Metropolitan Level Research Articles

Urban Sprawl and Intergenerational Mobility: City- and Neighborhood-Level Effects of Sprawl

Characteristics of sprawl, like decreased social cohesion and lower accessibility to jobs and services, could negatively affect economic opportunity and intergenerational mobility. City-level studies have found mixed results, but neighborhood effects have been largely ignored. This study uses census tract and city-level data in a multilevel model to develop a richer understanding of the scale-dependent relationship between sprawl and intergenerational mobility. The authors found that a 1 standard deviation (SD) increase in sprawl at the tract level is associated with a 0.07 SD decrease in upward economic mobility, while a 1 SD increase in city-level sprawl is associated with a 0.08 SD decrease. Sprawl negatively affects upward intergenerational mobility at the metropolitan level and the census tract level. The negative relationship of economic outcomes to sprawl does not hold for high-income children, indicating that there may be conflicting benefits for different income families. Policy makers should understand these conflicting pressures.

Beyond the Rhetoric of Revanchism Towards the Metropolitan Core: An Analysis of Symbolic Representations of Milan From Its Peripheries

Socio-political research has shown that in metropolitan peripheries, populist parties have gained significant support. This is because these parties capitalise on a widespread feeling of exclusion, leading to a revanchist social representation of affluent metropolitan centres. This article contributes to the debate on metropolitan dynamics by exploring the social representations of the centre–periphery relationship, showing how symbolic representations play a role in shaping codes of action and revanchism alone is insufficient to understand the core–periphery relationship. Four suburbs with similar socioeconomic characteristics in the functional urban area of Milan were selected. Milan is the most important Italian metropolis, and it has a relevant socio-political fracture. Semi-structured interviews were carried out to analyse the cultural meanings of living on the periphery among local leaders. The metropolitan centre is perceived as necessary, evoking ‘efficient’ representations; however, these peripheral contexts are meaningful places of belonging. This article shows that an analysis of the dynamics at work at the metropolitan level should consider peripheral contexts.

Geographies and determinants of rent burden: A regional economic analysis of the U.S. metropolitan landscape

Rental housing affordability, a growing topic in interdisciplinary scholarship, remains relatively peripheral to geography and regional science. This article focuses on geographies of rent burden and factors affecting it at the metropolitan level in the conterminous U.S. By conducting cartographic and regression analyses, we examine relationships between rent burden and numerous related aspects derived from scholarly work. Besides offering a new measurement of rent burden, we put a special emphasis on regional economic specializations as potential predictors of rent burden’s intensity. The relationship between these two have not been studied in existing scholarship. Our results indicate that the most consistent determinants of more intense rent burden in numerous models include higher housing values and poverty rates, substantial shares of racial/ethnic minorities, and family structure represented by lower percent married. Regarding economic specializations, we find that manufacturing is a strong predictor of lower rent burden in most models, with its effect demonstrating an opposite direction—higher rent burden occurs in metropolises not specializing in manufacturing. Simultaneously, metropolises with substantial concentrations of employment in (i) education and medicine and (ii) arts, entertainment, and recreation exhibit higher rent burden and most of these metropolises are mid- and small-sized.

Measurement and Spatio-Temporal Characteristics of High-Quality Development Efficiency in Metropolitan Areas: A Case Study of the Changchun Metropolitan Area

The concept of high-quality development (HQD) is characterized by its emphasis on efficiency, equity, and environmental sustainability. In the context of China’s new urbanization development, the metropolitan area plays a crucial role in facilitating and sustaining HQD. This study focuses on the Changchun Metropolitan Area (CCMA) as a case study to measure the efficiency of high-quality development (HQDE) at the county level using the super-efficiency SBM model and spatial autocorrelation model. Additionally, we examine the spatio-temporal distribution characteristics of HQDE in terms of economy, innovation, coordination, greenness, openness, and sharing (EICGOS). The main findings are as follows: (1) The HQDE of the CCMA ranges from 0.7 to 0.8 with an initial rapid increase followed by a gradual decline; however, there are notable variations among different counties. (2) Regarding spatial structure within the metropolitan area, highest efficiency is observed in the half-hour living circle followed by the 2-h accessibility circle while lowest efficiency is found in the 1-h commuting circle. Over time, there is a declining trend in efficiency within core leading areas. (3) In terms of dimensions, CCMA demonstrates the highest level of economic development efficiency (EDE), whereas green development efficiency (GDE) exhibits lower levels compared to other dimensions. Furthermore, development efficiencies across all dimensions show a decline over time. (4) Spatially distributed patterns reveal significant agglomeration areas for HQDE within the CCMA region. High-high agglomeration areas are predominantly concentrated in the central region of Changchun and southern region of Liaoyuan while low-low agglomeration areas primarily exist in northwest Songyuan and specific counties within Changchun. To attain HQD of the CCMA, it is advisable to bolster the economic scale of the central city, mitigate developmental disparities between counties and cities, and expedite green transformations in old industrial cities. These findings offer a valuable point of reference for optimizing resource allocation at the metropolitan level and devising strategies to foster regional HQD.

