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

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

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

10. 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

11. 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)

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

16. 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.

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

19. Goods processed in ports linked to a city

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

22. 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

23. Countries, regions & RAI

26. 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