Groningnen: a mini-metropolis

7/27/2019 Groningnen: a mini-metropolis

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STEFANO(SALORIANI((((SPSP(COURSE((((24.09.2013((((((((((((((((((((IS(GRONINGEN(A(MINI(METROPOLIS?( 1!!

International School of Spatial Policy Studies

Faculty of Spatial Sciences

University of Groningen

course coordinator: P.J.M. van Steen

SPATIAL PROBLEMS AND SPATIAL POLICIES:

THE DUTCH EXPERIENCE

Local paper_24.09.2013

The city of Groningen has been described as a mini-metropolis.

Is this justifiable?

Stefano Saloriani_Student number S2598671


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Abstract

The aim of the topic is not just to understand if is possible to describe Groningen as a metropolis,but reflect firstly on the meaning of the terms related to the context of study. This is possible onlyproceeding by step and tempts in order to realize gradually that the common idea of themetropolis could be changed due to a specific situation such as this in discussion.Finally there will be also a space to think about the new issues regarding urban environment, thatsome experts have caught, in order to clarifythat also a mini-metropolis has to challengewith themto find a way to develop itself. A path that probably is findable in its core and in its fundamentalcharacters.

IntroductionMetropolis is a term that comes to mind immediately a quite definite image in almost all of people

and, however in recent years a lot of studies about this terms has been made founding newimplication around its mean (metropolitan areas, megalopolis, urban city regions etc), there are

some important characteristics that remain clear and recognisable. So in order to start the attemptto understand if Groningen is a mini-metropolis, is fairly useful to begin with the basic notions asthe urban form, population statistics, flows and economic aspects.

Then, as could be predictable, will be clearer that Groningen probably is not a metropoliscompared to Tokyo, Los Angeles or London because it has not all the characteristics. Therefore

the paper will shift the level of the analysis in order to find a better context to study Groningen.The new context will be the Netherlands and its urban areas. This terms is nodal becauseimmediately explain that despite of Groningen is the 7th city of the country, the presence ofRandstad makes impossible relate a such nodal international area with Groningen otherwisewould be as the previous level of analysis without any step forward in this short research.

Consequently proceeding to the last step of the research that is oriented to another context that is

the Northern Region of the Netherlands; this is a sort of separate part of the country but that ishowever important mainly because it is the right background to understand that here Groningen isreally a mini-metropolis. In order to make evident this hypothesis will be presented a series ofdata, maps and graphs that will reinforce this thesis; infrastructure, population, employment dataetc will show how Groningen is important as a nodal point for the entire region.

Finally with the last part will sum up the meanings of metropolis and what is changed from the

initial step of this paper, and then we will continue trying to meditate on the possible scenarios thatmay face a mini metropolis.


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3,5 mln

8,3 mln

13,1 mln

192k

Los Angeles London Tokyo Groningen

Form, population, economy: are they enough to say metropolis

As I said before this first part investigate in a basic point of view the cities and what is it ametropolis. The image below is useful to see some macro differences between Tokyo, LosAngeles, London and finally Groningen.

As was predictable the urban form is completely different both between the cities and incomparison to Groningen. The disparities are many but in this phase is preferable analyse just themore simple aspects that anyone could find; so is evident that Groningen is almost ten timesmaller then the other cities.

Again, looking at another macro statistic factorlike the population, is easily understandable thegap that Groningen has, but on more time, that

the peculiarities are findable between the otherbig metropolis.

Of course, this is still a superficial way to look atthe cities but is quite useful to have a support on

the basic idea that to realize if Groningen is amini-metropolis probably the comparisonbetween the world contexts is not so useful.

This brief first part of the paper will be concluded with some information about the economic of thefour cities and also with few words that regard one of the most important flux in this last years that

are the international flights.

30km

Los Angeles

London

30km

Tokyo

30km30km

Groningen

Figure 1 - Urban form comparison

Figure 2 - Urban population comparison


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The image below on the left, shows again how different are the cities in argument. But is importantto note that there isnt the data about Groningen; that is not really bad because this shows betterthe differences. Because it is possible to observe that Los Angeles, London and Tokyo are able toproduce from half to the double amount of GDP produced by the Netherlands and then this is truealso for Groningen that certainly in terms of GDP created in the municipality, is incomparable withthe other three cities.

One of the last topics before moving to the core of this paper, is the intensity of the relationshipsamong the world metropolis in terms of international flights routes. New York, London and LosAngeles are the biggest point, but is possible to see also Amsterdam. This city is the link thatleads us directly to the second part.

A metropolis for a region: understanding what happens in another contextAs underlined many times, is not the best approach to compare Groningen with the biggest city in

the world, but is necessary a shifting in the scale otherwise is probable, staying in a too large

scale, that the conclusions (however true) do not deal with phenomena and trends observable at asmaller scale.This is the reason why the next step has the aim to better understand the Netherlands context tosee if at this level we can find different factors that pose in a different position Groningen.