Grid Model of Energy Consumption Using Random Forest by Integrating Data on the Nighttime Light, Population, and Urban Impervious Surface (2000–2020) in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macau Greater Bay Area

Energy consumption is an important indicator for measuring economic development and is closely related to the atmospheric environment. As a demonstration zone for China’s high-quality development, the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area imposes higher requirements on ecological environment and sustainable development. Therefore, accurate data on energy consumption is crucial for high-quality green development. However, the statistical data on local energy consumption in China is insufficient, and the lack of data is severe, which hinders the analysis of energy consumption at the metropolitan level and the precise implementation of energy policies. Nighttime light data have been widely used in the inversion of energy consumption, but they can only reflect socio-economic activities at night with certain limitations. In this study, a random forest model was developed to estimate metropolitan-level energy consumption in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area from 2000 to 2020 based on nighttime light data, population data, and urban impervious surface data. The estimation results show that our model shows good performance with an R2 greater than 0.9783 and MAPE less than 9%. A long time series dataset from 2000 to 2020 on energy consumption distribution at a resolution of 500 m in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area was built using our model with a top-down weight allocation method. The spatial and temporal dynamics of energy consumption in the Greater Bay Area were assessed at both the metropolitan and grid levels. The results show a significant increase in energy consumption in the Greater Bay Area with a clear clustering, and approximately 90% of energy consumption is concentrated in 22% of the area. This study established an energy consumption estimation model that comprehensively considers population, urban distribution, and nighttime light data, which effectively solves the problem of missing statistical data and accurately reflects the spatial distribution of energy consumption of the whole Bay Area. This study provides a reference for spatial pattern analysis and refined urban management and energy allocation for regions lacking statistical data on energy consumption.

Analysis of micro- vs. macro-flows management in QKD-secured edge computing

Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) holds the promise of a secure exchange of cryptographic material between applications that have access to the same network of QKD nodes, interconnected through fiber optic or satellite links. Worldwide several such networks are being deployed at a metropolitan level, where edge computing is already offered by the telco operators to customers as a viable alternative to both cloud and on-premise hosting of computational resources. In this paper, we investigate the implications of enabling QKD for edge-native applications from a practical perspective of resource allocation in the QKD network and the edge infrastructure. Specifically, we consider the dichotomy between aggregating all the applications on the same source–destination path vs. adopting a more flexible micro-flow approach, inspired from Software Defined Networking (SDN) concepts. Our simulation results show that there is a fundamental trade-off between the efficient use of resources and the signaling overhead, which we managed to diminish with the use of suitable hybrid solutions.

Ecosystem services potential is declining across European capital metropolitan areas

Ecosystem services (ES) are essential to sustainable development at multiple spatial scales. Monitoring ES potential (ESP) at the metropolitan level is imperative to sustainable cities. We developed a procedure for long-term monitoring of metropolitan ESP dynamics, utilizing open-source land use land cover (LULC) data and the expert matrix method. We compared the ESP results of 38 European Capital Metropolitan Areas (ECMA) regarding biodiversity integrity, drinking water provision, flood protection, air quality, water purification, and recreation & tourism. Our results show significant declines in ESP across ECMA due to LULC alteration between 2006, 2012, and 2018. We found that ECMA in post-socialist European countries like Poland (Warszawa) have experienced high rates of land use transformation with a remarkable impact on ESP. Surprisingly, we found that Fennoscandinan ECMA, like Helsinki, Stockholm, and Oslo which lead the cumulative ESP ranking, faced the ESP reduction of the highest impact in recent years. The correlation analysis of ESP dynamics to urban expansion and population growth rates suggests that inattentive urbanization processes impact ESP more than population growth. We unveil the implications of our results to the EU and global level agendas like the European Nature Conservation Law and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Urban food waste for soil amendment? Analysis and characterisation of waste-based compost for soil fertility management in agroecological horticultural production systems in the city of Rosario, Argentina

