Urban expansion and territorial cohesion in the process of constructing the metropolitan city in Andalusia

Abstract

Although urban sprawl is a normal process associated with the population growth and their activities it is considered as an uncontrolled process when urban growth is faster than population growth (European Environment Agency -JCR 2006-2011). It is known that the origins of this uncontrolled growth is a change in the way of inhabiting the territory and involves some environmental and social imbalances. The lack of attention to this excessive growth in territorial development planning it remains challenging to which the Spanish society is facing. In this sense, the paper aims to provide conceptual and instrumental elements which offer the possibility to analyze in perspective spatial and demographic growth of the Andalusian metropolitan areas, since its origins until the last real estate crisis. Thus seeks to value the territorial cohesion as a whole based upon basic principles of social and environmental sustainability as posed by the future European urban agenda. The results suggest a quite sustainable behavior of Andalusian metropolitan areas despite the deep changes in the pattern of metropolitan development.