Urbanisation and Territorial Change in Portugal

Portugal urbanisation process arrived later in Portugal than in most other European countries and was especially intense. It was associated to industrialisation and to a subsequent suburbanisation around the city of Lisbon and diffuse urbanisation process in the Northwest. Road infrastructure and the welfare state supported the urbanisation process whereas the economy became much more tertiary. Early twenty-first century analyses show serious problems caused by: often undisciplined urbanisation, with irrational land fragmentation, strong real estate speculation, poor urban infrastructure and strong pressure on ecological resources. That and a bipolar metropolitanisation that seems to be moving towards a monopolar structure, facing an apparently “dormant” or “forgotten” “rest of the country” poses important challenges, that must leave us to recognise that the “seeds” or “anchors” of change are located in metropolitan areas and that the centre of the public policies must recognise that the present urban paradigm focuses on the need to create more equitable and sustainable spaces.