Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Blanca del Espino Hidalgo
Title:  Las ciudades medias del centro de Andalucía. Aproximación a un fenómeno territorial sostenible.
Abstract: Resumen:El territorio andaluz se caracteriza, entre otros aspectos, por poseer un denso entramado de ciudades que desempeñan un papel de intermediación. Esta categoría ha sido revelada en los últimos años como una línea creciente en el campo de la investigación urbana, así como una oportunidad en el devenir sostenible de las estrategias territoriales. Se trata aquí de realizar un enfoque sobre las ciudades medias del interior de Andalucía abordando una definición completa de este caso de estudio para, a continuación, comprobar cuáles son las principales cualidades del sistema urbano propuesto y elaborar un breve diagnóstico sobre sus potencialidades futuras.Abstract:The Andalusian territory is defined, among other features, by a dense network of cities that play an intermediate role: they are not capitals, but they act like if they were so in relation to a generally small area. This urban category has been recently revealed as an increasing line in the research field, as well as an opportunity to a more sustainable future of territorial strategies. This research aims to take a close approach over intermediate cities in the inner areas of Andalusia, as well as addressing a comprehensive and accurate definition of this case study, establishing the main features of this urban system and finishing with a brief diagnosis concerning the potentials and probable future sceneries from a sustainable perspective. Accordingly, it seeks to set a wide, transversal analysis of the territorial and urban phenomenon which has conformed, for centuries, a set of small and medium-sized cities which represents, nowadays, the sixty percent of the land structure in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, still growing in terms of urban land and population. For this purpose, a particular study case has been selected: the cities of the centre of Andalusia (Spain). 
First of all, the research tries to set a summarised but full definition of the intermediate cities themselves, assuming them as a singular urban category, by setting the quantitative ranges and qualitative features more commonly accepted by both the academia and the official documents in the Iberian Peninsula, as well as in other latitudes and regions of the world. Down below, the main land planning instrument that defined this urban category in Andalusia in 2007 and has revealed the keys for their functioning and future opportunities is analysed, including a brief lists of the totality of cities that integrate the set and their populations.
Further on, the characterization of the network has implied the study of the facts that led to the current dense collective of human settlements, as well as their evolution from the 20th century to the present time, as they have passed from being huge agricultural centres of production to become new industrial, touristic or services poles. In terms of demographic analysis, we have focused on urban, economic and demographic growth variables, considering the cities themselves and, particularly, in comparison with the evolution of the smaller cities they generally have being functionally connected to, with an added spotlight on their influence over the small rural settlements which, in turn, work as secondary points around the intermediate cities considered.
The next step has implied the consideration of three processes that strongly conditioned the evolution and consolidation of the network of intermediate cities in the centre of Andalusia as they are today. Firstly, the substitution of the medium-distance railway network previously existent in the area by a renewed high-speed system with considerably fewer stations. Secondly, and contemporary with the previous one, the implementation of several highways that improved accessibility to a reduced number of privileged cities that experimented the higher rates of growth. Thirdly, the way all the infrastructural, economical, demographical and productive developments have derived into a deep transformation in the traditional identity and heritage resources of the cities considered. Finally, set of outcomes and conclusions have been highlighted, which can be summed up as follows.
Andalusian inner territory has been intensively inhabited for centuries. As a result of this, a dense net of small cities remains as pillars of the urban system in an area that keeps being dominated by the agricultural productive system. Those cities are, furthermore, the key for population equilibrium, working as intermediate centres between rural areas and main cities. In terms of numbers, we can say that small cities in Andalusia are between 10.000 and 50.000 inhabitants. Some of them are, in fact, district capitals, whereas others constitute secondary points of reference with regard to a relatively extent territorial area, mostly composed by little towns and, more rarely, rural settlements that administratively depend on the city of reference. The network has its very remote roots in proto-historic system of settlements, which established first and secondary centres in elevated places for the control of the territory. This double urban structure was replicated by Roman, Jewish and Muslim civilizations –often changing the priority of some cities whereas others kept being a territorial landmark-, and strengthened by the feudal system during the Modern Age, when manor houses competed for land domain based in both rural properties and architectural monuments. 
Lately, the development of the agricultural system led to the establishment of a well-balance net of small cities whose main source of incomes was agriculture. Due to this fact, they were known as agro-cities or agro-towns from the XIXth to the first half of the XXth Century by both enlightened travellers and the academia. Nowadays, they have experienced a huge growing process in terms of economy, culture and urbanity and, although agriculture keeps being one of the main productive systems, their urban identity has turned to be about industry and, more often, services and secondary administration centres. Recently they are also focusing on their heritage as an important pillar, especially regarding cultural tourism. However, nets of small towns have been revealed as great examples of urban and territorial sustainability. In fact, demographic statistics reveal that intermediate cities growth does not implicate rural depopulation but, on the contrary, strengthen inhabitants’ bonds with the smallest settlements.
Important challenges must be taken into account for the future of small cities in the centre of Andalusia, including: encouraging territory and urban planning and management instruments to control the sustainable equilibrium of these net of small cities, between themselves and regarding both big cities and rural settlements; incorporating heritage as a base to keep identity structures that guarantee people to settle or stay in this areas, as well as their way of life, revealed as naturally sustainable by the collective intelligence; positioning small cities into the international academia due to the significance and sustainability of their territorial and urban model, as well as into management and government agents and, furthermore, public awareness.
Classification-JEL: R1
Keywords: Ciudades medias de Andalucía, Globalización y territorio, Redes urbanas, Indicadores de sostenibilidad, Andalucía, Intermediate Cities, Organization of submunicipal territory, Urban Networks, Financial Sustainability, Andalusia
Pages: 165-191
Volume: 1
Year: 2017
File-URL: http://www.revistaestudiosregionales.com/documentos/articulos/pdf-articulo-2516.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:rer:articu:v:1:y:2017:p:165-191