City region

Last updated February 04, 2025

City region is a term used by urbanists, economists and urban planners to refer to how one or more core cities are linked to a hinterland by functional ties, such as economic, housing-market, commuting, marketing or retail catchment factors.^[1] This concept emphasizes the importance of these functional relationships in understanding urban areas and their surrounding regions, often providing more insightful perspectives than the arbitrary boundaries assigned to administrative bodies.

Global perspective

Using Geographic information system (GIS) technology, city-regions have been mapped globally, revealing significant interconnectedness among urban centers and their surrounding areas. The Nature Cities article “Worldwide Delineation of Multi-Tier City–Regions” classified over 30,000 urban centers into four tiers—town, small, intermediate, and large city—based on population size and mapped their catchment areas based on travel time rather than administrative boundaries.^[2] Travel time is used to reflect daily commuting patterns within a 1-hour limit and less frequent activities up to a 3-hour limit. This publicly available dataset^[3] shows that 3.2 billion people have physical access to multiple tiers within an hour, and 4.7 billion within three hours.^[2] It also distinguishes between primary and secondary city-regions; in secondary ones, catchment areas of urban centers overlap with those of larger centers. This approach highlights how people rely on multiple urban centers for different needs, with larger centers offering a wider range of activities. For example, a person might shop in a nearby town, work in an intermediate city, and use an airport in a large city, thus belonging to the catchment areas of several urban centers. The City–Regions System Toolbox (CREST)^[4] allows to check out any country's distribution in population access to cities of different sizes based on travel time.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, the city regional agenda began to be seen as an alternative to the regional assemblies in England that were favoured as a partial answer to the West Lothian question but rejected in a referendum by voters in North East England in November 2004. The concept of city regions and their development features heavily in The Northern Way, a collaborative development plan between the three northernmost English regional development agencies. An embryonic city regional framework exists in the form of the Passenger Transport Executive and the Core Cities Group. The October 2006 Local Government White Paper did not contain firm proposals for city-region-wide authorities however.

The New Local Government Network proposed the creation of city regions as part of on-going reform efforts, while a report released by the IPPR's Centre for Cities proposed the creation of four large city-regions based on Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool and Greater Manchester. The strong economy of Edinburgh and its hinterland (Forth Valley, Fife, West Lothian, Midlothian and East Lothian) means it has been named as one of Europe's fasting growing city-regions.

Also in 2006, the OECD published a number of studies on city regions, including an assessment profile of the Newcastle-Gateshead city region and a review of numerous city regions across the world.^[5]

In July 2007, HM Treasury published its Review of sub-national economic development and regeneration, which stated that the government would allow those city regions that wished to work together to form a statutory framework for city regional activity, including powers over transport, skills, planning and economic development.^[6] Under the government's Transport Innovation Fund, city regions can band together to pilot forms of road pricing, such as the Greater Manchester congestion charge considered by councils in Greater Manchester (but later rejected by referendum). In the April 2009 Budget, the government announced that Greater Manchester and Leeds would be the first two city regions with formal powers.^[7] While this was later discontinued as a result of the May 2010 general election, the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government did agree to the creation of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority in 2011, with all other proposals and the regional development agencies being subsumed into the local enterprise partnerships.

France

Since January 2010 municipalities, departments and cities can combine into a larger body known as a Metropole. The first Metropole in France, Nice-Cote-d'Azur was created in 2011. In 2014 the government of Jean-Marc Ayrault passed a bill that moved away from the voluntary nature and made it mandatory for all Metropolitan areas of over 600,000 inhabitants to become Metropoles as of January 1, 2015. The first 3 mandatory Metropoles are;

Metropoles take over certain determined responsibilities from the State, other sub-national bodies or quasi-public bodies. Once devolved to the Metropole these responsibilities are the sole responsibility of the Metropole. In addition to assuming responsibility for certain policy Metropoles also take over responsibility for tax collection.

Poland

Metropolis GZM

Spain

Community of Madrid

Thailand

Bangkok Metropolitan Region

Italy

Metropolitan cities of Italy, previously Provinces of Italy, including Metropolitan City of Rome

Netherlands

A plusregio (also called stadsregio) is a regional public body of several Dutch municipalities in an urban area which statutory tasks are assigned under Chapter XI of the "Wet gemeenschappelijke regelingen".^[8]

Afghanistan

Five major city regions have been identified in Afghanistan based on functional relationships. These center around Kabul and the four regional hub cities of Herat, Kandahar, Mazari-i-Sharif and Jalalabad.^[9] It is estimated that the five city regions comprise approximately one third of the total Afghan population.

Related Research Articles

Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state.

A metropolitan area or metro is a region consisting of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories which share industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metropolitan area usually comprises multiple principal cities, jurisdictions and municipalities: neighborhoods, townships, boroughs, cities, towns, exurbs, suburbs, counties, districts and even states and nations in areas like the eurodistricts. As social, economic and political institutions have changed, metropolitan areas have become key economic and political regions.

Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester.

Metropolitan counties are a subdivision of England which were originally used for local government. There are six metropolitan counties: Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, West Midlands and West Yorkshire.

There has not been a government of England since 1707 when the Kingdom of England ceased to exist as a sovereign state, as it merged with the Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Kingdom of Great Britain continued from 1707 until 1801 when it merged with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which itself became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) in 1922 upon independence for most of the island of Ireland.

The subdivisions of England constitute a hierarchy of administrative divisions and non-administrative ceremonial areas.

