摘要：One of the main concern that arises when we acknowledge metropolitan areas as territorial units of analysis and policy development in European countries, is the lack of generic standards specifically assigned for their identification. This adversely affects the findings/results of the comparative research between European countries which use metropolitan areas as territorial units of analysis. The main objective of this article is to present an urban diagnosis methodology that aims to identify cities with the highest potential to become regional engines of development. Achieving this goal requires/involves an assessment of the 'area's ability' to generate and disperse urban development. This methodology is redefining functional urban areas and is based on the study of polycentric ESPON 1.1.1 and on a statistical-mathematical model for assessing the Functional Urban Areas (FUA-s), using a spatial database in ARCGIS 10.2.2. Any assertion of European metropolitan integrated areas requires a new strategy for maximizing the integrated development of large cities in Romania. Taking this into consideration, this scientific methodology aims to map the performance/efficiency FUA index.
