The paper aims the presentation of territorial typologies of periruban spaces of Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA) in social and economic terms. The approach was developed within the research project ‘Periurban’ (2012-2015) which involves three university institutions of Lisbon and envisages the assessment of peri-urban areas potential to meet future challenges for sustainable development in a changing world. Besides social and economic dimensions of LMA’s peri-urban areas, presented in this paper, the project considers also the following aspects: ‘land use’, ‘ecology’ and ‘mobility’. Each of these five dimensions was studied, as a first stage of LMA’s periurban research, in order to build a typology of periurban spaces in LMA, which are being analysed in the scope of the same research project. This paper presents the main results of the research on socioeconomic dimension of peri-urban areas of LMA achieved in this stage, that is, the definition of a typology of peri-urban spaces in social and economic terms. This approach includes a transdiciplinary vision by providing the presence of diverse scientific areas and the contributions of stakeholders from different institutional frameworks of the territory. Departing from the analysis of the specificities of economic and social issues in peri-urban areas, a set of sub-dimensions and indicators for the analysis were defined in each of these areas. The Portuguese Census (2001-2011), combined with the collection of a multiplicity of quantitative data from other sources, enables the characterization of LMA and the design of typologies of peri-urban spaces in social and economic terms. Conclusion will give particular attention to fundamental aspects of research on territory and periurban areas in a context of multidimensional change and sustainability challenges. These complex and changing realities demand different views, approaches (and data) and institutions.

--

Peri-urban typologies; socio-economic indicators