The spatial and economic transformation of cities and the countryside is a long continuing process that goes back to the industrialisation of western countries during the nineteenth century. However, during the second half of the twentieth century, the processes of urbanisation and industrialisation drastically changed the spatial and functional structures of cities and regions. The radical shift in spatial patterns and economic structure of cities is the result of complex processes involving various incremental small changes at the spatial, technological, political, economic, socio-cultural and institutional levels.