Randstad
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- This article is about an agglomeration in the Netherlands. For the worldwide operating temporary employment company with the same name see Randstad Holding.
The Randstad is an agglomeration in the Netherlands. It consists of the four largest cities, and the surrounding areas. With its 7.5 million inhabitants (almost half of the population of the Netherlands. If other agglomerations chained to this area counted, it would have a population between the 10 and 11 million, alsmost 2/3 of the entire Dutch population. See Hot Issues for further details) it's one of the largest agglomerations in Europe. Its main cities are Almere, Amsterdam, Delft, Dordrecht, Gouda, Haarlem, Hilversum, Leiden, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, and Zoetermeer. Other large cities include Alphen aan den Rijn, Amersfoort, Amstelveen, Capelle aan den IJssel, Hoofddorp, Leidschendam, Nieuwegein, Purmerend, Rijswijk, Schiedam, Spijkenisse, Vlaardingen, Voorburg, and Zaanstad.
Together with the agglomerations of the Ruhr Area, Antwerp, Brussels, Paris agglomeration, the Greater London Area, and several 'smaller' urban areas such as Lille-Kortrijk and Maastricht-Liege-Aachen, it is the economic engine of the EU. This area is also the most urbanized area of the EU, with a total of around the 50 million people living in this area.
The cities of the Randstad form more or less a crescent or chain. This chain gave the Randstad its name (rand meaning rim or edge and stad meaning city). The area that is enclosed by the larger cities is called the Green Heart (Groene Hart).
Hot Issues
Over the last few decades, a major topic in the Randstad is the "conflict" between the major cities and the towns inbetween. These towns are usually much greener than the cities, they house many commuters that work in the cities and the former strongly depend on the latter for facilities such as hospitals and large scale entertainment. Cities need more space to expand, yet the towns fear to lose their identity and authority. The towns tend to cooperate to withstand this pressure and sometimes even merge to unite their power.
Another 'hot issue' about the Randstad Holland Delta Metropole, is the question about it's borders. Nobody can tell where the Randstad Holland Delta Metropole begins, and where it ends. Some will say that only the four biggest cities of the Netherlands and their agglomerations are part of this Metropole, others would say that agglomerations as Alkmaar-Hoorn-Lelystad (above Amsterdam), Brabant-stad, also called Brabantse Stedenrij (Brabantine City Row), (south of Utrecht, east from Rotterdam, an agglomeration which includes cities as Eindhoven, Tilburg, Breda and Roosendaal) and Betuwe-stad (east from both Utrecht as Brabant-stad, an agglomeration which includes Nijmegen and Arnhem) are also part of this conurbation. All those agglomerations are self-sufficient areas, but with many things, they still rely upon the bigger cities and there agglomerations. For an example: Alkmaar, Hoorn and Lelystad are the biggest cities in there region. But many of the people living there, work, have other activities, or go to school in Amsterdam. Therefore they are quite tight with the Randstad Holland Delta Metropole, and thus they can be justified as part of the Metropole (for further details: see the articles of Global City, Agglomeration and Metropolitan Area). In the last case the population of this Metropole would be between the 10 and 11 million inhabitants, which is almost 2/3 of the Dutch population, and also one of the biggest agglomerations of the EU, as well of Europe.
The Green Heart (Dutch:Groene Hart) is another hotly debated issue closely related to the conflict between cities and towns. On the one hand people feel this large and relatively sparsely populated area should be protected, as it is considered a valuable rural area amongst cities. On the other hand, many (wealthier) people enjoy living in the relatively quiet environment near their places of work and the facilities the Randstad provides.
Recently, Dutch planologists have started to refer to the Randstad as Deltametropool [link]. Deltametropolis actually consists of two large metropolitan areas:
1. The Noordvleugel (North Wing, with a population of around 2.5 million people), consisting of the Haarlem and IJmuiden conurbations in the west, Amsterdam at the centre and Almere and the Gooi-area in the east. The conurbation of Utrecht (pop. around an extra 800,000) could also be considered to be part of the North Wing. The main center is however clearly Amsterdam, which could - as such - be considered a classical centralistic metropole.
2. The Zuidvleugel (South Wing, with a population of around 3.5 million people), stretching some 60 kilometers from Dordrecht in the South East to Leiden in the North. The main conurbations are the more or less equivalent Rotterdam and The Hague areas. The virtual centre of the Zuidvleugel lies in between those two major cities, near Delft, and - in some minds - this area should offer great potential for future development. The first steps toward that development are being made at this moment with the construction of a new fast light-rail connection between Rotterdam and The Hague: Randstad Rail. A long delayed extension of the western A4-highway from the south of Delft to Rotterdam has also been put back on the administrative agenda, creating a second connection between Rotterdam, via The Hague, to Amsterdam. A colloquial joke is: "There is only one Dutch city... the Randstad"
External links
- [Regio Randstad official website] (English)
- [Official Zuidvleugel website] (Dutch)
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