Dublin:
Economic Growth and Competitiveness in the Functional Urban
Region
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by
Dr. Brendan Williams Lecturer in Urban Economics and Faculty
Research Fellow Faculty of the Built Environment, Dublin Institute
of Technology Bolton St.
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| An
urban region's relative rate of economic growth or decline and
its resulting expression in terms of urban form are critical
aspects in the development of appropriate urban management systems.
Attempts to constrain or divert such growth have in recent periods
contributed to the national and regional development patterns
experienced in Dublin in recent years. Particular criticism
has developed around the absence of planned infrastructure and
support services to facilitate development occurring. In coming
to terms and addressing such deficits, a second question arises
- to what level should the growth of Dublin be planned or facilitated
in the near future? Such a debate in purely quantitative terms
may fail to address a more substantial question concerning the
quality and sustainability of various levels of growth and expansion
of the urban form. This paper therefore addresses the issue
on two levels; firstly, understanding the processes which create
such growth, its expression in the urban form and secondly internationally
comparing such experiences to identify future options which
contribute to sustainable economic development for the city.
The material for this paper is developed from research carried
out at the Dublin Institute of Technology for the EU GEMACA
II project on Economic Competitiveness and Urban Governance
and seminar proceedings on this project at DIT with contributions
from Brendan Williams and Patrick Shiels of DIT. |
| The
Functional Urban Region concept |
| A
Functional Urban Region (FUR) is defined as the geographic space
appropriate for the comparison of economic development in urban
areas. It is the space within which the businesses enjoy access
to a wide range of infrastructure and services including: |
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transport (roads, rail, airports, ports) |
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educational institutions, research centres |
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banks, insurance companies |
| In
simple terms, this space is the one in which businesses operate,
which is the Functional Urban Region. |
| The
geographical limits of the Functional Urban Regions adopted
by the GEMACA study group are those of the regional labour force
basin, related to the criteria used in the USA to define the
Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas during the 1960s. Similar
criteria were used in the 1980s, by P. Hall and P. Cheshire
at the University of Reading, to draw the limits of the European
Functional Urban Regions (Lecomte, 2001). |
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