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Algiers is experiencing spatial and structural changes in its economy, as a result of globalization working in the world's metropolises, targeting the tertiary activities of the new global economy. The metropolis of Algeria, concentrates: population, activities and wealth, at the head of its network at three scales: urban, regional and national providing an international position in the Mediterranean basin on its south shore. Gateway to Globalization, Algiers is transforming the economic organization of its national urban system. This new tertiary sector concerns higher services, and calls for metropolitan functions (high level) and attaches to reinforce the higher level of the urban hierarchy. Our approach is based on GIS to capture changes; territorial and metropolitan movements (overconcentration and deconcentration) take place between central and peripheral neighborhoods, producing a new organization, which is the global metropolisation, linked to economic internationalization, the official beginning of which dates from 1997. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two strategic plans for Algiers: SNAT 2030, and PDAU 2015–2035 that seek to enhance its competitiveness to keep pace with other Mediterranean cities have been approved. A metropolisation process, as it is politically called, that would market the capital through a series of megaprojects is taking place. Such a tendency paradoxically counteracts previous planning instructions that strived for the control of its spatial expansion and avoid the scenarios of other underdeveloped megacities. This study examines the urban and environmental costs of such a policy that would lead to an unmanageable megacity, and thus, draws this tragic scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]