1. Appendix C4: Barcelona Case Study| 30 June 2010 (original) (raw)

Mallorca, each described as "potential MEGAs", and Sevilla as a weak MEGA (ESPON, 2004). Hall's differentiation between a "political" and a "commercial" capital in relation to Madrid and Barcelona is particularly fitting and perhaps poignantly indicates the raison d'etre for the little relation between Spain's two principal metropolitan urban regions (Hall, 2005). The competences of provinces are principally those of offering technical support for the municipalities and the coordination of supra-local services, especially for small municipalities. They are also the electoral district for general elections and also for Catalonian regional elections. Transfers from central government constitute the main economic resources for provinces. The Province, one of four within the Autonomous Community of Catalonia 7 , had a population of 5,487,935 in 2009, distributed throughout a total of 311 municipalities and 11 counties, with an area of 7,728 km 2. As can be seen from Table 1, over 50% of the population of the city-region lies within 7 municipalities with populations in excess of 100,000 inhabitants. This population of more than 2.75 million is concentrated within 3.5% of the total area of the city-region, focussed primarily on Barcelona (1.62 million) and two adjoining municipalities [L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (253,782) and Badalona (219,547)], as well as two important cities of the immediate hinterland [Terrassa (210,941) and Sabadell (206,493)]. By contrast just over 20% of the population resides in 161 municipalities of less than 20,000 inhabitants, distributed over more than 87% of the city-region. The remaining 29% of the population of the city-region lies within 37 towns and cities in the 20,000-100,000 range, spread over just 9.5% of the total area. Therefore the urban structure of the city-region is clearly that of a significantly high proportion of the overall population concentrated within a few small towns and cities, with a correspondingly small proportion of the population spread out widely across the wider city-region as illustrated by Map 2.