Representing urban service area boundaries
The COMET project has set out to illustrate that the competitiveness of inner cities relies on their multifunctional structure. Since large sections of the service sector have relocated from inner cities to suburban areas, new methods of guiding this development process are called for. Thus, through the use of new perceptions based on analysis and comparison of case studies, new scenarios have been developed for multifunctional structures in agglomeration areas. In 1989 the Network on Urban Research in the European Community (N.U.R.E.C.) developed a means to delimit the case study areas of COMET. The delimitation standards were supported by morphological definitions and were applied to the smallest administrative units. Since Austria did not belong to the European Union in 1994, delimitation was not conducted in the case of Vienna. The scientific partners of COMET altered the morphological method and delimited their case study area according to population density. In order to avoid excluding important areas the addition of an agglomeration delimitation fringe was considered. The fringe is the area located within a distance of 10km from the N.U.R.E.C. delimitation border and also refers to the administrative basic unit. The fringe therefore provides additional opportunity for analysis of the case study areas. The undertaking of this work package entailed updating the agglomeration areas on the basis of the latest satellite image. Terms such as "Inner City" "Core city" and "agglomeration area "were based on the delimitation and set as a standard for each case study area. Moreover, future work packages will use these terms as a reference. The notion of delimiting agglomeration areas via the aid of the "Densely built-up area" is one that is officially accepted by the United Nations and by the European Commission alike. In particular, the GIS-based delimitation allows for the representation of the results in various maps. Overall, the delimitation of the agglomeration area and its various sections also serves as a basis for comparative research regarding sub-urbanisation processes.