Seeing the image on the leftit would appear correct to say

that using the entire Dutchsituation to understand theimportance of Groningen is

correct because it is theseventh city in the list.But it is not correct again for

the fact that the first fifthcities are the largeragglomerations in the

Randstad hence, is not properly correct just focusing on itsinternal cities avoiding the rest making comparisons.Therefore is still wrong to compare Groningen with this nodal region that is one of the largestconurbations in Europe with a population of seven millions of people with international relations

and that is the pivot of the entire nation.

735,7 billion

446 billion

1.479 trillion

772,2 billion

Los Angeles London Tokyo The Netherlands

Figure 3 Comparison of GDP produced in each location Figure 4 Intensity of international flights routes

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Amsterdam

Rotterdam

505k

321k

218k

208k

195k

616k

799k

Figure 5 Population of the seven majorcities in the Netherlands

Figure 6 The Randstad


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A more accurate approach is to shiftagain the background and moving tothe Northern part of the Netherlands.Three provinces compose this portion ofland:

- Drenthe- Friesland

- Groningen

Is correct deal with this Region as if itwere separate from the rest of thenation for a traditional point of view butalso because was almost independent

some century ago, and during the 18-19th century was not widely touched bythe process of industrialisation (like inthe Randstad region) remaining more orless an agricultural region. Of coursethe situation with the development ofthe services sector has changed

something also due to the subsidyprovided by the EU.Finally the appropriate context has been

reached and now we can analyse more in deep the peculiar characteristics of Groningen.

Before to start with the maps and data is useful to better understand the situation, that Groningenis also know as Stad (city) and the residents as stadjers. This joined with the fact that the

province has the same name of the city should show how significant is the city for the region.

But there are other, and more important elements that indicate it as a key and nodal point for thearea. For example, as is findable in the images below, both the highways and railways passthrough the city and thus is possible to go in all directions (other city in the Northern Region butalso to Amsterdam in two hours by train, and to Bremen in two hours by bus) using also the Eeldeairport located near the city.The same is also for the waterway and for principal canals of the region that cut the city. Anotherelement that reinforce this argument is the presence of the main points of modal interchange for

the region, located very close to the Stad. The Groningen Railport and the Groningen Seaportare located respectively in Veendam and in Delfzijl (30km from Groningen).

Figure 7 The Netherlands and its regions

Figure 8 The Northern region system of highways (in green)and railways (in brown)

Figure 9 The Northern region system of waterways/canals


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Another central issue that shows thecrucial role of Groningen is recognizablefrom the graphs of population and fluxes.The first macro element is the totalamount of population that in Groningenis the bigger. This demonstrates againthat this city is a real point of attraction

for the area; fact that is observable notonly because it has a huge population,but mainly due to the amount ofimmigration and intermunicipalarrivals that have Groningen as adestination

Is notable that thepopulation growth (2010data) is positive more orless just in Groningen asthe gap between birthsand deaths.

In conclusion with this partof the population is crucialto remind that theimmigration data includealso the students. But thisis an argument that will bediscussed later.

Dealing again with the key role of Groningen as a magnet for the surrounding areas is correct topresent the commuting data. The city has 131.000 jobs (730 jobs per 1000 persons), 67.400 ofwhich are commuters from the surrounding municipalities in a 20km radius area1. Finally as waspredictable, seeing the occupational data, Groningen is one more time the core for the NorthNetherlands.

0!2000!4000!6000!8000!

10000!12000!14000!

Births! Deaths! Immigration! Intermunicipalarrivals! Populationgrowth!

195405!

67173!108411!

95978!

Groningen! Assen! Emmen! Leeuwarden!

Population of the municpalities!

Population fluxes

0!

500!

1000!

1500!

2000!

2500!

Manufac.! Trade! Transp.and

storage!Info and

communic.! Business! Education!Health andsocial ! Culture,sports! Otherservices!

Employment data


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The last two activities that now will be explained are crucialfor Groningen because of their importance are not just for theNorthern Region but for the entire Netherlands.In the picture is possible to see that Groningen is the only onecity with a university in the Northern context; but thefundamental point is that the university in addition to beingamong the top 100 universities (97th) in the world is also the

first in the Netherlands for the foreigner students.

Therefore is easily imaginable how a top university like the Rijksuniversiteit but also the Hanze

University can be important for the entire city (and certainly also for the entire region) in terms ofresearch, innovation, economy etc. Then the educational sector is for sure a recognizable element

to indicate it as a nodal hub for this part of Netherlands.

Finally there is also another key component of Groningen thatmakes really important the city: the health system and thehospitals. Mainly the University Medical Center Groningenwith its 10k employees, 125 professors, 1500 beds and almost30k admissions is really a core for the city and again for the

region that have a landmark (but also in the Martini hospital)

in this structure that is nodal also as was mentioned before isalso a university centre so also the educational sector isstrengthened due to this hospital and the research that arecarried out by students2.

ConclusionsAt the end of these short route to understand clearly what is it a metropolis and then if Groningencould be pointed out as a mini-metropolis, is possible to say firstly that the context is crucial. The

paper shown that in spite of this city is small, less populated and less rich compared to the biggestcities in the world like Los Angeles, Tokyo and London, is right to think about Groningen as a realnodal point for the entire North Region in terms of infrastructure, populations fluxes and hubs(education and health).At the same time it is know that the metropolis is not just made by an huge amount of population,and a strong economy, but is more complicated: as P.Hall wrote in 2009 is possible to say thatmetropolis are complex urban phenomenon that see the presence both of local base work and

supralocal and global fluxes of people and information. Regarding Groningen this is particularlytrue for the last two labour sectors that that have been described. Its necessary add that would bewrong to underestimate fundamental aspects like the social and physical phenomenon that theterms implies. Thinking about at the boundaries that long time ago was insurmountable (walls),nowadays are weak, evanescent and exist more or less just for an administrative point of view(Balducci 2012).

Figure 10 Universities in Netherlands

23.364Students

3.554Foreigners

2.674Foreigners

1.447Foreigners

19.055Students

31.005Students

Number ofstudent ofUniversity ofGroningen,Amsterdamand Leiden(by:topuniversities.com

Figure 11 Univestity Medical CenterGroningen view


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ReferencesTexts and reports

- Ashworth, G.J. (not dated) - Block D: Settlement issues- Balducci A. (2012) - Quale pianificazione per i territori post-metropolitani? Una riflessione apartire dalla rottura del legame tra forme dellurbano e confine amministrativi Planum Magazinevolume 2

- Coleman D., Garssen J. (2002) The Netherlands: paradigm or exception in Western Europesdemography? Demographic research

- Municipality of Groningen (2013) - Interacties van de gemeente Groningen met de omgeving:quick scan daily urban system- Municipality of Groningen (2013) Stadsmonitor gemeente Groningen: 195.453

- University Medical Center Groningen (2013) Within a city- VNG Association of Netherlands municipalities (2007) Local Government in the Netherlands

Websites

- http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki: general information about population, data etc- http://ifou.org/summerschool/2009delft/index.php: master school made by university of Delft

useful for some data and information about Randstad- http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/rb/rb152.html:useful insights for some hints on air routes- http://gemeente.groningen.nl/:website of the Groningen municipality- http://www.groningen-railport.com/Home/tabid/2320/language/en-US/Default.aspx:informationabout the Groningen railport- http://www.groningen-seaports.com/GroningenSeaports/tabid/2114/language/en-S/Default.aspx:information about the Groningen seaport

- http://www.umcg.nl/en/corporate/the_university_medical_center/pages/default.aspx: information

about the Groningens hospital- http://www.cbs.nl/nl-NL/menu/home/default.htm:useful for all kind of statistic information- http://download.geofabrik.de/: for each GIS shape file

Last access for each site: September 2013

Images

Figure 1_Urban form comparison: processing performed by GIS based on-http://download.geofabrik.de/data. Original image by Stefano Saloriani

Figure 2_Urban population comparison: processing based on data fromhttp://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki. Original image by Stefano SalorianiFigure 3_!Comparison of GDP produced in each location: processing based on data fromhttp://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki. Original image by Stefano SalorianiFigure 4_!Intensity of international flights routes: processing performed by lboro.ac.uk website

researchFigure 5_Population of the seven major cities in the Netherlands: processing based on data fromhttp://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki. Original image by Stefano SalorianiFigure 6_The Randstad: processing performed by Delft summer school studentsFigure 7_The Netherlands and its regions: processing performed by GIS based on-http://download.geofabrik.de/data. Original image by Stefano Saloriani


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STEFANO(SALORIANI((((SPSP(COURSE((((24.09.2013((((((((((((((((((((IS(GRONINGEN(A(MINI(METROPOLIS?!!

Figure 8_!The Northern region system of highway (in green) and railway (in brown): processingperformed by GIS based on- http://download.geofabrik.de/data. Original image by StefanoSalorianiFigure 9_!The Northern region system of waterway/canals: processing performed by GIS basedon- http://download.geofabrik.de/data. Original image by Stefano SalorianiFigure 10_Universities of Netherlands: processing performed by BOSATLASFigure 11_!Univestity Medical Center Groningen view: processing performed by UMCG report

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Groningnen: a mini-metropolis