Functional areas: the importance of the intermediate spatial planning scale

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To design territorial public policies that effectively address the real problems of municipalities in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), it is necessary to understand and recognize the different territorial gradients that exist, as well as the dynamics that transcend political-administrative boundaries.

In a previous article published a few months ago, we discussed the impacts on public policy of simplifying territorial categories and the corresponding need to overcome the urban/rural dichotomy for classifying a territory. Later, in a second blog post, we showed that this classification within the territorial gradient is not static, and that most municipalities in LAC simultaneously exhibit urban and rural characteristics in varying proportions throughout their process of urbanization. Finally, in a third article, we explained the importance of analyzing the dynamics affecting a municipality that occur outside its jurisdiction and generate interdependence flows as a fundamental criterion for territorial planning. This journey has allowed us to demonstrate that the territorialized responses of public policies begin by understanding the specificities of each territory’s environments (place-based approach) within an analytical framework that takes into account the richness of the urban-rural territorial gradient.

In this article today, we will conclude this series that addresses the planning criteria of the territorial continuum that transcend the political-administrative boundaries of the units that compose it. To do this, we will explore the advantages of the intermediate scale of planning, that is, the one that goes beyond the local scale but does not reach the generality of the state, provincial, departmental, or regional scale. We will also describe how this scale allows an approach that contributes to responding to the real needs of the inhabitants of a territory under principles of coordination, concurrence, complementarity, subsidiarity, and alternative models of territorial administrative management.

Functional Areas: Supramunicipal Integration

When working on the organization of a territory, it is crucial to consider physical, socioeconomic, and legal categories that overlap and differ in their spatial imprint. The combination of this overlap does not necessarily respond to a clear definition of political-administrative jurisdiction, and the resulting space begins to be called by different names (for example, homogeneous areas, landscape management units, biophysical environmental units), which seek to give meaning to the nature of the particular approach. This underscores the need to analyze the territory from a scale that transcends the local but not so much that the conditions that make that territory a unit with a high degree of articulation and cohesion are lost in the exercise.

These supramunicipal scales usually do not correspond to a legally recognized territorial entity, meaning they do not have administrative and governmental functions. They are defined by contiguous and relatively self-contained spaces, where exchanges of people, goods, and services frequently occur. A functional area or territory can be defined as that territorial scope that is configured from these interdependencies of economic, social, cultural, environmental, and institutional flows, whose borders do not coincide with political-administrative limits but rather with thresholds beyond which functional relationships lose intensity.

Functional areas are a territorial construction used in different countries to recognize a space of supramunicipal exchange, allowing the provision of guidelines and strategic territorial planning.

Intermediate Scale of Planning: Significant Advantages

The delimitation of functional areas that integrate urban and rural spaces is key to territorial planning that responds to the needs of the inhabitants. These areas, essential for harmonious and coordinated development, are based on interconnection and integration. They range from the integration of policies and services to supramunicipal management and the reduction of municipal gaps, always respecting local autonomy. This ensures the alignment of territorial, sectoral, and municipal plans towards common objectives.

As we saw at the end of the previous article in the series, planning at the intermediate scale, balancing local and broader views, offers significant advantages:

• Integration of public and social services.
• Coordinated response to common challenges.
• Economic development and attraction of investments, promoting innovation through clusters and intersectoral collaboration.
• Equitable distribution of development benefits to reduce inequalities. Joint management of infrastructure, improving connectivity and mobility.
• Flexibility and adaptability to demographic, economic, and environmental changes.
• Strengthens regional identity and sense of belonging.

These benefits are framed in principles that seek effectiveness in development policies, involving all territorial scales and sectors for balanced and sustainable development.

Principles of Supramunicipal Planning

Supramunicipal planning, due to its decentralized nature and linked to multisectoral and multiscale approaches, requires the following fundamental principles for its proper management:

Coordination: avoids duplication of efforts and resources, promotes coherent territorial planning, and ensures public policies with an integrated and long-term vision. Concurrence: facilitates synergistic action between different levels of government, optimizes resources, and responds effectively to needs that transcend the local level. Complementarity: leverages the comparative advantages of each municipality, favoring an equitable distribution of services and resources. Subsidiarity: ensures that decisions are made close to the citizen, maintaining local autonomy and limiting interventions from higher levels only when truly necessary. These principles must be integrated into models of public management that implement effective institutional arrangements. There are various examples of administrative models that facilitate the management of interdependencies between jurisdictions in a territory.

Alternative Models of Territorial Administrative Management

The effective implementation of a supramunicipal approach requires effective mechanisms of intergovernmental cooperation, essential in the management of areas that encompass multiple jurisdictions. Below, we share some examples of models of supramunicipal territorial administration:

Metropolitan Coordination:

• Establishment of coordination bodies that include mayors and local representatives, with decision-making capacity on key issues such as transportation and waste management.
• Joint development of territorial planning plans, integrating local, regional, and national entities, ensuring that decisions made at one level are reflected in others.

Concurrence:

Establishment of common action frameworks for supramunicipal projects, such as environmental protection or regional economic development.

Complementarity:

Agreements specializing in certain functions or services to avoid redundancy and maximize efficiency. For example, one municipality could focus on the development of educational infrastructure while another specializes in the provision of health services.

Subsidiarity:

Agreements where specific local issues are managed at the level of each municipality, while issues with broader implications or requiring greater technical or financial capacity are handled by the supramunicipal entity.

Effective Implementation: Legal Framework, Cooperation, and Adaptability

To achieve these institutional arrangements, it is necessary to have:

• A clear legal and institutional framework that defines competencies, funding, and decision-making processes.
• Intermunicipal cooperation based on the recognition of mutual benefits and the construction of consensus.
• Mechanisms of citizen participation to ensure transparency and accountability.
• Adaptability and periodic review of management strategies, responding to dynamic changes and emerging challenges.

Conclusions: Effective and Sustainable Territorial Management

Recognizing that development dynamics transcend jurisdictions, functional areas offer a comprehensive framework for managing flows of people, goods, and services. Public policies must then regulate externalities and promote benefits through planning on an intermediate scale. This leads to models of supramunicipal management that integrate these principles, resulting in more effective, equitable, and sustainable territorial management.

How can your territory benefit from these approaches? Share your opinion and join the conversation