Urban and peri-urban lands can be an important source of food production for localised and sustainable food systems, however, their soils can be of poor quality, degraded or damaged by anthropic activities, and little is known about their suitability or safety. This paper aims to contribute to this knowledge gap by assessing the soil remediation capacity and qualities of different types of compost made from urban and peri-urban organic wastes for agroecological food production. Prepared over the course of 2021, and used in 2022 for food growing, five different composts were observed and analysed, in two different farms in the city of Rosario, Argentina. Four raw materials generated largely by local industries were used to make the composts: chicken manure, rumen (cow’s stomachs), brewer’s bagasse (byproducts of the beer industry) and urban leaves collected from the municipality waste collection. These were mixed in different proportions (all reaching the 20–30 C/N ratio, typical of quality compost) to produce viable growing substrates where radishes and lettuces were grown. The aim of the study was to assess the possibility, quality and limitations to use locally available organic inputs for soil fertility management in agroecological farming, in the context of urbanisation and to assess pathways to develop closed-cycle agroecological agriculture at metropolitan level. Natural manure substrates (raw and composted) were analysed, as well as crops grown and fertilised with each of the substrates. The attributes and limiting factors of each substrate and their response to local soil conditions were compared and physicochemical, biochemical, and microbiological analyses were performed, including among others, the study of microbial biomass, biological activity, biophytotoxicity, pH, aerobic heterotrophs, nitrogen fixation, and the presence of antibiotics, agrochemicals and heavy metals. The results of the analyses show that all the composted materials improved the physical, chemical and biological properties. However, in some cases, pollutants were present even after composting. Analysis carried out on the vegetables generally indicate undetectable levels or levels below the admissible limits, demonstrating the filtering capacity of the different composts and the soil.

Trends in Management and Cost Burden of Facial Fractures: A 14-Year Analysis.

To discuss patient demographics and management and better understand the economic impact associated with the treatment of facial fractures at a major metropolitan level 1 trauma center. Retrospective chart review. We identified 5088 facial fractures in 2479 patients who presented from 2008 to 2022. Patient demographics, mechanism of injury, associated injuries, treatment information, and hospital charges were collected and analyzed to determine factors associated with surgical management and increased cost burden. Our 14-year experience identified 1628 males and 851 females with a mean age of 45.7 years. Orbital fractures were most common (41.2%), followed by maxilla fractures (20.8%). The most common mechanism was fall (43.0%). Surgical management was recommended for 41% of patients. The odds of surgical management was significantly lower in female patients, patients age 65 and older, and patients who presented after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The odds of surgical management was significantly higher for patients who had a mandible fracture or greater than 1 fracture. The average cost of management was highest for naso-orbito-ethmoidal fractures ($37,997.74 ± 52,850.88), followed by LeFort and frontal fractures ($29.814.41 ± 42,155.73 and $27,613.44 ± 39.178.53, respectively). The highest contributor to the total average cost of management was intensive care unit-related costs for every fracture type, except for mandible fractures for which the highest contributor was operating room (OR)-related costs. This study represents one of the largest comprehensive databases of facial fractures and one of the first to provide a descriptive cost analysis of facial trauma management. 4 Laryngoscope, 134:3120-3126, 2024.

Inappropriate Pediatric Orthopaedic Emergency Department Transfers: A Burden on the Health Care System.

