New processes of metropolitan expansion: accelerated increase in urban land in the Rosario Metropolitan Area (1990-2010)

During the last decades of the twentieth century, various global territories have been experiencing new metropolitan dynamics and accelerated processes of transformation. This article interprets the characteristics of Latin American urban expansions, their causes and socio-territorial impacts, using the Metropolitan Area of Rosario (AMR), Argentina as a case study. Through a qualitative-quantitative methodology and through a multiscale approach, we analyze the development of urban land from the 1930s to the present, identifying new urbanizations, population dynamics, intervening actors and urban-territorial planning instruments. It is thus identified that the localities that present a greater increase of urban land are those close to the capital city and lacking urban plans, registering logics and problems in relation to those existing in the traditional city.