ABSTRACT
The Marseilles-Aix metropolitan region developed in a geographic location which conditioned its urban organisation. This Mediterranean littoral territory is structured by coastal mountains (massif Cassis la Ciotat, Calanques, Côte Bleue), fragile humid spaces (Etang de Berre, Camargue) and a river (the Rhône and its tributary, La Durance). The littoral land itself has constraints: the mountain amphitheatre of Marseilles commune, Alpilles and Lubéron. All these elements have imposed the circulation corridors and influenced the urbanisation processes.