A regional municipality is a type of Canadian municipal government similar to and at the same municipal government level as a county, although the specific structure and servicing responsibilities may vary from place to place. Regional municipalities were formed in highly populated areas where it was considered more efficient to provide certain services, such as water, emergency services, and waste management over an area encompassing more than one local municipality. For this reason, regions may be involved in providing services to residents and businesses.

Local government is the third level of government in Australia, administered with limited autonomy under the states and territories, and in turn beneath the federal government. Local government is not mentioned in the Constitution of Australia, and two referendums in 1974 and 1988 to alter the Constitution relating to local government were unsuccessful. Every state/territory government recognises local government in its own respective constitution. Unlike the two-tier local government system in Canada or the United States, there is (largely) only one tier of local government in each Australian state/territory, with no distinction between counties and cities.

The Greater Manchester County Council (GMCC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater Manchester from 1974 to 1986. A strategic authority, with responsibilities for roads, public transport, planning, emergency services and waste disposal, it was composed of 106 directly elected members drawn from the ten metropolitan boroughs of Greater Manchester. The Greater Manchester County Council shared power with ten lower-tier district councils, each of which directed local matters. It was also known as the Greater Manchester Council (GMC) and the Greater Manchester Metropolitan County Council (GMMCC).

The North Region or Northern Portugal is the most populous region in Portugal, ahead of Lisbon, and the third most extensive by area. The region has 3,576,205 inhabitants according to the 2017 census, and its area is 21,278 kilometres (13,222 mi) with a density of 173 inhabitants per square kilometre. It is one of five regions of Mainland Portugal. Its main population center is the urban area of Porto, with about one million inhabitants; it includes a larger political metropolitan region with 1.8 million, and an urban-metropolitan agglomeration with 2.99 million inhabitants, including Porto and neighboring cities, such as Braga, Guimarães and Póvoa de Varzim. The Commission of Regional Coordination of the North (CCDR-N) is the agency that coordinates environmental policies, land-use planning, cities and the overall development of this region, supporting local governments and associations.

A catchment area in human geography, is the area from which a location, such as a city, service or institution, attracts a population that uses its services and economic opportunities. Catchment areas may be defined based on from where people are naturally drawn to a location or as established by governments or organizations such as education authorities or healthcare providers, for the provision of services.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barcelona metropolitan area</span> Urban area in Catalonia, Spain

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The Metropolis of Greater Paris, also known as Greater Paris, is a métropole covering the City of Paris and its nearest surrounding suburbs that was created from Sarkozy's renovation of the city.

The Metropoolregio Eindhoven, until 1 January 2014 the Samenwerkingsverband Regio Eindhoven, is a regional governmental agency for the city region of Eindhoven, Netherlands. The MRE comprises 21 municipalities in the Eindhoven agglomeration, with a total area of 1,457.81 square kilometres. The region has nearly three quarters of a million inhabitants and some 35,000 companies.

Greg Clark, an urbanist, is an author, global advisor, chairman and non-executive director. Clark has advised more than 300 cities, 50 national governments and a wide array of bodies including the OECD, Brookings Institution, the World Bank and the Urban Land Institute (ULI) on strategies for city development and investment. He also advises global investors and corporate service companies on how to align with city leaders.

The Metropolis of Lyon, also known as Grand Lyon, is a French territorial collectivity in the east-central region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. It is a directly-elected metropolitan authority, encompassing both the city of Lyon, and most of its suburbs. It has jurisdiction both as a department, and as a metropolis, which excludes its territory from direct responsibility to the French government department of Rhône. It had a population of 1,424,069 in 2021, 36.7% of whom lived in the city of Lyon proper.

References

↑ Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés (September 2008). "The Rise of the "City-region" Concept and its Development Policy Implications". European Planning Studies. 16 (8): 1025–1046. doi:10.1080/09654310802315567. ISSN 0965-4313.
1 2 Cattaneo, Andrea; Girgin, Serkan; de By, Rolf; McMenomy, Theresa; Nelson, Andrew; Vaz, Sara (2024-06-26). "Worldwide delineation of multi-tier city–regions". Nature Cities. 1 (7): 469–479. doi: 10.1038/s44284-024-00083-z . ISSN 2731-9997.
↑ Cattaneo, Andrea; Girgin, Serkan; de By, Rolf A.; McMenomy, Theresa; Nelson, Andy; Vaz, Sara (May 15, 2024). "Worldwide Delineation of Multi-Tier City-Regions". Zenodo. doi:10.5281/zenodo.11187634.
↑ Cattaneo, Andy; Girgin, Serkan; de By, Rolf A.; McMenomy, Theresa; Nelson, Andy; Vaz, Sara (May 15, 2024). "City-Region System Toolbox (CREST)". Zenodo.
↑ "OECD Territorial Reviews: Competitive Cities in the Global Economy", OECD (November 2006). ISBN 9264027092
↑ "Sub-national economic development and regeneration review" Archived December 15, 2007, at the Wayback Machine , HM Treasury (11 July 2007).
↑ "Budget 2009, chapter 4: Supporting Business," Archived 2009-07-11 at the Wayback Machine p. 71-86.
↑ Wet gemeenschappelijke regelingen, Hoofdstuk XI. Plusregio's (wetten.nl)
↑ "Atlas of Afghan City Regions 2016 – UN-Habitat". unhabitat.org. Retrieved 2017-01-20.

Bibliography

Allen J. Scott (ed.) (2001) Global City-Regions: Trends, Theory Policy, Oxford: Oxford University Press.