Smart Metropolitan Regional Development: Economic and Spatial Design Strategies

Abstract

An overview view of smart metropolitan regional development is presented as a backdrop for research studies of this book. First, metropolitan region is defined followed by its form and functions. Then, smart metropolitan regional development is defined. The chapter studies the global metropolitan cities development and shows how metro cities, megacities and meta-cities are emerging across the world in Asia, Africa, Europe and America. Metropolitan cities are continuously exposed to external economic stimuli and requires intermediate range strategies as responses to face it. These periodic challenges of cities call for differing and flexible spatial and economic strategies to intervene in emerging global situation. By and large such strategy making dynamics is rare to be found and it is an important gap which this book address. To face these emerging metropolitan challenges, there is a need to design economic and spatial strategies at the intermediate time horizon. Therefore, this chapter concludes with a critical analysis of economic and spatial design strategies of 17 metropolises in their official plans which of course is long range plans.