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The analysis and management of the territory from the perspective of the current administrative boundaries produce interpretative errors and, therefore, operational consequences in the determination of plans and projects. Nowadays, the physical and functional configuration of the urban territory has exceeded the traditional administrative limits and the border with the rural world. In this regard, the emerged forms of organization still need to be analysed. This paper develops a methodology to build a new framework which may be able to go beyond the traditional boundaries pre-established by public administrations in the Iberian Peninsula. This is not simply a question of metropolization, but rather identifying the total of functional urban areas with an approach as broad as possible, to rendering them a full significance and categorization. As a result, 273 functional urban areas of very varied characterization have been delimited in the Iberian Peninsula. All of them still need to be explored within themselves and comparatively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]