EVALUATION OF FUNCTIONAL URBAN AREAS IN THE NORTH-EAST REGION

Metropolitan areas concentrate a large part of the population, production and consumption in the European Union countries. One of the main problems that arises when adopting metropolitan areas as territorial units of analysis and policy development in European countries is the lack of generally accepted standards for identification purposes. This paper has proposed a scientific evaluation of the functional areas (including metropolitan areas) of county capital of North East Region. For this purpose it was used the ESPON 1.1.1 methodology regarding polycentric development adapted to the realities in Romania and then evolving development of economic analysis for each functional area (metropolitan area) studied. The study shows that functional urban areas (including metropolitan areas) are still in the early stage of organisation, with no significant progress in their economic development.