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

Abstract

Abstract:After sequential cycles of urbanization and suburbanization, European cities underwent a (more or less intense) re-urbanization wave. The present study analyzes short-term population dynamics in the core of a large metropolitan region (Milan, northern Italy), providing evidence of spatially-heterogeneous re-urbanization characterized by spatially-complex population growth (or shrinkage) at a local scale. Population dynamics over 1999-2017 were assessed in 88 urban districts partitioning Milan s municipal area and projected up to 2036 for the same spatial units. Empirical results identify spatially-complex and temporally non-linear dynamics with expanding or declining districts distributed heterogeneously across the study area. Multivariate analysis outlines a generalized population decline during 1999-2008 and an opposite pattern afterward (2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017), with spatially-homogeneous population expansion expected in the near future. Spatial analysis finally highlights that local-scale population growth rates were more clustered in 2008-2017 than in 1999-2008. While the population decreased continuously in the inner districts (<1 km from the city centre), sub-central districts (1-5 km far from the city centre) experienced mixed patterns of population growth and stability. These results confirm the relevance of local-scale policies managing urban renewal and rehabilitation and promoting metropolitan expansion in a spatially-coordinated manner.

Progress of Gentrification Research in China: A Bibliometric Review

“…These facts prove that countries in both global north and south have been affected by gentrification, exhibiting a global trend of this phenomenon [12]. It has become a global buzzword in the fields of urban geography, urban planning and urban society [13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. At present, the content of gentrification has been enriched as its phenomena appearing in different forms and diverse processes around the world [20], with the new concepts like "rural gentrification", "new-build gentrification", "super-gentrification", "commercial gentrification", "tourism gentrification", and "studentification" [21][22][23][24][25][26][27], going beyond the initial meaning of classic gentrification [1].…”

Going toward Resilience? Town Planning, Peri-Urban Landscapes, and the Expansion of Athens, Greece

“…However, sprawl has (more or less) rapidly determined a transition from a traditional urban-rural polarized landscape to more diffused urban assets spreading over the available (pristine) land, sacrificing agricultural and forested areas [25]. Such rapid changes in metropolitan structures have arisen major concerns for long-term sustainability in Athens, as well as in many other Mediterranean cities [26]. Indeed, as the population across the Mediterranean basin has approximately stabilized on constant values, the necessity of converting more natural land to urban use is not completely justified [27].…”

Polycentric development and local fertility in metropolitan regions: An empirical analysis for Barcelona, Spain

“…Generally speaking, spatial forms, socio‐economic structures and the rapidity of their changes allow discrimination of monocentric and polycentric models (Ciommi, Chelli, Carlucci, & Salvati, 2018; Ciommi, Chelli, & Salvati, 2019; De Rosa & Salvati, 2016). However, earlier studies have distinguished a sort of ‘hidden polycentrism’ from more subtle and scattered paths of urban expansion (Carlucci, Chelli, & Salvati, 2018; Salvati, Guandalini, Carlucci, & Chelli, 2017; Colantoni, Grigoriadis, Sateriano, Venanzoni, & Salvati, 2016). A long‐term investigation of demographic dynamics in metropolitan regions provides an informative tool to investigate polycentric structures and the related economic functions (Champion, 2001).…”