# Metropolitan area different than cities
**URL:** https://community.citystrides.com/t/metropolitan-area-different-than-cities/24004
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [December 9, 2021, 8:39pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/metropolitan-area-different-than-cities/24004 "2021-12-09T20:39:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@nikolaoskarellos](https://community.citystrides.com/u/nikolaoskarellos)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2021, 8:39pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/metropolitan-area-different-than-cities/24004/1 "2021-12-09T20:39:10Z")
Hi
Some cities are in reality expanded metropolitan areas. For instance the city of Volos, Greece, since 2010 has become a metropolitan area and has incorporated several smaller Municipalities which are clearly geographically separated several miles away. They only belong administratevely to Volos.
This makes them non exiting as distinctive cities and second, it almost impossible to complete the city of Volos, since it is no longer one urban area but several ones.
Is it possible to have the huge administrative “city” separated to several independent cities, as they used to be till 2010? Can we do something with that? How are the borders defined?
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### Author:  [@8f7162110d9eeaf907ab](https://community.citystrides.com/u/8f7162110d9eeaf907ab)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2021, 10:35am UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/metropolitan-area-different-than-cities/24004/2 "2021-12-11T10:35:25Z")
Hi Nikos,
CityStrides pulls the boundaries for cities from openstreetmap. By default these are administrative boundaries, since that’s what’s reliably available. For Volos the metro region is the lowest level available boundary in OSM, so there isn’t anything to use for just Volos city. I think it’s no longer a requirement that boundaries have to be administrative, so if you can add a boundary for Volos city this could be imported and nested in the metro area (see Brussels or other bigger cities for example).
Volos metro looks big, but not impossible. Are you sure you don’t want to give it a go? 😉
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### Author:  [@nikolaoskarellos](https://community.citystrides.com/u/nikolaoskarellos)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2021, 1:48pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/metropolitan-area-different-than-cities/24004/3 "2021-12-11T13:48:26Z")
Volos has incorporated a huge area and a dozen of previously existing municipalities, most of which were distinctive. Some might be suburban areas that could be considered as “neighborhoods”. But some others, are several kilometers away (12 - 19 kilometers) with their own historical backgound, huge altitude differences (600 meters / 1800 feet) different buildings and landscape etc.
Since a decade ago the nu,ner of municipalities of the Prefecture of Magnesia tshrunk from 19 to 5. Many of those cities became under the administration of one of them while they might be an hour’s drive away, windy roads, rural or mountain landsape, huge altitude gap, dangerous highways to walk etc.
For all this reasons I think it would be wise to split those municipalities to what they were before. Otherwise i Consider it impossible to complete.
Imagine having walked almost every street in an urban area of 70000 people and still haveing a low percentage because you will have to walk a 19 kms / 10 mile highway to the next city that is concidered to be as one with the one you have walked.
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### Author:  [@nikolaoskarellos](https://community.citystrides.com/u/nikolaoskarellos)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2021, 1:57pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/metropolitan-area-different-than-cities/24004/4 "2021-12-11T13:57:45Z")
I can see some boundaries that truly refere to urban areas (and not the rural areas in between), already existing in openstreetmap. Or find them from other sources. The problem is how to define those selected city borders as a new city in mapmyride, or draw or import borders into openstreetmap.
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### Author:  [@8f7162110d9eeaf907ab](https://community.citystrides.com/u/8f7162110d9eeaf907ab)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2021, 7:54pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/metropolitan-area-different-than-cities/24004/5 "2021-12-11T19:54:55Z")
This is what the currently used boundary is in OSM: [Relation: Δήμος Βόλου (2242283) | OpenStreetMap](https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/2242283). Could you share the boundaries you mention?
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### Author:  [@nikolaoskarellos](https://community.citystrides.com/u/nikolaoskarellos)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2021, 9:46pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/metropolitan-area-different-than-cities/24004/6 "2021-12-11T21:46:39Z")
Hi
These are th enew boundaries indeed of the huge area of the administration of the city of Volos.
Among the previously independent cities was Nea Anchialos
([Nea Anchialos - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nea_Anchialos))
[Way: Νέα Αγχίαλος (31921598) | OpenStreetMap](https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/31921598#map=15/39.2791/22.8188)
another city is Agria
> **[Way: Αγριά (62227439) | OpenStreetMap](https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/62227439)**
>
> OpenStreetMap is a map of the world, created by people like you and free to use under an open license.
or Makrinitsa
> **[Way: Μακρινίτσα (361255775) | OpenStreetMap](https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/361255775#map=16/39.3996/22.9863)**
>
> OpenStreetMap is a map of the world, created by people like you and free to use under an open license.
Unfortunately I do not see the original borders of Volos city. Only these new administrative ones, that include many miles of busy highways.
In Greek wikipedia you will notice a colorful map with all the towns that have been merged under Volos and cover a huge area. Volos in reality is only the red area , marked with No1
> **[Δήμος Βόλου](https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%94%CE%AE%CE%BC%CE%BF%CF%82_%CE%92%CF%8C%CE%BB%CE%BF%CF%85)**
>
> Ο Δήμος Βόλου είναι δήμος της Περιφέρειας Θεσσαλίας με έδρα τον Βόλο. Η έκταση του Δήμου είναι 387,14 τ.χλμ. και ο πληθυσμός του ανέρχεται σε 144.449 κατοίκους, σύμφωνα με την Απογραφή του 2011 (141.675 κάτοικοι κατά την Απογραφή του 2001).
> Η σημερινή μορφή του δήμου προέκυψε, με το Πρόγραμμα Καλλικράτης, από την επέκταση του αρχικού Δήμου Βόλου με την συνένωση των προϋπαρχόντων δήμων Ιωλκού, Νέας Αγχιάλου, Αγριάς, Πορταριάς, Νέας Ιωνίας, Αρτέμιδας και Αισωνίας, καθώς και της Κοινότητας Μακρι...
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### Author:  [@8f7162110d9eeaf907ab](https://community.citystrides.com/u/8f7162110d9eeaf907ab)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2021, 5:09pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/metropolitan-area-different-than-cities/24004/7 "2021-12-18T17:09:37Z")
@nikolaoskarellos in [this thread](https://community.citystrides.com/t/metro-districts-or-other-census-designated-places/22161) you can find some info about how to add cities in CityStrides. For the links you posted which are ways you only need to add them to the spreadsheet (and maybe mention that they should be nested in the Volos area). For Volos City it would be necessary to define a boundary in OSM first.
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### Author:  [@nikolaoskarellos](https://community.citystrides.com/u/nikolaoskarellos)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2022, 3:59pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/metropolitan-area-different-than-cities/24004/8 "2022-01-11T15:59:08Z")
Yes thanks. With the recent merger of huge geographical areas, this has become a big problem in many cases.