EU and the national levels)

• The policy context after 3rd cohesion report