This review aims at representing the urban systems both in the continental territory, and in the Madeira Autonomous Region, by analysing both the urban centres hierarchy and the interactions generated for the purchasing of goods and services purpose. 

It aims as well at typifying the territorial levels of functional marginality, based on a set of goods and services provided by different domains. For this general purpose, several stages were established as follows: 

— Developing a functional hierarchy according to uncommonness; 

— Developing a centrality index for the urban centres, in accordance with the functions provided; 

— Delimiting the influence areas of the urban centres and quantifying it in terms of freguesias (parishes), population and area; 

— Quantifying the functional marginality of the territories by analysing the functions provided and those with tendency to universalise, as well as to measure the functional marginality levels of the territories for some particular functions.