Territorial centrality and functional specialization as a guide for managing of conservation areas. The case of the Madrid urban region

Abstract

Objective Which is the role of towns and cities with conservation areas in the context of the urban system and/or emerging multicentre urban regions? What are the implications-opportunities and threats-of metropolitan dynamics in this type of towns/cities? With the attention paid on these questions and based on a spatial and a functional analysis, this paper aims in providing new criteria to debate on managing of municipalities with conservation areas taking into account the urban/metropolitan system which they are part. Methodology Taking the madrilenian urban region as the case of study and the municipality as the unit of analysis, three aspects regarding spatial and functional features are studied: (i) the spatial patterns of population and employment, as well as the city-ranking; (ii) the territorial centrality as a result from the trajectories (historical status), the political-administrative role and the current economic status (economic centres); and (iii) the functional specialization. Conclusions The study concludes with a typology of the municipalities with Historic-Artistic Grouping based on spatial and functional dimensions. This typology functions as a tool that allows to the identification of different opportunities and threats to be considering in city planning and regional planning. Originality The knowledge generated guides future strategies to be implemented in municipalities with conservation areas and, at the same time, contributes to integrate the heritage issue in new development projects/plans.