Corridors in the Netherlands: Apple of discord in spatial planning

Since 1993 the spatial planning debate in the Netherlands has been enriched with a new spatial concept: the corridor. Three meanings of this concept a re distinguished: the corridor as infrastructure axis, as economic developm ents axis, and as urbanisation axis. In the Starting Memorandum on Spatial Planning (1999) the Dutch Government seemed to accept the 'corridor' as pla nning concept, following the slogan by the VROM-Raad: From unplanned corrid or formation to planned corridor development. In the preparation of the Fif th Memorandum on Spatial Planning, however, spatial planning minister Pronk abandoned the corridor as spatial planning concept and moved to the 'urban network' as the central concept of spatial policy for the next decades. Th is may be wise but it is impossible to neglect the empirical phenomenon of the corridor, And the question remains of how the spatial organisation of c orridors should be mapped out.