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698Ad de Regt, Arjen van der Burg: Randstad Holland: The Delta MetropolisDelta Metropolis meansan integral job for spatialplanning, infrastructureand nature developmentwithin a broad regionaland even nationalnetwork.the water. This leaves space for land-boundfarming around villages that maintain theirown character.In an urban network with increasinginteractions, passenger transport willcontinue to increase, and thus mobility.Good spatial and environmental qualityrequires an internal public transportnetwork that competes with automobiletraffic, functioning as an underground trainsystem that is fast, reliable, with many stopsand a high frequency.The Delta Metropolis is not an isolatedarea, but is connected to other areas in andoutside of the Netherlands. Intensiverelationships exist with the national urbannetworks in the Eastern Region of theNetherlands (Twente, Arnhem / Nijmegen)and in the Southern Region of theNetherlands (series of cities in BrabantRegion). The relationships with both othernational urban networks (Groningen /Assen and Maastricht / Heerlen / Aachen /Liège) will become more and moreintensive due to European developmentsand new transport connections.Those relationships require more capacityexpansion for traffic and the addition ofsome lacking links, such as the connectionto the North by rail. In addition, severalpoints of the ecological connections will bestrengthened. At the level of the RandstadRegion as a whole, it is about the ecologicalconnections between the Wadden Sea viathe IJsselmeer Lake and the Green Hearttowards the Zealand Delta and the greatrivers, and the links between the CoastalRegion, the Green Heart and the UtrechtRidge.This spatial view of the Delta Metropolis iselaborated upon in the next three sectionsbased on the green-blue network, theinfrastructure and the urban network, inthat order.Outside the urban network of the DeltaMetropolis, the Western Region includesurban areas such as the Northern District(Alkmaar and environs), which willaccommodate their own growth on thebasis of a good infrastructure link to theDelta Metropolis. Waterland, locatedbetween the Northern District and theDelta Metropolis, comprises a protectednational landscape, together with Wormer,Beemster and Schermer, and will bekept free of new infrastructure andurbanization.Finally, outside the Delta Metropolis in theWestern Region, there are several ruralareas with a primarily agricultural function,such as the head of North Holland,Flevoland and the South Holland islands.Of these areas, de Hoeksche Waard is to bedeveloped as a national landscape. Largebodies of water with special nature valueoutside the metropolis include theIJsselmeer Lake and its peripheralRandmeren Lakes, the Wadden Sea, theinlets and parts of the coastal region(including Texel and Voorne).The Green-Blue NetworkThe central guideline for the spatialdevelopment of the metropolis is the deltacharacter. This requires the restoration andreinforcement of cohesion in the greenbluenetwork of ecological connectionzones, water systems and gradients, andcontinuity in recreational routes.The Green-Blue Network begins at thedoorstep of the urban area. In order toactually live up to this, quite a few barriersmust yet be eliminated, such as clutteredcity outskirts and combinations ofinfrastructure. The network includes bothinner-city green areas and regional greenzones (formerly buffer zones) as well asthe Green Heart as a national landscape.So it includes both traditional parksand complete landscapes in whichnumerous agricultural companies handlemanagement jointly. The target isto create an extra 5,000 or so hectares ofwater surface and an equivalent surfacearea of green area (in addition to existingagreements). Green-blue connectionsbetween the city and country are to berestored or improved. The focus of thisprogramme is the development of regionalgreen zones (former buffer zones) and thewestern peripheral zone of the Green Heart.The heights of all kinds of urban buildingsin the Delta Metropolis are increasing. Thisfits in a highly urbanized area, but alsoimpacts the perception of the green openspaces. The situations in which buildingheights should be restricted in order toprevent deterioration of the view of thetypical delta qualities are being examined.It is important for these buildings to beattractive, too, not just shoeboxes, and thatconstruction maintains a human scale forthe passer-by on the street.