Pilot Regions in the Economic Development of North-Western Europe

Pilot regions are territorial organizations responding to the necessity of an optimal economic yield. Their geographical boundaries shift over time. Moreover, in the remarkable case of all the manufacturing basins that stretch from the Straits of Dover to the north of the Ruhr, political borders rather contributed to the emergence of cross-border regions in which technology transfers and complementarities bolstered industrial development. These pilot regions feature a specific type of urban organization, consisting in disseminated urban housing rather than in proper metropolises. These pilot regions, that first appeared in the wake of the industrialization process which itself resulted from the industrial revolution of the late XVIIIth century, had to cope with several industrial reconversions the latest of which - starting in the 1970s and lasting to these days - constitutes a profound mutation in terms of economic performance, organization of the territory, sustainable development and identity.