ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I will discuss the future scenarios for the spatial and economic development of the Randstad (the highly urbanized western part of the Netherlands). During the past 50 years, this region of six million inhabitants, four major urban centers and 20 medium-sized cities within an area the size of the Ile de France evolved into an increasingly undifferentiated patchwork of daily urban systems, structured by the sprawl of business and new towns along highway axes. There is increasing pressure from high economic and population growth and congestion, particularly in the northern wing of the Randstad, which includes the two overlapping commuter fields of Amsterdam and Utrecht. Because of land scarcity and a rising awareness of environmental issues, the Dutch planning tradition of low-density urban development has become increasingly irrelevant.
