An Approach to the Structure of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona: Daily Intensity Relationships

Abstract

One of the fundamental criteria in the identification of metropolitan areas (although not the only one, for factors such as population number, density and employment type must also be taken into consideration), is the magnitude and direction of daily movements, especially for commuting purposes, which comprise the so-called «Daily Urban System». The study of such movements in the Barcelona region has been undertaken for the period between 1970 and 1981, through the application of an algorithm of nodal grouping based on graph theory to the statistics of obligated movement included in the population census. The findings suggest that in this case, rather than speak of a metropolitan area centred on Barcelona, it would be more exact to refer to an area of metropolitan interaction based on two foci: Barcelona and a series of sub-centres, traditionally considered medium-sized cities. Thus, it is possible to distinguish three inter-related but clearly defined spatial structures the Barcelona metropolitan area as such, a perimetropolitan area centred on the aforementioned sub-centres, and an intermediate transitional area increasingly under the influence of Barcelone.