Metropolitan area

A metropolitan area (in Switzerland, mostly metropolitan area ) is a highly condensed metropolitan area of a metropolis. Metropolitan regions are considered as engines of social, societal and economic development of a country.

European Metropolitan Regions ( EMR) have on Europe based key roles for this development. In Germany metropolitan areas were first defined in 1995 by the Conference of Ministers for Spatial Planning. The term Metropolitan Region is unfamiliar with the term Europe ( Euregio ) to be confused, be designated by the regions which lie on the territory of at least two states. A Euregio is rarely called metropolitan area.

In contrast to an agglomeration ( colloquially commuter belt ) consists of a core city and its suburban, densely populated suburban area, the concept of the metropolitan area is wider and also includes large rural areas with one, with the main centers of the region through economic integration or commuting are closely linked. Cities that have similar features as the cities take over the surrounding countryside, are considerably smaller with about 100,000 to 300,000 inhabitants are referred to as regional poles. Similarly, their interdependence area called Regiopolregion.

• 2.2.1 metropolitan areas in Switzerland
• 2.2.2 Five grant to BFS

Functions of a metropolitan area

The functionalities of a metropolitan region can be the basis of four relatively easy to assess criteria to be determined:

Metropolitan regions in the world

A list of the largest metropolitan areas in the world can be found at List of largest metropolitan areas in the world. The largest metropolitan area in the world is 37.2 million people (2008) Tokyo -Yokohama.

In Germany

Demarcation by the MKRO

In Germany, the Conference of Ministers for Spatial Planning ( MKRO ) with its decision to the Regional Planning Policy framework for action in 1995 has underlined the importance of metropolitan regions in Germany ( " European Metropolitan Regions " ): "As the engines of social, economic, social and cultural development they are to the performance and competitiveness Germany and Europe and get help to speed up the process of European integration ".

The MKRO defined eleven European metropolitan regions of Germany. These were defined and delimited, most notably the generosity of demarcation has significant methodological differences not by space structural realities but normative. The population figures are therefore only very comparable. Some EMR, such as Hannover -Braunschweig- Göttingen, contain very large rural areas with widely spaced core cities, while others were clearly tailored scarce.

Since the expulsion of the "smaller " EMR 2005, each German city of over 400,000 inhabitants core city of a " metropolitan region ". The term has thus considerably removed from its original meaning ( see Article metropolis ). In addition to the strong international emphasis metropolitan regions exist in Germany 41 metropolitan areas to smaller urban centers.

List of metropolitan areas in Germany

A comparison of metropolitan regions is noted that the boundaries of a metropolitan region corresponds often different views of the individual associations, so that a meaningful comparison of the figures by population and area, as well as economic power can take place is limited.

The German metropolitan regions, with the exception of the Rhine -Ruhr, very sparsely populated by international standards. Here below six metropolitan regions even the national average of 229 inhabitants per square kilometer. Therefore, a comparison is also at the international level, without detailed knowledge of the individual regions, only limited use.

The information on the population figures come from the Regional Monitoring Report 2010, which the Initiative Group European metropolitan regions in Germany ( IKM ) out there together with the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning ( BBR). The definitions used for this purpose are based on county boundaries, the population figures given thus corresponds partly to the actual population. The boundaries correspond to the reported situation at 1 July 2010 and are subject, so land and population figures may not represent the current state arbitrary changes.

Demarcation by EUROSTAT

The European statistical office Eurostat makes another distinction between European metropolitan regions for the 28 EU Member States as well as Switzerland and Norway.

In Switzerland

Metropolitan areas in Switzerland

According to the current, dynamic space concept of the Swiss Federal Statistical Office ( FSO), only the three areas of Zurich, Geneva - Lausanne, Basel and are defined in the statistical area Metropolitan category rooms in Switzerland. This large agglomerations are attributed neighboring urban areas, where more than one twelfth of the workforce are employed in the neighboring agglomeration in the large agglomeration. Bern and the Regione Insubrica in Canton Ticino form multipolar agglomeration systems. Only the agglomeration of Bern itself is designated as a metropolitan area. Como- Chiasso- Mendrisio are defined as Swiss-Italian neighbor agglomeration of the city of Milan.

The statistical spatial categories agglomeration and metropolitan areas are, among others, the spatial comparison of GDP and are not necessarily identical with the political territory. The definition is intended to be a dynamic concept of space and is revised every ten years, according to the results of the federal census. The last one is from the year 2000. Coverage by agglomerations and metropolitan areas by the Federal Statistical Office has no legally binding force.

Since the definition of BFS urban areas, agglomerations and metropolitan areas will be taken across borders, only the metropolitan areas of Zurich and Bern are completely on Swiss soil. About 70 % of the Swiss live in one of these five areas. By 2004, the FSO defined five metropolitan areas. This five- division is, however, too small for statistical comparisons in the European context.

