The urban development of European border regions: a spatial typology

Border regions have long been considered as economically disadvantaged areas that are not conducive to urban development. The European Union enlargement and integration processes and the subsequent relative opening of borders have had a profound impact on border regions, resulting in new patterns of urban development. The objective of this paper is to provide empirical evidence for effects of urbanisation in all European border regions. Based on a functional approach that delineates border regions according to their propensity to be influenced by the relative proximity to a border, the resulting typology brings to the fore eight categories of urban border regions and highlights their geographical pattern at the European scale. The use of demographic data allows for better assessment of the importance of the urban development of border regions, including their cross-border dimension, and to underline national specificities.