Though the importance of level 1 pediatric trauma has repeatedly been shown to lessen both morbidity and mortality in critically injured children, these same tertiary referral centers also receive numerous transfers of patients with less severe injuries. This not only leads to increased costs and use of limited facility resources but, oftentimes, frustration and unnecessary expense to those families for whom transfer was avoidable. Prior work has demonstrated that half of all inappropriate pediatric interfacility transfers are due to orthopedic injuries. This study aims to evaluate the incidence of inappropriate transfers of pediatric patients with isolated orthopedic injuries to a pediatric level 1 trauma center and identify factors associated with such transfers. All patients transferred to a large metropolitan level 1 pediatric trauma center for isolated orthopedic injuries over a 6-year period were retrospectively evaluated. Medical records were reviewed for demographic and injury data, including age, gender, race, social deprivation index, insurance status, location of transferring institution, timing of transfer, and availability of orthopedic on-call coverage at transferring institution. The transfer was deemed to be appropriate if the patient required a sedated reduction, was admitted to the hospital, or was taken to the operating room within 24 hours of transfer. Regression analysis was reviewed for each of the demographic, patient, and transfer characteristics in an attempt to isolate those associated with inappropriate transfer. In all, 437 transfers occurred during the study period. Of these, 112 (26%) were deemed inappropriate. 4% of patients transferred for orthopedic injuries did not receive an orthopedic consult following the transfer. Non-white patients were more likely than white patients to be transferred inappropriately (34.01% vs. 21.58%, P=0.009 ). No other demographic characteristic was predictive of inappropriate transfer. There was no difference in the rate of appropriate transfer between patients with private insurance versus government-funded, self-paying, or uninsured patients. The timing of transfer (night vs. day and weekday vs. weekend) did not affect the appropriateness of transfer. Facilities with orthopaedic on-call coverage were more likely to inappropriately transfer patients than those without (26.6% vs. 23.4%, P<0.001 ). A quarter of patients transferred for isolated orthopaedic injuries were inappropriately transferred. Unlike studies published in adult literature, the timing of transfer (overnight and weekend) and the insurance status of the patient did not appear to play a role in the appropriateness of transfer. Inappropriate and unnecessary trauma transfers create a significant burden on tertiary referral centers. Raising awareness of the high incidence of unnecessary transfers coupled with enhanced education of outside emergency medicine providers may result in better stewardship of health care resources, limit delays in patient care, and reduce strain on both the health care delivery system and the families of injured children. Level III-Therapeutic Study.

Is Creativity-Based Urban Development Possible in Turkey? An Evaluation of Small Cities on the Aegean Coast

Contemporary urban development policies require a thorough understanding of local dynamics. It is crucial to comprehend the roles played by all actors and mechanisms involved in the process, including policy-making institutions, to ensure effective policy making. Understanding the concept of creative industries and cities is also necessary for contemporary urban development. Turkey needs a clear strategy for developing a creative economy on both the national and metropolitan levels. Progress has been limited so far, with no sign of significant improvement in the near future. Recent developments show that small cities have started to play a role in initiating the development of creative economies. Migration to small- and medium-sized cities changes human geography, and urban development policies are becoming more flexible to accommodate these conditions. This paper focuses on three small coastal cities with similar climatic, economic, and socio-cultural characteristics and agriculture and tourism-based economies in Turkey (Avyalik, Bodrum, and Urla) and evaluates the local dynamics to understand what fosters creativity-based development. These cities possess significant potential for the development of cultural industries; however, in addition to the lack of awareness, interestingly, their suitable environment does not have a direct impact on triggering this development.

The Uneven Depression: Michigan&amp;apos;s Economic Development at the City and Metropolitan Level (1960–2020)

The article is focused on the inner economic and geographic differences in the state of Michigan that emerged as its core automotive industry weakened from the late 1950s to the present. The study is based on data on the population of cities and the GDP of metropolitan statistical areas. Chronologically, the study is divided into three periods (1960–1970s, 1980–1990s, and 2000–2010s) that differed markedly in the overall dynamics of Michigan&amp;apos;s economic development. It is shown that pronounced growth was usually observed only in those centers whose economies were not based on traditional automobile production.

Beyond the known: Walking accessibility twist to new cities

While research on new cities is emerging across African cities, focusing on housing, infrastructure, and service provision, little is known about walking accessibility for residents within and outside these new cities. Using the national capital of Ghana as a case study, the purpose of this paper is twofold: (a) it measures walking accessibility within and outside new cities in Accra; and (b) it compares walking accessibility to urban amenities between residents in and outside new cities. Publicly available data on the location and distribution of various urban amenities in Accra were obtained, and accumulated distance and spatial autocorrelation statistics were used. Our findings demonstrate that while at the metropolitan level, less than 50% of residents have walking accessibility to the nearest parks, schools, and new job opportunities within 15 min’ walk, those in new cities were significantly disadvantaged in terms of walking accessibility to parks, job opportunities, schools, and public transport stops compared to residents outside. The findings show that the location of new cities does not consider walking accessibility in Accra. This finding underscores the uncoordinated and splintering phenomenon that epitomizes the spatial location of new cities and their contribution to unsustainable urban forms. Given that new cities are rapidly emerging in African cities, we recommend a more coordinated and balanced provision of urban amenities within walking distance in new cities and peripheral areas of African cities to generate efficient, livable, and sustainable urban forms.

