Rhine-Ruhr
The Rhine- Ruhr is a set in the National Development Plan polycentric conurbation in North Rhine -Westphalia, which extends to the eponymous rivers Rhine and Ruhr. From currently eleven metropolitan regions in Germany it is with almost 10 million inhabitants, is the most populous.
The draft of a new National Development Plan (Draft of 25 June 2013), the State Planning North Rhine-Westphalia has the intention to expel the entire territory of the country as a metropolitan region of North Rhine -Westphalia.
- 3.1 street
- 3.2 rail
- 3.3 Air
- 3.4 Water
Structure
The legally defined by the Rhine- Ruhr at the National Development Plan compression chamber extending along the rivers Rhine and Ruhr. Along the Ruhr axis runs the subspace Ruhr. The subspace along the Rhine, about from Wesel to Bonn is commonly referred to as the Rhine. The settlement bodies within the Rhine- Ruhr, which also includes residential areas west of the Rhine, as at Cologne, Mönchengladbach and Krefeld room, or the settlement areas of the right-bank major cities Wuppertal, Remscheid and Solingen is not clear contours, but due to uneven population density shows diffuse edges and inner turning points.
Alternatively, the terms Rhine- Ruhr and Rhine -Ruhr are occasionally used. Frequently, however, it remains unclear whether that only the denser populated core area of the metropolitan area is meant, ie the more or less continuous settlement body, extending from Hamm in the east to Mönchengladbach in the west and Bonn in the south of Wesel in the north, or whether also spaces are included conceptually to the fluid boundaries in the Bergische Land, Sauerland and Münster.
Regional Planning
As early as 1952 the city of Dusseldorf had created the concept of an urban landscape Rhein- Ruhr, which took to represent the favorable location and function center of Düsseldorf the compression chamber of the cities on the Rhine and Ruhr into view. The metropolitan region in its current meaning in 1995 delineated by the German Conference of Ministers for Spatial Planning ( MKRO ) and recommended for use in regional planning. The state of North Rhine -Westphalia has this recommendation then taken up in his country's development plan and plan statements to the European Metropolitan Region Rhine -Ruhr defined by law as a planning objective to identify a compression chamber with special central place importance for the public and private plans. At the European level of spatial planning the indoor unit of the Rhine -Ruhr has been incorporated into the European Spatial Development Perspective.
The metropolitan area is defined sharply community in the state development plan, covers an area of about 7000 square kilometers with approximately 10 million inhabitants and is located entirely in the state of North Rhine -Westphalia. This makes it by far the most populous and most densely populated metropolitan region in Germany and among the five largest metropolitan areas in Europe. The Rhine -Ruhr region is sometimes referred to as a mega city. Rhein- Ruhr is situated in the central European Economic Area, the so-called Blue Banana. The highest degree of global interconnectedness in terms of a global city has the state capital Dusseldorf within the Rhine -Ruhr.
Municipalities
The following list gives the official definition according to all belonging to the metropolitan municipalities. In some circles belong to only certain communities in the region.
Economy
Until the 1960s, the Ruhr region was dominated by the mining industry, the undisputed economic center of North Rhine -Westphalia. After the onset of structural change through the coal crisis of Bildungs-/Forschungs- and service sector grew in weight. Unemployment rose after reunification until the end of 2005 steadily and unemployment in cities like Dortmund and Gelsenkirchen are among the highest in Germany.
The Rhine was less affected by structural change. Bonn was, after the federal government and some ministries had moved to Berlin, statistically compensate each thereby lost workplace. Cologne was able to assert itself as fair and service location. Dusseldorf is by GDP per capita, the most economically powerful city in the metropolitan area and occupied after Frankfurt 2 in Germany; the centrality is the highest in Germany.
The unemployment rates of the cities range from 7.0% in the district of Mettmann up to 15.4 % in Gelsenkirchen.
Traffic
The metropolitan area is an important transportation hub for all transport modes.
Road
( - Hamburg - Cologne - Saarbrücken Holy Harbour ), A 2 ( Oberhausen - Hannover - Magdeburg - Berlin), A 3 ( Emmerich - Cologne - Frankfurt - Nuremberg in the Rhine -Ruhr, numerous continental major highways like the motorways A 1 hit - Passau) and A 4 ( Aachen - Cologne - Dresden - Görlitz). The A 3 in the Cologne area is considered the busiest motorway in Germany. At the Cologne Ring also the A 1, A 3 and A 4 meet. At the motorway intersection Oberhausen, A 2 and A 3 and meet the Kamen intersection near Dortmund, A 1 and A 2 meet
Nationally and regionally important highways in the Rhine -Ruhr, the A 31 ( Bottrop - Leer - Emden ), A 40 ( Ruhrschnellweg: Venlo (NL) - Essen - Dortmund), A 42 ( Emscherschnellweg: Kamp- Lintfort - Duisburg - Dortmund), A 43 (Wuppertal - Bochum - Munster ), A44 ( Aachen - Mönchengladbach - Kassel), A45 (Sauerland line: Dortmund - Siegen - Blessed city), A 46 ( Heinberg - Wuppertal - Bestwig / Hagen - Iserlohn - Hemer ), A 52 ( Roermond ( NL) - Dusseldorf - Marl), A57 ( Nijmegen - Krefeld - Cologne), A 59 ( Dinslaken - Duisburg - Dusseldorf - Bonn) and A61 ( Venlo (NL) - Koblenz - Hockenheim ).
