Randstad

The Randstad ( ; "Rim City" or "Edge City") is a roughly crescent- or arc-shaped conurbation in the Netherlands, that includes almost half the country's population. With a central-western location, it connects and comprises the Netherlands' four biggest cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht), their suburbs, and many towns in between, that all grew and merged into each other. Among other things, it includes the Port of Rotterdam (the world's busiest seaport outside Asia), the Port of Amsterdam (Europe's fourth-busiest seaport), and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (Europe's fourth-busiest airport). With a population of approximately 8.4 million people it is one of the largest metropolitan regions in Europe, comparable in population size to the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region or the San Francisco Bay Area, and covers an area of approximately . The Randstad had a gross regional domestic product of €510 billion in 2022, making it the second most productive region in the European Union, only behind the Paris metropolitan area. It encompasses both the Amsterdam metropolitan area and Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area. It is part of the larger Blue Banana megalopolis. The Randstad's main cities are Almere, Amsterdam, Delft, Dordrecht, Haarlem, The Hague, Leiden, Rotterdam, and Utrecht.…

The Randstad ( ; "Rim City" or "Edge City") is a roughly crescent- or arc-shaped conurbation in the Netherlands, that includes almost half the country's population. With a central-western location, it connects and comprises the Netherlands' four biggest cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht), their suburbs, and many towns in between, that all grew and merged into each other. Among other things, it includes the Port of Rotterdam (the world's busiest seaport outside Asia), the Port of Amsterdam (Europe's fourth-busiest seaport), and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (Europe's fourth-busiest airport). With a population of approximately 8.4 million people it is one of the largest metropolitan regions in Europe, comparable in population size to the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region or the San Francisco Bay Area, and covers an area of approximately . The Randstad had a gross regional domestic product of €510 billion in 2022, making it the second most productive region in the European Union, only behind the Paris metropolitan area. It encompasses both the Amsterdam metropolitan area and Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area. It is part of the larger Blue Banana megalopolis. The Randstad's main cities are Almere, Amsterdam, Delft, Dordrecht, Haarlem, The Hague, Leiden, Rotterdam, and Utrecht. Other cities and towns include Alkmaar, Alphen aan den Rijn, Amersfoort, Amstelveen, Capelle aan den IJssel, Gouda, Heerhugowaard, Hilversum, Hoofddorp, Hoorn, Lelystad, Nieuwegein, Purmerend, Rijswijk, Schiedam, Spijkenisse, Vlaardingen, Zaandam, Zeist, and Zoetermeer. Although the name Randstad is often translated into English as "edge city" or "border city", a more accurate translation would be "rim city". The Dutch name was coined in 1938 by KLM founder Albert Plesman who, while flying over the region, used it to describe a strip of cities at the rim of a large green agricultural area (the Green Heart). While technically more of a crescent (the southeastern edge of the rim is significantly less populated), the ring shape formed by connecting the four major cities of the region led to the use of the name "Ring City". ==Geography== Image:Randstad_with_scale.png|thumb|Schematic map of the Randstad circle 528 380 26 Schiphol rect 426 356 498 436 Haarlemmermeer rect 399 166 479 245 Velsen circle 250 716 32 Delft circle 220 642 60 The Hague circle 456 569 27 Alphen aan den Rijn circle 555 201 52 Zaanstad circle 999 168 42 Lelystad circle 798 474 29 Hilversum circle 492 692 34 Gouda circle 347 654 31 Zoetermeer circle 944 532 40 Amersfoort circle 521 24 33 Alkmaar circle 442 294 44 Haarlem circle 466 943 36 Dordrecht circle 334 537 30 Leiden circle 840 314 50 Almere rect 245 738 400 869 Rotterdam rect 13 725 81 789 Port of Rotterdam rect 82 749 116 788 Port of Rotterdam rect 117 778 148 803 Port of Rotterdam rect 120 804 209 835 Port of Rotterdam rect 158 826 247 857 Port of Rotterdam circle 742 617 53 Utrecht circle 615 324 88 Amsterdam showing the population sizes of larger towns and cities in the Randstad circa 2012]] Recently, Dutch planners have started to refer to the Randstad as Deltametropool. This actually consists of two large metropolitan areas: ===Noordvleugel=== The ("North Wing"), with a population of around 3.6 million people, consists of the Haarlem and IJmuiden conurbations in the west, Amsterdam at the centre and Almere, the Gooi area and Utrecht in the east. The conurbation of Utrecht (population around one million) can be considered to be part of this wing, but can also be excluded. The cultural centre of the Noordvleugel, however, is notably centered on Amsterdam, which could as such be considered a classical centralistic metropolis. Amsterdam recently started to present itself as the Amsterdam metropolitan area (Metropoolregio Amsterdam). The expectation is that the use of the terms Noordvleugel and the Randstad will become less prevalent as a result. While Utrecht is not the center of the Noordvleugel, it is in fact the center of the whole of the Netherlands itself. While being categorised as part of the Randstad, the Utrecht agglomeration lies relatively further apart, owing to its long history of rivalry with Holland and Amsterdam in particular. Utrecht is much more monocentric than Amsterdam, which has booming satellite cities such as Haarlem and Almere. While Utrecht functions as the gateway to the Randstad for both car and rail transport, it is disconnected from the virtually continuous urbanised zone in western Holland by the protected polder landscape of the Groene Hart. The North Wing of the Randstad is expected to grow more in population than the Zuidvleugel and the Groene Hart areas, with the growth of population also being in effect for a longer period of time, compared to the other two areas. ===Zuidvleugel=== The Zuidvleugel ("South Wing"), with a population of around 3.5 million people, stretches some 60 kilometers from Dordrecht in the southeast to Leiden in the north. The main conurbations are the Rotterdam and The Hague areas. The virtual centre of the Zuidvleugel lies in between these two major cities, near Delft. The first steps toward this development were taken with the construction of a new fast light-rail connection between Rotterdam and The Hague: RandstadRail. A long-delayed extension of the western A4 motorway from the south of Delft to Rotterdam has also been constructed, creating a second connection from Rotterdam, via The Hague, to Amsterdam. A possible new area would be the Zuidoostflank; parallel to the A2 motorway (from Amsterdam to Eindhoven) and parallel to the A12 motorway (Utrecht to WERV (Wageningen, Ede, Rhenen and Veenendaal)), as this region has much potential to strengthen the knowledge economy of the Randstad. Over the last few decades, a major topic in the Randstad is the conflict between the cities and the towns in between. These towns and the surrounding countryside, known as the Groene Hart (Green Heart), 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 losing their identity and autonomy. ==References== ==External links== OECD Territorial Reviews: Randstad Holland, Netherlands Official Zuidvleugel website;

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