Today, referring to the small city means talking about a space that can be connected in every way to the rest of the World, and yet features a particular social and morphologic environment, which is different to that of large cities, and that may therefore be rather attractive. In the current situation of Generalized Urbanization, the meaning of middle and small cities is changing, with respect to what happened in the past. While it could long be asserted that urban growth was a very positive fact (the larger, the better), since the decade of the sixties, when the controversy about growth limits was raised, this perspective began to change. Nowadays it is certainly true that, in some cases, the lesser that growth is, the better, and in every situation, the most balanced it is, the better. Today, small cities may have significant advantages over large ones: they can be innovative, hold education centers, enjoy access to knowledge and culture, and be well communicated with areas of dynamic economic development. And besides all of this, they can be very agreeable places to live in.

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Las pequeñas ciudades en la urbanización generalizada y ante la crisis global

Se analiza, por una parte, el modelo rural en Extremadura y, por otra, el impacto de las politicas europeas de desarrollo rural territorial, a traves de la Iniciativa LEADER y del Programa PRODER, que se estan gestionando en la region desde 1991. El medio rural ha experimentado una serie de transformaciones recientes, que se sintetizan en la terciarizacion de las economias rurales, en un sistema de rentas plurisectoriales y en la estabilizacion de la poblacion, a las que han contribuido en alguna medida estas iniciativas europeas. Se planteara una metodologia, a traves de un analisis multivariado, para explicar y definir el modelo rural actual, los procesos recientes y el impacto concreto de estas politicas rurales.

El modelo rural y el impacto de los programas LEADER y PRODER en Extremadura (Propuesta metodológica)

Transport infrastructure and territorial cohesion in rural metro-adjacent regions: A multimodal accessibility approach. The case of Castilla-La Mancha in the context of Madrid (Spain)

The paper reflects on how ESDP (European Spatial Development Perspective) principles can be applied in territories with weak population patterns in quantitative terms. The ESDP defines a functional urban area (FUA) as the influence area of a city and sets a minimum threshold of 15,000 inhabitants for the city and 40,000 for the entire FUA. These thresholds are taken as guidelines to explore the concept of functional regions, adding more information from several sources. Hence the paper starts under the normative background given by EU spatial policy and proposes a methodology of analysis combining several techniques, including an application for the Castilla�La Mancha autonomous region (ES42 in NUTS 2). The approaches used in the method proposed include data from mobility, commuting, accessibility and qualitative analyses of services. The outcome shows how ESDP principles could be applied in practice in places with low-density settlement.

Applying the European spatial development perspective in low-density regions: a methodology based on mobility and labour market structure

El sistema de ciudades en red, policentrico, se ha propuesto desde finales del siglo xx en Europa como una de las bases de su futuro desarrollo. El articulo considera «Policentrismo» algo mas que la acepcion intuitiva de la presencia de varios centros en un sistema difundido de asentamientos, debiendo existir interdependencias relevantes entre ellos junto con una capacidad de influencia en su entorno y de autonomia respecto a los centros principales. En el se realiza una revision bibliografica sobre los metodos de deteccion de policentrismo, distinguiendo entre las distintas tendencias, la morfologica y la funcional, deteniendose en entenderlas y criticarlas y detectando que han sido pocos los intentos de estudiarlo utilizando ambas metodologias a la vez. Se indaga en las necesidades de considerar no solo la poblacion y los flujos residencia-trabajo como unicos indicadores de policentrismo y en que nuestro pais no se ha quedado al margen de discutir y aplicar metodos para su deteccion, pudiendose decir que, en relacion a los paises vecinos, ha hecho importantes contribuciones. Por ultimo, se sintetizan los criterios/procesos que estan dando lugar al policentrismo y las formas que adopta.

Aglomeraciones/regiones urbanas basadas en varios centros: el policentrismo

The application of the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) requires, on its desing, new spatial analysis resources. This article explains how to process the data from two sources of information about spatial relationships. Firstly, Tie Population, an item registered by the Census of Populations; and secondly, Interterritorial Relations (Relaciones Interterritoriales), from the Public Utilities and Equipments Inquiry (Encuesta de Infraestructuras y Equipamientos Locales). Both databases are applied at Rural Development areas (LEADER territories and the Spanish version of it named PRODER). The aim is to detect urban centers and subcenters that organize the regional structure in Castilla-La Mancha, following the principles of the ESDP related with polycentrism. The experiences on spatial development in this region are scarce and so, this study fills a major gap on this new geographical paradigm.

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Mª del Carmen Cañizares Ruiz

Papers

Fuentes para la aplicación de la Estrategia Territorial Europea en Castilla-La Mancha