The trunk road network is compressed by the smaller, 3 - digit highways A 443 ( Iserlohn - Unna ), A 445 ( ( Hamm ) - Werl - Arnsberg ), A 516 (AK Oberhausen - Oberhausen Eisenheim ), A 524 (AD Breitscheidstraße - AK Duisburg-Süd ), A 535 ( Sonnborner Cross - Velbert ), A 540 ( Juechen - Grevenbroich ), A 542 ( Monheim - Langenfeld ), A 544 (AK Aachen - Aachen- Europe Square ), A 553 (AK Bliesheim - Brühl), A 555 (Köln -Süd - Bonn), A 559 (AD Porz - Cologne -Deutz ), A 560 ( Hennef - Sankt Augustin ), A 562 (AK Bonn -Ost - Bonn- Friesendorf ) and A 565 ( Meckenheim - Bonn).
Although there are numerous highways in the Rhine -Ruhr area, the highways are exceptionally jam -prone. In particular, the transit of the Netherlands and Belgium in the Eastern European region burdened highways.
Rail
In the metropolitan area there are six stations of category 1, three of them are among the ten busiest train stations in Germany:
At the train station category 2 include the stations Bochum, Bonn, Dusseldorf airport, Gelsenkirchen, Hagen, Hamm, Oberhausen, Siegburg / Bonn, Solingen and Wuppertal.
In the area of public transport, the metropolitan area is divided into three traffic groups. The transport association Rhein- Ruhr is for public transport in the Ruhr area, member of the Bergisch City- Triangle as well as the middle and Lower Rhine, the transport association Rhein-Sieg in the Cologne - Bonn area. The district of Unna, the märkische circle and Hamm are assigned to the VRL. Until the mid- 2020s is provided to improve the regional transport in the metropolitan area by the gradual introduction of the Rhine -Ruhr Express train ( RRX ), so that in the core area between the main station Dusseldorf and the main train station Duisburg every ten minutes a RRX moves to the transport price.
Air
The region has two international and regional airports.
When passengers Dusseldorf is with 20.3 million passengers in 2011 in Germany on the 3rd place (after Frankfurt and Munich with 56 million with 38 million passengers ), the volume of cargo Cologne / Bonn airport is 0.7 million tonnes of air cargo in 2008 to Rank 2 ( Frankfurt am Main with 2.1 million tonnes).
Water
The Rhine is the most important inland waterway in Europe, the Port of Duisburg is the largest inland port in the world and the Dortmund Port is the largest canal harbor in Europe. Furthermore, there is in the Ruhr a large navigable canal network:
- Wesel- dates channel
- Dates - Hamm Canal
- Rhine -Herne Canal
- Dortmund -Ems Canal
Policy
Unlike the case of the Rhine -Main area with Frankfurt as clearly the strongest center, there are numerous comparable large and important cities in the Rhine -Ruhr. This polycentricity often leads to strong rivalry between these cities. In addition, there are competing concepts and self-understandings of regional identity even within the Ruhrgebiet and the Rhine from Bonn to Wesel. This parochialism has so far prevented a unified presence in the region. This often verbally sought by the policy convergence of the metropolitan region remains limited to local initiatives, such as mergers of transport companies, or port operations from Dusseldorf and Neuss. In addition, the administrative structure of the State of North Rhine -Westphalia prevented a unified planning and management of the metropolitan area. However, the cities of Bochum, Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Mülheim an der Ruhr and Oberhausen have reached a new level of inter-municipal cooperation in planning for the establishment of a regional land use plan.
The designation of the region to the metropolitan region is driven mainly by the provincial government. In the country's development plan to preserve and expand the international competitiveness of the metropolitan area is listed as a priority explicitly.
Legal concept
Country planning law, the European Metropolitan Region Rhine - Ruhr (Part A) spatially determined in the National Development Plan North Rhine-Westphalia and objectively in the form of textually formulated " targets " under the section BI2. treated. On this basis, the legal significance of the European Metropolitan Region Rhine -Ruhr is to be evaluated as a plan statement of spatial and regional planning. The question remains, what specific legal consequences trigger the corresponding plan statements of the National Development Plan.