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metropolitan area — English
An urban area that is under the control of a local authority which might be either elected by the people living there (see”local community”), or appointed by a higher authority. The local authority controls the area by means of enforcing a set of by-laws and regulations which apply to that specific, well demarcated area (see “demarcation”), but have no authority beyond the geographical limits of that area. When an urban-rural boundary is sharp and definite, it is obvious where the jurisdiction of the local authority begins and ends, but often urban and rural areas are not clearly separated and tend to merge over a broad semi-rural, semi-urban mixed type of land-use (see “land-use”) and the settlement pattern is rather blurred. In all cases the area of jurisdiction of a metropolitan authority has to be clearly defined or numerous disputes and local disturbances might arise. In South Africa, where local authorities are elected bodies, numerous different metropolitan areas were amalgamated into larger metropolitan areas after the 1994 regime change. Initially this caused quite a bit of uncertainty for both the inhabitants and the authorities, but many of those teething problems have now been overcome.
