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MONITORING URBAN SPRAWL AROUND BARCELONA'S METROPOLITAN AREA 
WITH THE AID OF SATELLITE IMAGERY 
J. Roca?, M. C. Burns'* and J. M. Carreras" 
a Centre de Política de Sól i Valoracions, Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain 
(josep.roca, malcolm.burns)@upc.es 
" Mancomunitat de Municipis de l'Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain 
carreras(@amb.es 
KEY WORDS: Remote Sensing, Satellite, Urban, Planning, Application 
ABSTRACT: 
The City of Barcelona has a population of just over 1.5 million inhabitants. The Metropolitan Region Barcelona (RMB) extends to 
some 3,236 km? and according to the 2001 Census has a population of almost 4.4 million inhabitants. 
In recent years the population of the City of Barcelona has been in decline, in contrast to marked demographic increases in the wider 
metropolitan area. Indeed the RMB has witnessed a significant process of disperse urban development or urban sprawl, accompanied 
by increased land consumption. To date efforts to quantify such urban growth have depended upon the analysis of aerial 
photography and other more functional relations, utilising information based upon commuting travel flows for employment 
purposes. 
This paper approaches the measurement of metropolitan urban growth from a strictly morphological perspective, drawing upon 
SPOT satellite imagery dating from 1995 and 2003, in order to quantify and analyse the process of *periurbanisation' which has been 
experienced in Barcelona over this period. At the same time the paper also assesses the increased accuracy for urban planning 
activities from an operational perspective, afforded by the new generation of satellite images from SPOTS, through the higher 
resolution of the images, for the monitoring of key urban development issues, both within the confines and beyond the edges of 
Barcelona's metropolitan area. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
1.1 Metropolitan urban agglomerations 
According to the METREX Network, throughout Europe, the 
metropolitan regions are all facing similar problems of 
economic change, social cohesion, urban sprawl, traffic 
congestion, city centre vitality and viability, and environmental 
damage and pollution. At the same time these areas and regions 
offer opportunities for renewal and regenetation, high quality 
urban life, and economic competitiveness. (METREX, 1999) 
While it is clearly recognised that these problems and 
opportunities arise at a general level within Europe, in spatial 
terms it is more difficult to ascertain with exactitude the spatial 
extent to which such problems and opportunities are found. 
Traditionally the physical delimitation of urban areas and 
agglomerations has been characterised by two clearly 
differentiated approaches. On the one hand a delimitation based 
upon physical or morphological criteria, where the continuous 
built-up area, or the density of contiguous ambits, comprises the 
basic mechanisms for the delimitation. On the other hand 
studies based upon functional or economic criteria , where the 
emphasis is placed upon the existing relations and flows 
throughout the urbanised territory where the relation between 
place of residence and place of work is fundamental. 
Having said that, the lack of homogeneous criteria for the 
definition and delimitation of *metropolitan urban regions' does 
nothing to add to the case of studying individual cases or 
making comparisons at the European level. In the case of 
European Commission funded research project under the 
INTERREG IIC initiative, aimed at reaching an understanding 
of the territorial and functional characteristics of the 
metropolitan system of South Western Europe, a common 
methodology was agreed between the three partner countries of 
Spain, Portugal and France, in order to allow a cross-border 
comparison of the respective metropolitan urban regions under 
consideration (Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid, Málaga, Seville, 
Saragossa and Valencia in Spain; Lisbon and Oporto in 
Portugal; and Bordeaux, Montpellier and Toulouse in France). 
These metropolitan urban regions were defined taking a 
functional approach, consisting of adding to the central city of 
each area the adjoining municipalities where the level of 
commuting between place of residence/place of work was 
superior to a certain threshold, following the methodology 
based upon that used by the Bureau of Census in the United 
States, for the states of New England, for the definition of 
statistical metropolitan areas (Office of Management and 
Budget, 1990). 
In the case of Barcelona, this methodology led to the 
delimitation of a metropolitan urban region of some 4,592 km” 
with a population of more than 4,5 million persons (CPSV, 
2001). This contrasts strongly with two more administrative 
definitions used locally: the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona 
(RMB) and the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (MAB). 
The RMB, recognised for some aspects of regional planning, 
refers to an area of 3,236 km? incorporating some seven 
counties and a total of 164 municipalities. The MAB, under the 
jurisdiction of the Mancomunitat de Municipis (MMAMB) is a 
voluntary association of some 31 municipalities, comprising