Assessing Polycentric Urban Systems in the OECD: Country, Regional and Metropolitan Perspectives

Abstract

Contemporary urban systems in OECD countries are structured around functional regions, which often overcome established city-boundaries. Reading space in terms of functional regions allows assessing changes in urban hierarchies and spatial structures, including the polycentricity of urban systems at national, regional and metropolitan scales. By using a harmonized definition of functional urban areas in OECD countries, this paper first provides a sound definition of polycentricity at each spatial scale, highlighting for each of them the different links with policy. Second, it provides measures of polycentricity and explores the economic implications of different spatial structures. Results show that relatively more monocentric regions have higher GDP per capita than their more polycentric counterparts. At the country level, on the other hand, polycentricity is associated with higher GDP per capita.

Stretching the concept of ‘borrowed size’

“…Whether this implies that there is no borrowed size effect (Brezzi and Veneri, 2015) is difficult to determine. While individual cities may be punching well above their weight, on a regional scale, this may constitute a zero-sum game.…”

“…A paper by Brezzi and Veneri (2015) that explores multicentricity (multiple cities in a metropolitan area irrespective of their size distribution) and polycentricity (multiple cities of more or less equal size in a metropolitan area) in large OECD regions shows that multicentricity has no significant effect on GDP per capita. In other words, having neighbouring agglomerations does not affect regional performance at large.…”

City size distribution across the OECD: Does the definition of cities matter?

“…Consistent with the argument of ESPON (2005), Europe emerged as the most polycentric continent, while Asia has the highest urban primacy, where the largest cities dominate the whole urban system. The extent of polycentricity of the urban system is measured by the magnitude of the coefficient associated to the logarithm of city size: the higher the coefficient in absolute value, the more balanced the spatial structure of the urban system (Brezzi & Veneri, 2015;Meijers & Burger, 2010). …”

The Challenges of Implementing Sustainable Development: The Case of Sofia’s Master Plan

“…Sofia is a suitable case study because, like other large cities in Southeastern (SE) Europe [5], following the fall of communism, between 2001 and 2011 it experienced a substantial growth of the city's population (10.3%) [12]. Similarly to many other world regions, growth in SE Europe is realised through expansion and suburbanisation [13][14][15].…”

“…Sprawl, as a low-density and dispersed form of urban expansion, is generally considered to be a threat to sustainability: it is characterised by overconsumption of land and natural amenities, inefficient modes of transit, overdevelopment of expensive infrastructure and car dependency. Researchers maintain that the negative aspects of sprawl can be neutralised through promoting polycentricity [3][4][5]. Polycentric urban areas are compact yet separated-or, rather, connected-by large green areas and enclaves; thus land resources are used economically, and urban and green environments are integrated.…”