Towards a new metropolitan dimension

Abstract

The current process of territorial diffusion urban has shown not only that the advantages of agglomeration can become problems (congestion, increase of transport costs, loss of environmental-quality) but also that these benefits can be achieved without agglomeration. The diffuse city works very much as a concentrated city with a complete different morphology
but with the same social and functional characteristics. In this process, in which the central city has kept many of the cultural, economic and commercial functions, it can be seen that some of these functions has followed the diffusion pattern and that they have been relocated in middle and small size cities, leading to what the author calls metropolitan archipelagos. Although these diffusion processes have an apparently high component of
self-organization, it is argued here that when the diffusion process is publicly guided and governed, the diffuse city is better organized and the negative effects can be minimized.

Keywords: diffuse city, metropolitan archipelago, city government.