ABSTRACT
The contemporary process of urbanization has created spaces that differ radically from the cities of any other historical period. The construction of new multidirectional infrastructures to serve the European metropolis is the most significant challenge for the integrity of its territory. The European metropolis has 'open' and green spaces of different sizes. The ways in which the European metropolis is being built point to the need for policies aimed at densification. Indeed, metropolization is a trend common to wide areas, whether diffuse or belonging to traditional metropolitan areas. This settlement phenomenon leverages new Information and Communication Technology (ICT's), people's higher propensity for mobility, and broader opportunities of choice among different ways of inhabiting space, as well as a new awareness of environmental sustainability. In Europe, metropolization is a general phenomenon, with specific features in the different settings. A metropolitan region is also much more resilient than a concentrated metropolis, due to lower anthropogenic pressure on its individual points.
