Project Description

Metropolitan formations are still today elusive physical objects, even though their morphological understanding is deemed essential for their effective planning and control. This research project will contribute to the filling of that gap, through a comprehensive comparative morphological study of European metropolitan regions. It will adopt an analytical approach seldom used at the regional scale – the analysis of urban spatial networks – which, it is argued, has several advantages over other current methodologies. Employing specific analytical methods previously developed by the author, the research aims at producing systematic morphologic classifications of European metropolitan regions, while disclosing their geographical distributions across Europe. The validity of its descriptions will be assessed through their potential statistical associations with a number of socio-economic and geographic indicators. The crossing of these findings with collected information on local planning cultures, is expected to produce evidence-based knowledge on the long-term morphological outcomes of European planning systems and practices.

Research Team

• Miguel Serra
• Paulo Pinho (supervisor)

Financial Support

• FCT: SFRH/BPD/111260/2015

Stage of Progress

• Concluded in 2022