Two kinds of gravitational forces in transport: An analysis using the gravity model

The gravity model is a widely recognized tool for estimating the movement of people and goods. In this study, we introduce two gravitational variables, population size and regional GDP per capita (RGDPPC), to explain the characteristics of population movement between and within cities in South Korea. A log-linearized gravity model is employed to run regression analyses at three spatial levels: the national level (encompassing the entirety of South Korea), the metropolitan level (focusing on the Seoul and Busan Metropolitan Transportation Areas) and the city level (specifically in Seoul and Busan). The study incorporates data on various modes of transportation from 246 of the 250 municipalities in South Korea. Predictive performance of the model is better when utilizing national-level data. However, as spatial area decreases and population density increases, the models explanatory power decreases significantly when relying solely on data related to either population size or RGDPPC. The findings suggest that incorporation of both population size and RGDPPC into the gravity model best captures the dynamics of traffic flow within economically integrated regions. This relationship is analogous to gravitational fields generated by two distinct types of mass. Including both population size and RGDPPC, the gravity model can be leveraged effectively to estimate traffic patterns, particularly within regions characterized by high economic integration.

Evolução da capacidade institucional da RMSP em relação às mudanças climáticas

Abstract This article proposes a methodology of analysis of the institutional capabilities that are employed to cope with climate change at the municipal and metropolitan levels. The methodology was applied to the São Paulo Metropolitan Region using Environmental and Disaster Risk Management data, collected by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) through the National Survey of Municipal Information (MUNIC), years 2013, 2017, and 2020. The results indicate that municipal institutions consistently lost capabilities to cope with climate change between 2013 and 2020. There is a considerable difference in the pattern of this loss when the analysis focuses separately on institutional capacity to deal with environmental management and with disaster risk management.

Spatial comparison of London's three waves of Spanish Flu.

England and Wales experienced three waves of influenza during the 1918/19 Spanish Flu pandemic. A previous analysis showed that these three waves had fundamentally different spatial and temporal characteristics. This present study compares London's experience of the three waves to discern possible geographic differences on a metropolitan level. Borough mortality data for each wave were normalized and then scaled, with spatial autocorrelation techniques displayed by GIS software and analysed for each wave. Registrar General in England and Wales reporting provided data concerning measures of 'health' and 'wealth' for each metropolitan borough. Spearman's rank correlation determined the correlation of each wave's mortality to each of the other waves including the 'health,' 'wealth' and population density factors. The comparisons showed that there is a spatial difference among the waves. The first two are spatially similar, with both exhibiting 'random' autocorrelation patterns, while the third wave exhibits a 'clustered' pattern. The borough mortality of the first two waves strongly correlated with each other, with both having similar 'health,' 'wealth' and population density factors. However, the third wave's mortality did not correlate with any of the first two and actually behaved in an opposite manner with regard to the 'health,' 'wealth,' and population density factors. These results do not appear in the literature and create new opportunities for research to explain London's mortality during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918/19.

Multi-level research of living space with sensors and actuators technology in the Historic Centre of Macao from the perspective of space syntax

Taking the living space of the Historic Centre of Macao as an example, by field measurement of the midweek and weekend data of people and traffic flow in major blocks with remote sensors technology, this paper comprehensively analyzes the association and impact of multi-level spatial networks on the urban vitality of historic blocks, evaluate and verify the close correlation and goodness of fit between the analysis of spatial syntax and the field test data. This paper selects three levels: metropolitan level, block level and neighborhood level, and uses information sensors to conduct correlation analysis on the number of standardized stores and spatial syntactic parameters for the living space in the Historic Centre of Macao, verifying the role and effect of integration and through a degree in analyzing multi-level spatial time and space. In the subsequent development of the Historic Centre, the service sector with a small radius should be protected and renewed, and the guidelines and orientation for street renewal and revitalization should also be enhanced with the help of information actuators.

