The Use of GIS and Multicriteria Techniques for the Socio-Spatial Analysis of Urban Areas in Medium-Sized Spanish Cities

Francisco Cebrián Abellán (), Gonzalo Andrés López and Carme Bellet Sanfeliu
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Francisco Cebrián Abellán: Department of Geography and Town and Country Planning, University of Castilla-La Mancha, 02071 Albacete, Spain
Gonzalo Andrés López: Department of History, Geography and Communication, University of Burgos, 09001 Burgos, Spain
Carme Bellet Sanfeliu: Department of Geography, History and Art History, University of Lleida, 25003 Lleida, Spain

Land, 2023, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-17

Abstract: In recent decades, particularly intense changes have occurred in Spanish urban areas. This is the result of demographic and urbanizing transformations that have led to a change in the city model. The predominance of compact forms has been replaced by the growing prominence of urban sprawl. Structures are now more extensive, characterized, in turn, by fragmentation and the notable consumption of land in the peripheries. In medium-sized cities, the municipalities bordering the central cities have concentrated the processes of suburbanization and periurbanization. This paper addresses the processes of change for 34 cities and their urban areas located in inland Spain. A proposal is made for the delimitation and characterization of urban areas, taking the municipality as the unit of analysis. At the methodological level, six variables are used, analyzed by means of multicriteria statistical techniques combined with the use of GIS tools. An Urban Transformation Index (ITU) has been developed that synthesizes urbanizing, demographic and socioeconomic dynamics (six variables related to population, housing and socio-productive structure are used). In the territorial area, the 20-min isochrone is used as a reference. In the temporal domain, the period of analysis addresses the events of the first two decades of the twenty-first century.

Keywords: urban areas; medium-sized cities; Geographic Information Systems (GIS) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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