cities and smaller towns and villages within the immediate 
environs of Barcelona extending over an area of 495 km”. 
Although extending over approximately one tenth of the area of 
the metropolitan urban region, as defined under the 
INTERREG-IIC research project, the MAB contained some 
62.5% of the metropolitan urban region’s population, giving 
some indication of the compact form of urban development at 
the core of this wider metropolitan area. 
  
Area Population | Population 
(2001) density 
(km?) (inhabitants 
per km”) 
  
Barcelona City 98 1,503,884 15,322 
Council 
  
Metropolitan Area 495 2,833,349 5,724 
of Barcelona 
(MMAMB) 
  
Metropolitan 3,236 4,390,390 1.357 
Region of 
Barcelona (RMB) 
  
Functional 4,592 4,537,468 988 
metropolitan area 
of Barcelona 
  
  
  
  
  
(CPSV) 
  
Table 1: Basic characteristics of the different administrative and 
spatial areas of Barcelona’s metropolitan urban region. 
1.2 Urban sprawl 
In recent years Barcelona's metropolitan area has witnessed 
significant growth in peripheral urban development, or urban 
sprawl, with progressively increased land consumption, 
matched by a decrease in population at the core. Regardless of 
the nuances between the different administrative and planning 
areas, it is clear that Barcelona and its surrounding area 
represent a metropolitan urban region of an international scale, 
experiencing those same problems and opportunities identified 
by the METREX network and referred to earlier, including that 
of “urban sprawl”. 
As Wilson et. al (2003) rightly indicate, no such universally 
accepted definition of urban sprawl exists and indeed the 
phenomenon it seeks to describe, i.e. the land-consumptive 
pattern of urban development, can be interpreted both positively 
and negatively. The authors develop an urban “growth”, rather 
than “sprawl” model, to quantify the amount of land converted 
to urban uses, leaving it open to subjective interpretation 
whether or not it constitutes “sprawl”. They wisely suggest that 
“the challenge is to quantify and categorise urban growth in a 
way that is useful and meaningful to land use decision-makers 
at the municipal, regional and state levels”. (p. 276) 
The invitation extended to the Universitat Politècnica de 
Catalunya and the MMAMB from the CNES and SPOT Image 
to participate in the Spot 5 Application and Validation 
Programme (SAVP) in 2003 provided the ideal opportunity to 
engage in research taking a physical or morphological approach 
to examine a number of key urban development issues both 
within the confines and beyond the edge of Barcelona's 
metropolitan area. The joint UPC/MMAMB research proposal 
therefore sought to assess the extent to which the satellite data 
could aid in the quantification and analysis of this pattern of 
apparent outward encroachment of urban development into the 
  
   
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
   
    
  
   
  
  
   
  
  
   
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
   
   
  
  
   
  
  
   
   
    
  
   
   
  
  
   
  
  
   
   
  
   
   
  
  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  
    
  
     
  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
    
International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol XXXV, Part Bl. Istanbul 2004 
surrounding countryside of the metropolitan area or “peri- 
urbanisation'. 
Although recognising that Barcelona's functional metropolitan 
urban region is considerably more expansive, for the purposes 
of this study, the metropolitan area was taken as that defined by 
the 31 local authorities belonging to the MMAMB. The 
founding of the MMAMB in 1988 was based upon the premise 
of optimising resources and sharing them for questions of 
solidarity, for the delivery of a wide variety of services between 
and amongst the local authority members of the association. 
Amongst the services managed by the MMAMB, one finds the 
conservation and promotion of a large natural space, the 
Collserola Park; the creation, maintenance and conservation of 
a network of some 27 metropolitan parks, covering a total of 
244 hectares; the adapting, maintenance and provision of basic 
facilities along the beaches of the Mediterranean coastline; the 
construction of affordable housing; and a wide range of 
planning projects aimed towards structuring and increasing the 
territorial quality of the metropolitan city of Barcelona. In view 
of these urban planning services and responsibilities, the 
MMAMB represents an ideal end user for the results emanating 
from a study of this nature. Since 1986, the Universitat 
Politécnica de Catalunya, through its Centre de Política de Sól i 
Valoracions, has been engaged in a wide range of specialised 
teaching and research activities in the fields of land use and 
environmental planning, territorial management, urban 
property valuations, geographical information systems, the 
virtual modelling of architecture and the city, and 
environmental sustainability. 
This paper describes some of the initial results emerging from 
the UPC/MMAMB participation in the Spot 5 Application and 
Validation Programme, scheduled to terminate in July/August 
2004. 
2. METHODOLOGY 
2.4 Background 
It is irrefutable that Earth observation is a modern science, 
which studies the Earth's changing environment, through 
"remote sensing" tools such as satellite imagery and aerial 
photography (EEA, 2002). A report published by NASA in 
2001 highlighted the fact that the advances in satellite-based 
land surface mapping are contributing to the creation of 
considerably more detailed urban maps, offering planners a 
much deeper understanding of the dynamics of urban growth, as 
well as associated matters relating to territorial management 
(NASA, 2001). 
Within the European context, the most recent comparable study 
of this nature is that of the MURBANDY/MOLAND project 
(Monitoring Urban Dynamics / Monitoring Land Use Changes) 
which has used “remote sensing”, the results of which have 
been published by the European Environment Agency (EEA, 
2002). This project drew together a network of European 
partners and sought to measure and assess urban dynamics, 
through the creation of a land use data base, for a range of 
European cities and urban regions, including Bilbao. These data 
bases combine environmental, social and economic information, 
in order to reach a better understanding of the characteristics 
and dynamics of urban growth and the changes related to land 
use, such as transport and energy infrastructure, and the changes 
in agriculture and natural areas. The results show the spatial 
   
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