Page 173 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - The Netherlands

INTRODUCING THE WESTERN NE THERLANDS  171

IJburg is a new
district, built on the Growth of the Randstad
IJmeer to the east
of Amsterdam. As far back as the end of the 15th
Another plan century, the Western Netherlands was
for municipal one of the most urbanized regions of
expansion into the Europe. It was only during the 20th
water is Nieuw century that the borders between the
Holland, a long, towns became blurred and what is
narrow piece of now known as the Randstad emerged.
land in front of the At present 6.5 million people live here.
coast between
Scheveningen and
Hoek van Holland.
Amsterdam
The Hague Groene
Hart Utrecht
Rotterdam

Randstad around 1900

Amsterdam

The Hague Groene
Hart Utrecht
Rotterdam

Randstad around 1950

Amsterdam

The Hague Groene Utrecht
Hart
Rotterdam

Randstad around 2000
In contrast, the Groene Hart has only
600,000 inhabitants. Earnings in the
Randstad account for half of the gross
national product. The main product is
provision of services, with Amsterdam
as the financial centre, The Hague as
Schiphol was, in the last decade, the fastest-growing airport the administrative centre, Hilversum
in Europe. It benefits from a central location – close to as the focus of the audiovisual
many of Holland’s major cities – and good rail and road media and Rotterdam-Rijnmond and
connections. Expansion of the airport was halted by the Schiphol as an important port and
objections of residents and environmental groups, but after airport respectively.
considering other locations, such as an artificial island in the
North Sea, Schiphol will indeed expand into adjacent areas.

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