Morphological Polycentricity In Southern Europe: Evidence At The National Level

Polycentricity constitutes a thoroughly discussed notion in the European spatial planning agenda. It is mostly seen as a tool for balanced regional development, European competitiveness and sustainable development, with main purpose to counterbalance the concentrated urban configurations of northwestern Europe. One of the lagging territories in terms of urban development –among others- is the European Continental South, which, in addition, was severely hit by the recent economic crisis. Therefore, the scope of this article is to monitor the change of national urban systems in terms of morphological polycentricity in the member-states of Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain, for the period 2000-2014, in order to assess their urban development potential. Thus, the measures of urban primacy and rank-size coefficient are utilised to monitor the change in the degree of morphological polycentricity among the main Functional Urban Areas (FUAs) of the aforementioned countries, and the spatial distribution of FUAs over the national territory is estimated in order to identify the territorial balance aspect of polycentricity. The results indicate mixed outcomes for the examined countries. Despite the undeniably low levels of the derived polycentricity for Greece and Portugal, the polycentricity degree in Greece remains stable, while in Portugal there is a trend that favours polycentric development. As for traditionally more polycentric countries, the polycentricity rates of Spain and Italy show marginal change. In terms of territorial balance, Greece and Spain seem polycentric, while Portugal and particularly Italy are characterised as less polycentric in this respect. Keywords: polycentricity, functional urban areas, urban primacy, rank-size distribution, territorial balance