Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Demographic Distribution of Metropolitan Systems in Spain

Abstract

The urban structure of Spanish cities has been widely studied. Most of the works have focused on revealing the new forms of configuration of metropolitan areas characterized by a fall in population and employment in the areas that are part of the central core in favor of dispersed growth in some cases, or giving way to a polycentric reconfiguration in others. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic caused changes in urban dynamics due to mobility restrictions and the proliferation of activities telematically. This work has attempted to evaluate the impact of the pandemic on the evolution of the urban structure of seven metropolitan systems in Spain. For this purpose, the changes in the spatial distribution of the population within each metropolitan structure have been analyzed, both in the periods prior to the arrival of the pandemic, and in the last two years after it. The results of this work show that since the outbreak of the pandemic, the dynamic process characterized by a notable decline in the central core has been reactivated, giving way to divergent processes of demographic restructuring such as the dispersion of metropolitan areas with a predominant monocentric structure (Madrid, Seville and Zaragoza) and the polycentric Bilbao; as well as a reaffirmation of the polycentric features of Barcelona, ​​Malaga and Valencia.