Greater Metropolitan Area of Porto

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The Greater Metropolitan Area of Porto is a metropolitan area in coastal northern Portugal which covers 14 municipalities, including the City of Porto, making up the second biggest urban area in the country. The Greater Metropolitan Area of Porto is a union of metropolitan municipalities (Grande Área Metropolitana), larger than Greater Porto which is a NUTS III subdivision comprising 9 municipalities. It covers 1573,99 km² and had a 2006 estimated population of 1,581,694.

[edit] History

The original Metropolitan Area of Porto was constituted by nine municipalities: Porto (the capital), Espinho, Gondomar, Maia, Matosinhos, Póvoa de Varzim, Vila Nova de Gaia, Valongo, and Vila do Conde. The process of enlargement to Santa Maria da Feira, Santo Tirso, Trofa, Arouca and São João da Madeira was approved in the Porto Metropolitan Assembly in January 8th 2005, and started being known as Grande Área Metropolitana do Porto (Greater metropolitan Area of Porto) and grouping 14 municipalities.

Oliveira de Azeméis and Vale de Cambra had expressed their desire to join the metropolitan community.

[edit] Government

The metropolitan area is governed by the Junta Metropolitana do Porto (JMP), headquartered in Avenida dos Aliados, in downtown Porto under the presidency of Rui Rio, also the mayor of Porto municipality, since the Municipal Elections held late 2005, when he succeeded Valentim Loureiro, mayor of Gondomar.

The Assembleia Metropolitana do Porto (Porto Metropolitan Assembly) is composed of 43 MPs, the PSD party has 20 seats, the PS 16, the CDS 3, CDU 3 and the BE, one.

Although the government has halted the intention of creating new metropolitan areas and urban communities, it is keen to ensure greater autonomy to Porto and Lisbon metropolitan areas.

[edit] Conurbations and agglomeration

Greater Porto is the second largest metropolitan area of Portugal, with about 1.7 million people. It groups the larger Porto conurbation (assembled by the municipalities of Porto, Matosinhos, Vila Nova de Gaia, Gondomar, Valongo and Maia, often considered by many as the true city of Porto), the second in the country, a smaller conurbation of Póvoa de Varzim and Vila do Conde, which ranks as the six largest in Portugal.

There are some intentions to merge the municipalities of Porto with Gaia and Matosinhos into a single and greater municipality, and there is an ongoing civil requisition for that objective. The government also started to discuss the merger of some municipalities due to conurbations, but give up. There's a similar idea for the conurbation of Póvoa de Varzim and Vila do Conde, both municipalities decided to work as if both are the same city, cooperating in health, education, transports and other areas. Several municipalities of the metropolitan area also moved closer, and became a cohesive group.

The metropolitan agglomeration stretches far beyond the metropolitan borders, and includes circa 3 million people, which takes in other main urban areas such as Braga and Guimarães, the third and eight largest cities of Portugal.^[1] One should also note that the entire region of Northern-western Portugal is, in fact, a single agglomeration, linking Porto and Braga to Vigo in Spain.

[edit] Population

[edit] Transportation

The Metropolitan area is keen to develop its transportation network. Porto Metro is a Rapid transit system controlled by the Metropolitan area that links the municipalities of Porto, Vila Nova de Gaia, Matosinhos, Maia, Vila do Conde and Póvoa de Varzim.

The Sá Carneiro International Airport (OPO), between the municipalities of Matosinhos, Maia and Vila do Conde, is also one of its greater investments. It was transformed from an old and obsolete airport to a modern transportation centre, that from April 2006 will be linked to Porto Metro. The JMP is also trying to pressure the government to add a TGV line to link Vigo in Galicia (Spain) to Porto Airport in order to make Porto the air traffic centre of the North-eastern Iberian Peninsula and to tighten its historical ties with that Spanish province.

Greater Porto is served by a great number of Motorways linking the main central areas of the metropolitan region and the region with other main Portuguese cities.

Motorways:

• A1 - Lisbon - Porto (North Motorway)
• A3 - Porto - Valença
• A4 - Porto - Amarante
• A7 - Póvoa de Varzim - Vila Pouca de Aguiar
• A20 - Carvalhos - Nó de Francos (CRIP - Porto Innner-Ring Motorway)
• A28 - Porto - Caminha
• A29 - Estarreja - Porto
• A32 - Oliveira de Azeméis - Porto
• A41 - Perafita - Espinho (CREP - Porto Outer-Ring Motorway)
• A42 - A41 - Paços De Ferreira
• A43 - Porto (A-20) - Aguiar de Sousa
• A44 - Gulpilhares (A29) - A20

[edit] See also

• Grande Área Metropolitana
• Porto Metro
• Porto Canal

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Porto Metropolitan Area - official
• LIPOR - Greater Porto Residues Management
• Sá Carneiro Airport
• Porto Convention Bureaues:Gran Área Metropolitana de Oporto

pt:Grande Área Metropolitana do Porto