Investigating Metropolitan Hierarchies through a Spatially Explicit (Local) Approach

Assuming a non-neutral impact of space, an explicit assessment of metropolitan hierarchies based on local regression models produces a refined description of population settlement patterns and processes over time. We used Geographically Weighted Regressions (GWR) to provide an enriched interpretation of the density gradient in Greece, estimating a spatially explicit rank-size relationship inspired by Zipf's law. The empirical results of the GWR models quantified the adherence of real data (municipal population density as a predictor of metropolitan hierarchy) to the operational assumptions of the rank-size relationship. Local deviations from its prediction were explained considering the peculiarity of the metropolitan cycle (1961-2011) in the country. Although preliminary and exploratory, these findings decomposed representative population dynamics in two stages of the cycle (namely urbanization, 1961-1991, and suburbanization, 1991-2011). Being in line with earlier studies, this timing allowed a geographical interpretation of the evolution of a particularly complex metropolitan system with intense (urban) primacy and a weak level of rural development over a sufficiently long time interval. Introducing a spatially explicit estimation of the rank-size relationship at detailed territorial resolutions provided an original contribution to regional science, covering broad geographical scales.