City typologies By Lewis Dijkstra Deputy Head of Unit Analysis Unit, DG Regional Policy 1

Structure Urban Centre size Regional function of a city Coastal cities Border cities Access to flights Port cities Political functions (to be completed)

City centre size Total centre population Centre population inside city boundaries Centre population inside city boundaries plus centre population closest to city boundary

Centres and Cities Would it be useful to know: Over and underbounding Cities that share a single centre Cities that have multiple centres The combination of the two above Over and underbounding Share of city population in the centre Share of centre population in the city

Cities in a regional perspective Based on two aspects: Time distance: nearby < 30 min driving time Difference in urban centre size: smaller <50% Regional centres without cities nearby (383) Main centres with smaller cities nearby (70) Cities close to a larger centre (230) (satellite cities) Cities close to a city of a similar size (145) (twin cities/polycentric)

Coastal cities (216) City boundary touches the coastline London was dropped as the Thames estuary is not really a coastline

Border cities (81) Identify cities on or close to national land border Cities whose borders touch a national land border were included Cities whose centre was less than 15 km from a national land border were included Rome was dropped as the proximity to the Vatican is not the same as being next to a long land border of a large country.

Access to flights Population weighted average access to passenger flights within 90 minutes driving time Ranges from 0 – 3000 + a day

Goods processed in ports linked to a city

Political function Capital of a region What is a region? How many people live in that region? Does the region have anything to say?

What is regional authority? Based on the regional authority index, which measures: special status institutional depth policy scope fiscal autonomy borrowing autonomy Representation: assembly/executive self rule law making executive control fiscal control borrowing control constitutional reform shared rule Multiple regional levels can co-exist

Countries, regions & RAI

Conclusions A number of typologies are likely to remain constant over time Border, coastal, regional function Some will change over time Access to flights, port cities Political capital Other typologies could be developed looking at HQ, universities, large hospitals and other functions