Densification versus urban sprawl. Modeling the impact of two urban growth scenarios on air quality

This study analyzes the impact of urban form on air pollution for two urban growth scenarios in 2040 for Quito, Ecuador: Urban sprawl (low-density outward expansion) and densification (the population increase occurs within the 2017 city boundaries). We estimate concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), and particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter equal to or less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5). Two downscaled global emission pathways (ECLIPSE) that present a lower/upper range are applied: 1) Current legislation emissions, CLE, and 2) Maximum technically feasible reductions, MTFR. The population is expected to increase by 50%, from 3 million in 2017 to 4.5 million in 2040. The sprawl scenario considerably increases the urban area by 52%. However, these new areas hold only 9% of the population. Both pathways present considerably lower emissions for 2040 than in 2017. Emissions for all sectors, except transportation, are the same for both scenarios. Transport emissions for the densification scenario are 32% lower than for urban sprawl.Due to reduced emissions, the 2040 scenarios result in lower CO, NOx, and PM2.5 concentrations for both pathways compared to 2017. This drop is more marked for the MTFR pathway compared to CLE. Contrary to our expectations, the two scenarios result in similar annual concentrations at the metropolitan level. Even when emission variations are considerable, differences between the scenarios are relatively small, particularly for CO, O3, and PM2.5, due to high regional contributions. However, the spatial distribution of concentrations within urban areas differs significantly; thus, the sprawl scenario results in a larger surface with higher CO, NOx, NO2, and PM2.5 levels and the opposite for O3. Still, due to the population distribution, the densification scenario exposes more residents to higher CO, O3, and PM2.5 values, and the sprawl scenario exposes more inhabitants to higher concentrations of NO2 and NOx.We find an improvement in air quality for both scenarios in 2040 compared to 2017. The annual average NO2 concentrations exceed local regulations in a small urban area only for the CLE pathway. In contrast, for PM2.5, the area and population exposed to levels that exceed the local regulation are higher than that for NO2 and more significant for the densification than the sprawl scenario and for the CLE than the MTFR pathway.

Blending of energy benchmarks models for residential buildings

Building energy consumption forecasting is crucial for energy managers and policymakers. However, acutely predicting the energy consumption of any building is more important in energy efficiency benchmarking of buildings. Energy benchmarking is a precise technique for measuring, tracking, and reducing end-use energy usage of buildings by employing comparative scenarios. Bottom-Up energy consumption assessment has been used in several studies to evaluate a collection of buildings' energy performance to a standard. Traditionally, researchers have used a single approach to predict the energy use of buildings and to conduct benchmarking. However, it has been found that doing so frequently compromises the accuracy of the predicted energy use of buildings. It also has an adverse effect on the buildings' energy benchmarking framework results. This paper will provide an energy benchmarking framework for residential buildings based on the blending techniques of multiple approaches. Over 3000 datasets were gathered from the Indian city of Jaipur. In order to analyse the trends in energy consumption, the data were divided into categories based on economic levels. The data is then subjected to some fundamental statistical analysis, along with several approaches are blended to forecast the energy consumption of the buildings with the highest accuracy. These benchmark levels set guidelines for assessing and recognising strong performance while also identifying underperforming buildings and giving them more priority for energy efficiency improvement. The technique may be used for different metropolitan levels and climatic conditions.

A new urban diagnostics approach for measuring touristification: The case of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona

In the last decades the global tourist industry has been transformed by rapid growth, resulting in many destinations reaching a state of touristification. This phenomenon is a socioeconomic and spatial transformation process that can contribute to the creation of a tourism monoculture.This study aims to measure the level of touristification found in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (MAB), focussing on social, spatial and environmental aspects. The study's originality lies at the territorial level of research. The primary intended outcome of the research is to provide an analytic methodology to support informed decision-making for sustainable urban tourism policies at the metropolitan level.In the MAB a polycentric pattern of touristification can be observed in an area that is currently undergoing two processes: the increase of tourism supplies in the first ring of MAB municipalities and the distribution of tourism fluxes on the coastal destinations. Furthermore, four typologies of municipalities have been established based on their level of touristification growth. Finally, this study demonstrates the importance of discussing these processes at the metropolitan level and providing a methodology relevant to other metropolises worldwide.