The role of the relief in the evolution, structure and functionality of the Zalău urban area . The relief represents an important condition for a settlement’s emergence and for its social, economical and territorial evolution. Moreover, it influences the urban structure and the functional organisation of a city. As a result, the configuration of the main built-up area of Zalău has been determined by geomorphological factors which provided, through the hydrographical convergences, a suitable area for territorial expansion. The city’s longitudinal development has unfavourable consequences on the urban functionality. At the same time with the expansion on this direction, the city’s transversal development takes place through the emergence of the Dumbrava Nord neighbourhood. Some dwellings were also built on the slopes, generating stepped apartment blocks and access ways perpendicular to level curves, increasing in this way the value of investments. The extension of the inhabited area, through holiday or permanent houses being built at the foot of the Meseş Mountain and near the Zalău - Aghireş and Zalău-Moigrad roads, confirms the new trend in the urban development of Zalău: The following study analyses the relationships among the relief, the urban built-up area and the territorial development. Thus, the cartographic documentation has included: shooting directory plans from 1939, topographic maps from 1970 and orthophotoplans from 2005, which were used to determine the chronological limits of the built-up area and to analyse their spatial evolution in relationship with the demographic evolution and the favourable characteristics of the relief (<5° declivity and < 250 m altitude). All these are based on geomorphologic mapping and GIS analysis. As a main result, an expansion tendency of the built-up area was identified in relationship with an increase in comfort, which at the same time is being restricted to some extent by geographical conditions.