ABSTRACT
Atits coastal extremity the southern Randstad wing begins at Leiden, an agglomeration with a population of approximately 170,000 lying close to the border between North Holland and South Holland. South-east of the Rotterdam conurbation, the urbanisation pattern of the remainder of the southern wing is fragmented. Downstream from Schiedam and Pernis, the port is almost completely confined to the southern bank of the river, where its landscape is dominated by oil storage, oil refining and the production of petrochemicals. Rotterdam's changing fortunes suggest that pressure exerted by the port on the northern fringes of the Delta is unlikely to increase in the immediate future. Yet it must be recognised that factors such as the activities of environmentalists, and the cost of sites in the New Waterway industrial area, have stimulated interest in Delta locations that are remote from the residential districts of the Rotterdam conurbation.
