Greater Metropolitan Area of Porto

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Municipalities	Porto (the capital), Arouca, Espinho, Gondomar, Maia, Matosinhos, Póvoa de Varzim, Santa Maria da Feira, Santo Tirso, São João da Madeira, Trofa, Vila Nova de Gaia, Valongo, and Vila do Conde.
Greater Metropolitan Area of Porto (Grande Área Metropolitana do Porto)
Government
- President	Rui Rio (PSD)
Area
- City	1,573.99 km² (607.7 sq mi)
Population (2001)
- City	1,551,950
- Density	986.0/km² (2,553.7/sq mi)
Website: A.M. Porto

Greater Metropolitan Area of Porto, in Portuguese Grande Área Metropolitana do Porto, is a metropolitan area composed of several municipalities centered in the city of Porto, in northern Portugal. In total it has 14 municipalities that make up the second biggest urban area in the country, after Greater Metropolitan Area of Lisbon. 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 was originally composed of nine municipalities: Porto (the capital), Espinho, Gondomar, Maia, Matosinhos, Póvoa de Varzim, Vila Nova de Gaia, Valongo, and Vila do Conde. In 2006 (due to the municipal elections held in late 2005, it grew to include Santa Maria da Feira, Santo Tirso, Trofa, Arouca and São João da Madeira. At the 2001 census, its population was 1,801,958, although that figure has now increased with the addition of the new territory.

1 Evolution
2 Government
3 Conurbations
4 Population
5 Transportation
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Evolution

The Greater Metropolitan Area of Porto is expected to include two nearby municipalities: Oliveira de Azeméis e Vale de Cambra.

[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

Greater Porto is an agglomeration composed by a big conurbation, a surrounding conurbation and several urban areas. The bigger and central conurbation is composed by the municipalities of Porto, Matosinhos, Vila Nova de Gaia, Gondomar, Valongo and Maia - this area is also known as part of the "City of Porto" by many of its inhabitants and the people from other areas of the country, although officially are part of different cities. A second and close conurbation includes the one formed by the cities of Póvoa de Varzim and Vila do Conde.

Although Vila Nova de Gaia is the biggest municipality in terms of population that is merely due to the extent of its territory, the city is much smaller and it is the southwards extension of Porto.

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 with that objective. The government also started to discuss the merger of some municipalities due to conurbations, but give up.

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

Municipality	Area	Population (2001)	Density
Porto	41.66 km²	263,131	6,316.2/km²
The rest of Grande Porto	775.74 km²	997,548	1,485.9/km²
Espinho	21.42 km²	33,701	1,573.3/km²
Gondomar	133.26 km²	164,096	1,231.4/km²
Maia	83.70 km²	120,111	1,435.0/km²
Matosinhos	62.30 km²	167,026	2,681.0/km²
Póvoa de Varzim	81.94 km²	63,469	774.6/km²
Valongo	72.99 km²	86,005	1,178.3/km²
Vila do Conde	498.2 km²	74,391	498.2/km²
Vila Nova de Gaia	170.82 km²	288,749	1,690.4/km²
in Ave	207.04 km²	109,977	531.2/km²
Santo Tirso	135.31 km²	72,396	535.0/km²
Trofa	71.73 km²	37,581	523.9/km²
in Entre Douro e Vouga	549.55 km²	181,294	329.9/km²
Arouca	327.99 km²	24,228	327.99/km²
Santa Maria da Feira	213.45 km²	135,964	637.0/km²
São João da Madeira	8.11 km²	21,102	2,602.0/km²
Total	1,573.99 km²	1,551,950	986.0/km²

[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 Airport (or Porto Airport), 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: