Together with the cities of Oslo, Prague, Brno, Lyon, Terrassa, Lille, Brussels, Vienna and Turin, the City of Zurich is participating in the ESPON project SPIMA (Spatial Dynamics and Strategic Planning in Metropolitan Areas). ESPON (European Observation Network for territorial development and cohesion) is a comprehensive spatial observation network in which Switzerland is involved. It develops comparative analyses and scenarios on spatial development dynamics.

Building on the multi-year work of the Eurocities working group "Metropolitan Areas" (including the MAIA study), ESPON will collect and evaluate data with the project partners. The main question is how spatial development works at the metropolitan level, and in what context in relation to the participating metropolitan areas. What is fundamental is how the cooperation between the higher-level corporations, the core city and the surrounding cities and regions in the metropolitan area works. The answers to this basic question depend on the national and local framework of the metropolitan areas and their spatial structure. The conventional methods of spatial cooperation and the framework conditions must be questioned. Key factors are to be identified that can best solve the major challenges in the spatial development of metropolitan areas.