Urban Structure Changes: Conurbations, Megalopolises and Land Use in Spanish Cities
A conurbation is a discontinuous urban agglomeration made up of dispersed cities that are dense enough for the whole territory to have urban characteristics.
A megalopolis is an urban agglomeration of supra-regional extent made up of various urban elements with different functions that form a discontinuous urban area. In Spain, the Mediterranean axis from the French border to Cartagena could be considered as such.
Changes in Urban Land Use
Another aspect to address regarding recent transformations in the structure of cities is changes in urban land use. The city is an organism in constant transformation, so many buildings from earlier periods have disappeared. The growth of cities has therefore occurred at different times, progressively from the centre to the periphery. In Spanish cities, the following zones can be differentiated according to the historical period in which they developed:
The Historic Centre
The historic centre corresponds to the oldest part of the city and is normally the most touristic area.
The Ensanches, Suburbs and Garden City Neighbourhoods
Developed from the mid-19th century until the Spanish Civil War, Spanish cities expanded in a planned way through the ensanches (urban extensions) and garden city neighbourhoods, while at the same time expanding spontaneously in the outskirts or suburbs.
The Peripheries
From the Civil War to the present day, cities have undergone an unprecedented process of expansion, with neighbourhoods built on the limits of the then-built space and, more recently, lower-density residential areas and new spaces for economic activities dispersed around the edges of cities.
Land Use in Industrial Cities
In the pre-industrial era, urban land use was diverse, with a notable multifunctionality: houses were mixed with factories and workshops, shops, buildings, and so on. With the transformation of industrial cities, notable changes also took place in urban land use. The uses of the old town centre underwent a progressive tertiarisation: buildings were renovated and tertiary activities were installed in the urban core. The old town thus consolidated as the commercial and business centre of the city.
The result was the displacement of residences to the ensanches, where land use was initially bourgeois residential and, over time, began to receive tertiary functions. On the periphery of industrial-era cities, industrial installations and neighbourhoods of workers and marginalised people were established.
Today, with urban growth, the former industrial zones and workers' neighbourhoods find themselves in a central position within the urban space, which has increased the value of the land they occupy. This fact has given rise to a series of transformations: