Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0257/02576.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 17KB | 341 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02576}
$Pretitle{433}
$Title{Netherlands
Urbanization and Transport}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{H. Meijer}
$Affiliation{Information and Documentation Center}
$Subject{towns
population
number
netherlands
country
large
growth
dutch
migration
provinces}
$Date{1989}
$Log{Magere Brug (Skinny Bridge)*0257601.scf
Table 7.*0257601.tab
Table 8.*0257602.tab
Table 9.*0257603.tab
Table 10.*0257604.tab
}
Country:     Netherlands
Book:        The Kingdom of the Netherlands
Author:      H. Meijer
Affiliation: Information and Documentation Center
Date:        1989

Urbanization and Transport

[See Magere Brug (Skinny Bridge): Amsterdam. Courtesy Embassy of Netherlands,
Washington DC]

     Man's impact on the Dutch countryside can be seen in terms of cultivation
and in terms of towns and roads. The Netherlands is a highly urbanized
country. As Figure 21 shows, most of the urban settlements existed by the late
Middle Ages, although there are very few ancient towns. The Romans established
a small number of settlements including those at Maastricht, Nymegen and
Utrecht, but large present-day cities such as Rotterdam and Amsterdam were
unimportant fishing villages in the early Middle Ages.

     Mediaeval towns were primarily centres of trade and were also fortresses
which for centuries had a clearly defensive role. The fortifications of small
towns have survived despite the 19th century craze for demolition.

     As a result of growing industrialization, the populations of towns
increased rapidly and ramparts, moats, walls and gates together with the
clearly defined division between town and country disappeared. Urban expansion
took various forms; sometimes it was in concentric circles, or along roads or
railway lines.

     Neighbouring villages were taken over giving rise to
conurbations.

     The function of towns changed, too, as industry became as important as
trade.

     The lack of large supplies of coal and iron-ore, however, meant that
genuine industrial regions like the Midlands in England or the Rhine-Ruhr
district in Germany did not develop in the Netherlands. Instead, industry was
established in or near existing ports or trading centres, notably in North and
South Holland, where the concentration of towns became known as 'Randstad
Holland' (the western conurbation). Figure 22 shows how the town grew in this
part of the country. The difference between the Randstad and London or Paris
is that it consists of a number of separate towns each with its own particular
function, history and character grouped around an 'open' central region.
However, like so many other areas of countryside the 'Green Heart' of the
Netherlands is being threatened by suburbanization, i.e. the rapid growth of
small towns near the large ones further away from the conurbation. The growth
of these small towns is due to the fact that many city-dwellers are seeking
more attractive living and housing conditions outside the cities and increased
mobility in the form of private transport has made commuting possible. In
recent years an increasing number of businesses in the industrial and service
sector have followed the commuter's example in the search for cheaper land and
fewer traffic problems.


     These developments are undesirable from the point of view of the
environment: towns deteriorate economically and socially when people and
business move out and at the same time the countryside loses its rural charm.
Furthermore, the increasing distances commuted between home and work result in
an undesirable increase in traffic. In view of this situation, the government
wishes to maintain as far as possible the clear-cut division between town and
country, which has always characterized the Netherlands.

     This can only be done to a limited extent with respect to the traffic
infrastructure. The Dutch countryside has always been criss-crossed by
numerous rivers and canals. In the second half of the 19th century a dense
railway network was added and this was followed this century by motorways and
complex interchanges (Fig. 23). In the past ten years the road network has
been considerably enlarged to accommodate the greater number of cars and the
subsequent increase in mobility. The government is trying to slow down the
rapid expansion of the road network by encouraging people to live near their
work, by creating ample recreational facilities within reach of people's homes
and by carefully integrating the various forms of transport.

Conclusion

     The development of the Dutch landscape can be seen as a reasonably
harmonious process until recently when various problems emerged. Man has
largely fashioned the landscape, and his activities have continually created
problems, but at a certain point a halt had to be called. Since 1945 there has
been a rapid increase in the population and unprecedented economic growth and
the problems have become increasingly apparent. The farmer, who for centuries
acted as the guardian of the countryside, is now guilty of destroying its
natural beauty by taking drastic measures to make his farm more profitable.
Towns which used to blend with the countryside, now sprawl across more and
more land. The same applies to the traffic infrastructure which has become so
intricate that it dominates the countryside, dissecting it into tiny little
sections. The Dutch have become more aware of these problems in recent years
as a result of the desire to create as pleasant an environment as possible.

     Even in the struggle against the water, where until recently there seemed
to be no alternative methods, consideration is being given to conflicting
interests and the general public are being allowed to participate in the
decision-making process.

     A good example is the discussion about the possible poldering of the
Markerwaard in Lake Yssel.

Demographic background

Introduction

     The inhabitants of the Netherlands belong to the Caucasian race; their
principal language, Dutch, is of Germanic origin, whilst Frisian, a fairly
closely related Germanic language, is spoken in the province of Friesland.

     The Netherlands is also inhabited by people from the former Dutch
colonies of Indonesia and Suriname as well as by foreign workers from the
countries around the Mediterranean Sea (about 350,000), most of whom settled
in the Netherlands in the sixties and seventies.

Religion

     The table below shows religious denominations in the Netherlands and
the shifts that have taken place since 1900.

     The most striking feature of these statistics is the fact that membership
of the Dutch Reformed Church has fallen by more than half, against what is
nearly a sixteen-fold increase in the non-denominational group. Generally
speaking, Roman Catholics are concentrated in the provinces of North Brabant
and Limburg, while Protestants predominate in an area stretching diagonally
across the country from the south-west (Zeeland) to the north-east
(Groningen). Secularism is largely characteristic of the large towns. A
distinctive feature of the Netherlands is the extent to which denominational
divisions - Catholic, Protestant and secular - are evident in many areas of
social and economic life such as education, politics, the media, trade unions
and even leisure pursuits.

[See Table 7.: Denomination as percentage of total population]

Size and growth of the population

     The table below shows that the population of the Netherlands has
increased more than seven-fold since the first census was taken more than 150
years ago. It also shows that the percentage increase since 1900 is three
times that recorded for the preceding period.

[See Table 8.: Number of inhabitants]

     The growth in population is mainly attributable to natural causes.

     During the 19th century improved medical care and standards of hygiene
brought about a decline in mortality. Between 1900 and 1988 the death rate
dropped further from 1.8% to 0.83% (Fig. 24). In the fifties mortality was
even lower (0.76% in 1958) but the