kaupunkiseudun

Kaupunkiseudun is the genitive form of the Finnish compound word kaupunkiseutu, which combines kaupunki (city) and seutu (region). In usage, kaupunkiseudun appears in phrases that denote possession or association, for example kaupunkiseudun kehitys (development of the urban region) or kaupunkiseudun liikenneyhteydet (transport connections of the urban area).

As a concept, kaupunkiseutu refers to an urban region or city region: a contiguous area centered on one or more cities and including surrounding municipalities that are functionally integrated by commuting, services, housing and infrastructure. It is commonly used in urban planning, regional development and public administration in Finland to describe areas that share economic and social systems even if they are not a single municipality.

Kaupunkiseutu is related to but distinct from formal administrative units: it does not always correspond to municipal boundaries or legal regions. For statistical and planning purposes, Finnish authorities and research organizations may delineate kaupunkiseudut or use comparable terms such as metropolitan area, functional urban area or sub-region (seutukunta). Examples include references to the Helsinki metropolitan region, Tampereen kaupunkiseutu and Turun kaupunkiseutu in planning documents.

The term emphasizes inter-municipal cooperation on land use, housing, transport and economic policy, and appears frequently in regional strategies, zoning plans and infrastructure projects.