A Typology of Peri‐urban Areas in the Netherlands

ABSTRACT ‘Ommeland’ is an old Dutch word that refers to the land around a town or city: a peri‐urban area. It is an important spatial category: the peri‐urban areas of the 24 most central cities in the Netherlands, excluding the cities themselves, house almost 40 per cent of the national population. In Dutch spatial policy, however, the peri‐urban area as the intermediate category between city and rural area has often been ignored. The concept of urban networks seems to contribute to the neglect of peri‐urban areas in spatial policy. However, at the same time the urban network theory that states that the hierarchy between places is disappearing raises new questions about the position of peri‐urban areas. Therefore, in this paper we investigate the position of peri‐urban areas in the Netherlands by looking at travel patterns to and from peri‐urban areas. By doing so, we obtain better insight into the relations between peri‐urban and other areas and into the position of peri‐urban areas in the Netherlands. We found different types of peri‐urban areas. In general, peri‐urban areas are still subordinate to the central city, but in some peri‐urban areas relation patterns are more diversified, both to and from other central cities and to other places in the peri‐urban areas. These peri‐urban areas can be seen as part of the urban network.