Modern Cities Need a Vision to Shape Their Future

Abstract

This chapter aims to answer the following questions important for the elaboration of an urban agenda and, more specifically, for the Eixo Atlantico Urban Agenda: Is the model of functional urban areas (FUA) defended by the EU applicable to cross-border regions with a polycentric system of small and medium-sized cities? What role should the rural areas that surround cities have in urban planning? Based on the principle that the model of FUAs is applicable to the reality of cross-border regions, how can these areas contribute to the management of services between medium-sized and dispersed cities? Given that one of the characteristics of cross-border regions is urban sprawl, which puts undue strain on public funds and entails inefficient use of natural resources, what alternatives can be trialed to resolve this dispersion? Apropos the principle of the sustainability of this territory, how can we make the interior of cities more attractive? Should the medium-sized and small European cities of the future move to being vertical, horizontal or mixed cities?