From boom to crash: Spanish urban areas in a decade of change (2001–2011)

Abstract

This paper has two main aims: on the one hand, it provides an overview of recent metropolitan area population changes in Spain and assesses their spatial patterns through a typology and on the other hand, it analyses the impact of the current economic crisis on the aforementioned trends. The main source used is the Padrón continuo, the local continuous registration system providing official data updated every year on 1 January. Regarding metropolitan area delimitation, we have decided to use that employed by the Atlas de las Áreas Urbanas de España and to situate the population threshold at 500,000 inhabitants. Fifteen urban areas satisfied the requirements. Therefore, this paper analyses, for the 2001–2011 decade, population growth and urban expansion in the 15 Spanish largest metropolitan areas. In the first phase, suburbanisation intensified while the areas simultaneously received significant international migration inflows. The latter compensated Spaniards’ exit flows from core cities, which increased their population again. The economic crisis, which began in 2008, and its significant impact on the real estate sector, drew an end to this urban expansion and growth period, as it seems to have slowed Spanish metropolitan area growth and restrained suburbanisation dynamics. Consequently, in recent years, residential mobility has decreased and metropolitan areas have entered a new phase characterised by a reduction of both foreign immigration inflows and Spaniards’ movements away from core cities. Therefore, with few exceptions, urban centres are currently once again gaining Spanish residents or at least have stopped losing them.

Long-Term Urban Growth and Land Use Efficiency in Southern Europe: Implications for Sustainable Land Management

“…Athens' development did not benefit from an integrated planning of the metropolitan area, being instead influenced by successive waves of de-regulated urban growth characterized by different morphological characteristics and mixed functions [30]. How urban growth and change influence the efficiency in the use of land at the local scale can be an example for other Mediterranean cities undergoing similar expansion processes, spanning from post-war compact expansion to the sprawled development of recent years [4,[37][38][39]. The novelty of this study is in introducing an operational framework aimed at verifying if and how different urban phases (assessed through a large set of contextual indicators) may affect the efficiency in the use of land at both the local and regional scale.…”

Toward a New Cycle: Short-Term Population Dynamics, Gentrification, and Re-Urbanization of Milan (Italy)

“…After long-lasting suburbanization and counter-urbanization, re-urbanization led to mixed urban outcomes [55], indicating that a unique explanation of forces determining urban re-densification and economic re-polarization is only partly adequate for representing the inherent complexity of Italian cities, and possibly those of other European countries [32,56,57]. The most recent economic crisis has deeply influenced patterns of urban expansion, shaping population dynamics, influencing building cycles, and depressing housing and labor markets [58][59][60]. Unravelling impacts of the 2007-2008 financial crisis on demographic dynamics and urban expansion, is particularly relevant in countries and regions greatly affected by recession [61].…”

Movilidad residencial regional, migraciones y balance territorial en la Comunidad de Madrid durante la crisis económica

“…Más bien se sirve de ella para, por una parte, evaluar los efectos de tendencia que venían observándose y que la crisis solo es capaz de atemperar, como el incremento general de la movilidad o las tendencias hacia la desconcentración (Gil-Alonso et al, 2013). Por otra parte, el escenario de crisis invita a observar las estrategias de movilidad o de permanencia como formas de adaptación a un entorno claramente afectado por la disminución del empleo.…”