Measuring Urban Dynamics Through Public and Private Sector Concentration Patterns: The Case of Thessaly, Greece

After the intense and unprecedented urbanisation of the last centuries, it is more than evident that a clear understanding of the ongoing trends of urban growth and clustering is needed if we are to aim for a better insight as to their possible future. The main aim of this paper is the definition of a methodological framework for the determination, analysis and cross-evaluation of urban clusters which are formulated within wider study areas, such as administrative regions. To this end, different methods and techniques are utilised, that stem from the fields of Statistics and Quantitative Spatial Analysis and which, during recent years, are all the more commonly applied to the different stages of Geographical Analysis. The definition of urban clusters is mainly based on different types of variables, such as the demographic characteristics of the cities, the number of public and private sector services located in them, as well as the total length of the different types of road network in the study area. Furthermore, a comparative indicator of spatial concentration is formulated that reflects the role and the relative weight of every urban area in the study region as well as its spatial influence. Such a measurement improves the definition and analysis of urban clusters and at the same time, constitutes an alternative assessment of their overall locational perspective. Both the proposed methodological framework and the formulated indicator are applied in the region of Thessaly, Greece.