The metropolitan area extends from Zurich train to Schaffhausen and from Frauenfeld to Baden. He is as a financial and commercial center, media center, educational and research location and as a transport hub, the main center of Switzerland. Events such as the Street Parade, an international athletics meeting, as well as cultural institutions such as the opera house and the playhouse have an international reputation. In addition, the Zurich airport for intercontinental accessibility of the area contributes. In July 2009, a private association was established by politicians and business representatives under the name of which is to strengthen the economic interests of the metropolitan area of Zurich.

The cross-border metropolitan region Basel is a tri-national living and economic space. Research and Economic Life Sciences ( with international offices of pharmaceutical and chemical industry), banks ( Bank for International Settlements ), transport and logistics ( inland port of Switzerland ), the exhibition industry ( Baselworld, Art Basel ) and culture ( 3- lines - theater, Beyeler Museum ) are particularly well represented in the well metrobasel that region. The region also has the Euro Airport Basel -Mulhouse -Freiburg on an airport that has grown rapidly in recent years.

There is another term for the urban area of ​​Basel, namely RegioTriRhena. But you shall not be considered official metropolitan area. The RegioTriRhena that are similar to " metrobasel " composed, but expands further to the north ( Germany and France), counts 2.3 million inhabitants.

Geneva -Lausanne is a major financial center. With Geneva -Cointrin the French-speaking metropolitan area has an international airport and is the headquarters of many international organizations. In July 2009, gave Bern and the Romandie ( french -speaking Switzerland ) announced their intention to want will in future appear in public together as a utility room.

Five grant to BFS

The largest metropolitan areas in Europe

The cooperation level established as METREX 1996 on the initiative of the Scottish Regional Council Strathclyde ( Strathclyde Regional Council ) of EU metropolitan regions defines a metropolitan area as agglomeration of more than 500,000 inhabitants, and goes for the EU out of 120 metropolitan areas, where 60 % of the population of the Member States live and work. However, this definition of the term also meant that, for example, would be much of the country metropolitan areas in relation to Germany. In England Counties authorities were established with the Metropolitan, which should be adapted to the growing urban structure. Thus, the conventional division of the counties was replaced in some metropolitan areas. France also agree some metropolitan regions with the actual regions correspond as authority. The status of the metropolitan region in Germany as Metagebilde that will stimulate cooperation across corporate income is less common in Europe. However, there are also examples of cross-border regions. In the Americas, there are almost twice as many metropolitan areas with more than five million inhabitants as in Europe, only 13 of them in the U.S..

The largest metropolitan areas in the Americas

The largest metropolitan areas in Asia

The largest metropolitan areas in Africa

Space Policy

The term metropolitan is originally an informal term description for closely integrated regions with urban character. This appeared from the growing importance of such areas, the function of their spatial proximity, as economic, social and cultural unity, and extend their development processes increasingly in unison. The perception of these areas has an international reach and strengthens the feedback effect the formation of concepts and conceptual interpretation.

The term of the metropolitan area was for Germany formulated formally by resolution of the Conference of Ministers for Spatial Planning of 8 March 1995 Already in the first issue were six " European cities " named: . Berlin / Brandenburg, Hamburg, Munich, Rhine -Main, Rhine -Ruhr and Stuttgart. These correspond partly to the characterization as urbanized metropolitan region with global appeal ( mega city). The Saxon Triangle as a regional space is named ibid already, another four metropolitan regions were named on 28 April 2005.

Recognizing that structure should be developed in the context of regions with an international reputation, the meaning of " metropolitan One" has developed into a self-perpetuating. In the episode other regions strive to distinguish itself as a metropolitan region in the sense of space policy, and the way to obtain funding at the federal level. This includes the conversion of the Ruhr by the Local Government Association to legally more independent Ruhr Regional Association. In the metropolitan region of Hamburg Other cities are trying to be included in the original association.

Even much smaller German conurbations are now trying to qualify as a European metropolitan region in the sense of MKRO ( Conference of Ministers for Spatial Planning ). In the course of profiling as a metropolitan area, it is quite to friction losses. In naturally grown metropolitan areas such as Berlin, the common mode of political events simply follow the de facto common in the economic and cultural life of the region. Where the policy ahead of the life, however, there conflicting interests are not necessarily smoothed by the social life, but must be negotiated at the table difficult.

Counter-concept to the metropolitan region

The Bloomington School or Indiana school, a sense of economics and political science, grew out of a counter-movement to the Metropolitan Reform Movement of the 1970s: did during this administrative structures and units of metropolitan regions centralist reschedule its representatives sat for the preservation of the existing, supposedly inefficient a redundant structures. In support of its argument, for example, led Vincent Ostrom empirical studies ( The Organization of Government in Metropolitan Areas, 1961). The most well- known representative of the Bloomington School is the Nobel Prize winner Elinor Ostrom.