La difusión espacial de las áreas urbanizadasel caso de la aglomeración urbana de Murcia

Abstract

The spatial diffusion of urbanised areas: the case of the Urban Agglomeration of Murcia ABSTRACT Since the mid-20th century, urban areas around the world have undergone a process of accelerated and constant change. The concentration of activities (labour, administrative and service activities, among others) in urbanised spaces has generated a high degree of demographic attraction that has driven rural-urban population movements. The importance achieved by this flow of displacements has led to a marked territorial imbalance. This phenomenon, sustained for decades, has encouraged both the spatial expansion of the city and an increase in the problems associated with the population burden it has to bear. As a result, many residential, industrial or commercial areas are detached from the central urban areas and are established in peripheral sectors, generating a territorial fragmentation in which different spaces are created for the performance of a specific function. This process of deconcentration of activities, supported by the development of communication axes and private and public transport modes, has led to the creation of large urban areas made up of groups of residential entities. The generation of these large urban agglomerations has brought with it profound socio-territorial transformations that need to be analysed. Among them, the spatial diffusion experienced by the population and the real estate stock, or the change in the development pattern of the city, stand out. In this sense, the traditionally known model of the dense and compact city has been altered, and new forms of organisation have emerged in which urban space expands over the surrounding territory, invading all types of land necessary for its progress. The occupation of areas considered as transition areas (urban/rural) brings with it an increase in artificial surface and a profound transformation of land cover and land use. The city of Murcia and the urban agglomeration generated around it constitute a paradigmatic case both nationally and internationally. During the last decades, the territorial area defined as the Urban Agglomeration of Murcia has exponentially increased its population and building census, enlarging the artificial surface and transforming more than a fifth of its territorial coverage. This research analyses and evaluates the dimension of the transformations and changes of different types that have taken place (population, territorial, social, real estate, etc.). The main objectives of this project include the analysis of the demographic evolution experienced in peripheral core, the existing contrasts between urban centres and the rest of the municipal space and the weight of the natural and migratory variable (at different scales) during the consolidation of the process of spatial diffusion. Likewise, the main objective has also been to ascertain the economic and employment differences existing between each section of the metropolitan network or whether the infrastructures and basic services (education and health) have adapted to, cover and guarantee the needs acquired with the notable increase in population. In the same way, the building stock, its development, state of conservation and evolution in different time periods and real estate impulses have also been characterised. Finally, the increase in the artificial surface area, the transformations in land use and the urban reception capacity of the territory analysed are assessed. The data obtained and processed to address these objectives have been obtained from different sources of statistical and cartographic information (of spatial component and official nature), and argued with contrasted academic-scientific literature at national and international level. The results obtained reveal the relevance of the marked process of spatial diffusion that has taken place in this urban space. To this effect, the central city and its main municipality (Murcia) have undergone less development and a lower degree of transformation than the rest of the spaces or localities that make up the urban region.