Metropolitan area
Spatial development glossary, European Conference of Ministers responsible for Spatial/Regional Planning (CEMAT), Territory and landscape, No 2, published by Council of Europe Publishing in 2007, defines metropolitan area as: ‘…a settlement system consisting of a large city (together with its suburbs) and its adjacent zones of influence, which may comprise various urban centres of different sizes. These adjacent zones are generally the so-called commuter belt. Interstitial open spaces also form part of the metropolitan area.’
It defines a metropolitan region as: ‘…a region (in the administrative or geographical sense) dominated by an important metropolitan area. In spatial terms, its extension is therefore wider than that of the metropolitan area, but in some interpretations the two concepts of metropolitan area and metropolitan region have similar meanings.’
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