Focus on cities and metro regions 13 Focus on cities and metro regions This chapter describes two linked typologies which have Step 2: the contiguous (1) high-density cells are then clus- been developed to cover, without any overlaps or omissions, tered, gaps (2) are filled and only the clusters with a popula- the whole geographical territory of the European Union tion of at least 50 000 inhabitants (image 2 of Figure 13.1) are (EU), Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Croatia at the local kept as an ‘urban centre’. and regional level. The typologies cover: Step 3: all the municipalities (local administrative units level • the definition of a city and its commuting zone, and; 2 (LAU2)) with at least half their population inside the urban • a typology of metro regions. centre are selected as candidates to become part of the city As opposed to the typologies presented in the territorial ty- (image 3 of Figure 13.1). pologies chapter of the 2012 edition of Eurostat’s regional Step 4: the city is defined ensuring that: yearbook (the degree of urbanisation and the urban–rural regional typology) which rely mainly on population density, • there is a link to the political level; the two typologies presented in this chapter add a functional • at least 50 % of the population lives in an urban centre, and; dimension. They are both forms of functional urban areas • at least 75 % of the population of the urban centre lives in a and are based on the flows of people commuting to work in city (image 4 of Figure 13.1). a city. In most cases, as for example in Graz (in Austria), the last step is not necessary as the city normally consists of a single municipality that covers the entire urban centre and the vast Main statistical findings majority of the city’s residents live in that urban centre. Larger urban zones: For 33 urban centres stretching far beyond the city, a ‘greater city’ level was created to improve international comparabil- a city and its commuting zone ity (for more details see the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy’s publication ‘Regional focus: Cities in Eur­ Definition of a city ope — The new OECD–EC definition’, L. Dijkstra and H. Po- The new city definition works in four basic steps and is based elman, January 2012). on the presence of an ‘urban centre’, a new spatial concept To ensure that the above definition identified all relevant based on high-density population grid cells. centres, national statistical authorities were consulted and Step 1: all grid cells with a density of 1 500 inhabitants per minor adjustments were made where needed and consistent km² or more are selected (image 1 of Figure 13.1). with this approach. High-density cells, urban centre and city (Graz) Figure 13.1: Defining a city — high-density cells, urban centre and city (Graz, Austria) High-density cell (>1 500 inhabitants per km²) Urban centre (cluster of high-density cells with Commune > 50 % of its population Urban Audit city population > 50 000 inhabitants per km²) in an urban centre Municipalities 12 (1) Contiguity for high-density clusters does not include the diagonal (in other words, cells with only the corners touching). (2) Gaps in the high-density cluster are filled using the majority rule iteratively. The majority rule means that if at least five out of the eight cells surrounding a cell belong to the same high- density cluster it will be added. This is repeated until no more cells are added. 218 Eurostat regional yearbook 2013 Focus on cities and metro regions 13 Identification of a commuting zone A typology of metro(politan) regions Once all cities have been defined, a commuting zone can be Metro regions are NUTS level 3 approximations of the larger identified based upon commuting patterns using the follow- urban zones (city and commuting zones) of 250 000 or more ing steps: inhabitants following the definition described above. Each metro region consists of one or more NUTS level 3 regions • if 15 % of employed persons living in one city work in an- and is named after the principal larger urban zone inside other city, these cities are treated as a single city (image 1 of its boundaries. Figure 13.2); • all municipalities with at least 15 % of their employed The typology distinguishes three types of metro regions: residents working in a city are identified (image 2 of • capital metro regions; second-tier metro regions; Figure 13.2); • smaller metro regions. • municipalities surrounded (6) by a single functional area The capital metro region includes the national capital. Second-tier are included and non-contiguous municipalities are metro regions are the group of largest cities in a country, exclud- dropped (image 3 of Figure 13.3). ing the capital. For this purpose, a fixed popu­lation