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An urban agglomeration is a compact cluster of urban settlements, combined in a complex dynamic system. RIA-Novosti used this infographic to show its readers the light signatures of the world’s largest urban agglomerations, as seen on a clear night with a bird’s eye view. On 1 July 2012, the Moscow metropolitan area more than doubled, with the addition of territory from Moscow Oblast. Agglomerations are monocentric… formed around a single major city core, such as the New York City metropolitan area… and polycentric. Polycentric metropolitan areas usually have several city-cores, for example, as one sees in a cluster of cities in the Ruhr area of Germany. The criteria used to signify an urban agglomeration varies from country to country. However, usually, smaller cities, towns, and villages are seen as united in one agglomeration if densely populated areas are adjacent to the main city, without significant breaks in buildings, the built-up area exceeds the area of agricultural land and forests, and if at least 10-15 percent of the working-age population living there work in the main city of the agglomeration.
Changes in Moscow’s city limits with the accession of new lands, see infographic >>
1 July 2013
RIA-Novosti
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