Introduction

Abstract

Urban areas are never static, they are constantly changing: either expanding, contracting or undergoing internal restructuring in response to economic and social pressures. In the developed economies of Western Europe the pattern of urbanisation and the structure of towns and cities has been laid down over many centuries. Population growth no longer exerts the pressures it did during the Industrial Revolution or following the great shifts of peoples that occurred after the two world wars. In this context much of the change that affects urban areas results from the gradual spatial and sectoral adjustments to economic activity and the movement of population between or within existing urban areas.