threshold could The larger urban zone (LUZ) consists of the city and its not be used. As a result, a natural break served the purpose of dis- commuting zone. tinguishing the second-tier from the smaller metro regions. The regions which do not belong to a metro region are simply called For more details on the sources and reference years for the non-metro regions. This typology can be simplified even further by commuting zones, see ‘Regional focus’, January 2012. grouping all individual metro regions together into metro regions. City and its commuting zone (Genova) Figure 13.2: How to define a city and its commuting zone (Genova, Italy) City Commuting area Commuting area after including enclaves and dropping exclaves City Commune with > 15 % of its employed population Larger urban zone commuting to the city Commune Added enclave Removed exclave 3 (3) ‘Surrounded’ is defined as sharing 100 % of its land border with the functional area. Eurostat regional yearbook 2013 219 13 Focus on cities and metro regions Urban Audit cities and larger urban zones, 2012 (¹) Map 13.1: Urban Audit cities and larger urban zones, 2012 (1) Guadeloupe (FR) Martinique (FR) 0 25 0 20 Guyane (FR) Réunion (FR) 0 100 0 20 Açores (PT) Madeira (PT) 0 50 0 20 Canarias (ES) Malta 0 100 0 10 Liechtenstein 0 5 Administrative boundaries: © EuroGeographics © UN-FAO © Turkstat City / Greater city Cartography: Eurostat — GISCO, 04/2013 Commuting zone Country covered by Urban Audit 0 200 400 600 800 km (1) Based on population grid from 2006. Source: Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (¹) Based on population grid from 2006. Source: Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy 220 Eurostat regional yearbook 2013 Focus on cities and metro regions 13 Typology of metro regions, 2012 (¹) Map 13.2: Typology of metro regions, 2012 (1) Guadeloupe (FR) Martinique (FR) 0 25 0 20 Guyane (FR) Réunion (FR) 0 100 0 20 Açores (PT) Madeira (PT) 0 50 0 20 Canarias (ES) Malta 0 100 0 10 Liechtenstein 0 5 Administrative boundaries: © EuroGeographics © UN-FAO © Turkstat Cartography: Eurostat — GISCO, 04/2013 Capital metro region Second-tier metro region Smaller metro region 0 200 400 600 800 km (1) Based on populationNon-metro grid regio fromns 2006 and NUTS 2010. Source: Eurostat, Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (¹) Based on population grid from 2006 and NUTS 2010. Source: Eurostat, Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy Eurostat regional yearbook 2013 221 13 Focus on cities and metro regions The boundaries of a larger urban zone do not necessarily co- and outside (in this case they are towns). Rural areas fall pri- incide with those of NUTS level 3 regions. Therefore, NUTS marily outside commuting zones, but some rural areas have level 3 regions in which at least 50 % of the regional popu- developed a strong commuting relationship with a nearby lation lives inside a given larger urban zone were selected city and thus can also be found in some commuting zones. as the components of the metro region related to that larger urban zone. In some cases, the NUTS level 3 approxima- No link between metro regions tion of the larger urban zone is very good. In others cases, the metro region may be larger or smaller than the larger and the urban–rural regional typology urban zone. Each larger urban zone is represented by at least one NUTS level 3 region, even if that NUTS level 3 re- The two local level typologies have one type in common, name- gion has less than 50 % of its population inside the larger ly cities, whereas the two regional typologies each have differ- urban zone. ent types. The typology of metro regions divides NUTS level 3 regions into metro and non-metro regions while the urban­– rural typology divides NUTS level 3 regions into predomi- Links between the definition of a city nantly urban, intermediate and predominantly rural regions. and its commuting zone and the degree Despite the absence of an identical type or class of region, the of urbanisation typology two regional typologies are quite similar: • most urban regions are metro regions and vice versa; The first building block of the city definition described above • most rural regions are non-metro and vice versa; is the urban centre and this is identical to the one used in the degree of urbanisation typology. As a result, the city (or • intermediate regions are split between metro and non-metro regions. densely populated area) as defined in the degree of urbanisa- Figure 13.4 shows the classification of regions close to the tion is identical to the city definition described here. The two Polish–Slovakian border and contains examples of the most maps below show the two local typologies for the area of the common links between these two regional typologies.