Urban areas as nodes in a polycentric development
The European urban system is a main territorial structure and the cities are key drivers in the development of regions and larger territories. The specific functionality and potentials of cities are being explored and a typology of the European urban reality developed. The ESDP highlighted the objective of a polycentric development in support of a balanced and harmonious European territory. The project display some options for territorial cooperation in terms of complementary and distance between urban functional regions that could support a polycentric pattern, in particular at European and transnational scale. In this respect the project addresses issues mentioned in the ESDP highlighting the special contribution that could be undertaken by cooperation on concepts of global integration zones, gateway cities and polycentric urban clusters as well as individual urban poles in support of territorial balance and cohesion.