En los últimos cuarenta años, en las ciudades se ha producido una acusada fase de crecimiento y expansión, culminada con el “boom” inmobiliario de la denominada “década prodigiosa” del urbanismo español (1997-2007). En este proceso, las áreas urbanas articuladas por ciudades medias han protagonizado los crecimientos relativos más notables del sistema urbano en España, muy por encima de lo que realmente representan en población, parque de viviendas y superficie urbanizada. Como consecuencia de ello, estas ciudades han modificado su estructura tradicionalmente compacta y relativamente densa, generándose nuevas formas definidas por la fragmentación y el intensivo consumo de suelo en las periferias. Se ha consolidado así un modelo de ciudad diseñado por un planeamiento urbanístico convertido en instrumento para proyectar en el territorio las dinámicas del crecimiento económico. Desde el año 2008 se ha abierto un claro proceso de ralentización de esta expansión, lo que invita a considerar un cambio de ciclo y, en consecuencia, la generación de un nuevo modelo de ciudad más racional y sostenible. Sin embargo, el análisis del planeamiento general vigente en estas ciudades obliga a reconsiderar esta hipótesis, ya que las expectativas de crecimiento continúan siendo muy elevadas y el modelo urbano sigue centrado en la extensión y la propuesta de grandes sectores de nuevo suelo urbanizable.

A peripheral, or city-edge, location is relatively common for new HSR stations in small and medium-sized cities and less densely populated areas. In Spain, mainly as a result of local and regional pressure, only 9 of the 35 station (Desember 2015) with HSR services are peripherally located. This paper analyses the urban planning and development local strategies that have been undertaken around peripheral HSR stations in Spain. Peripherally located HSR stations cannot be analysed as a single typology because they respond to different territorial logics and have different characteristics. However, identifying different typologies helps to understand the characteristics and territorial functions that different stations perform. The second part of the paper analyses: the local planning and development strategies employed around HSR stations which are related to their territorial contexts; the specific characteristics of each station; and the different strategies employed by stakeholders. Governance seems a fundamental issue in the case of peripheral stations because they need coordinated actions to overcome the main challenges that they face, most of which are related to their territorial integration and external accessibility.

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.

Procesos de urbanización y artificialización del suelo en las aglomeraciones urbanas españolas (1987-2011)

Se propone una metodología para la delimitación de las áreas urbanas articuladas por ciudades medias en España. Con la referencia temporal 2000-2020, se trabaja sobre un conjunto de treinta y cuatro ciudades medias interiores. El criterio de partida es el de accesibilidad, tomando la referencia de la isócrona de veinte minutos. Sobre el análisis de seis indicadores –tasa de variación de suelo urbanizado, de vivienda, y de población, índice de juventud, de población activa agraria y de población de servicios– se genera el Índice de Transformación Urbana (ITU), apoyado en el uso de técnicas multicriterio y de cartografía analítica. Se establecen tipologías de áreas urbanas según la dinámica de transformación observada (alta, media y baja) y, en cada área, se identifica el alcance, intensidad y gradación de los procesos de dispersión urbana.

In Spain, several local councils have taken advantage of the arrival of high-speed rail to rethink the whole railway system within the city. These rail transformations have caused major urban changes and have also been accompanied by property development projects that were planned during the economic expansion of the 1990s and first decade of 2000s, prior to the arrival of the economic crisis in 2008. The combination of these factors has resulted in some of the most important urban renewal and redevelopment projects ever planned in Spain. This has been the case in two large intermediate cities: Valladolid (303,905 inhabitants in 2015), located on the northwest HSR line, which received new services in 2007, and Zaragoza (664,953 inhabitants in 2015), located on the Madrid-Barcelona-French border HSR line, where the new train service arrived in 2003. In Spain, the introduction of HSR services has been accompanied by certain specific issues relating to their initial conception, subsequent management and associated governance; these are illustrated in the article through case studies of Valladolid and Zaragoza.