Since the onset of the industrial revolution, the relationship between the Port of Rotterdam, Europe's largest, and the industrial powerhouse of the German Ruhr region, for many years, the continent's dominant industrial region have been intimately intertwined.

As Rotterdam is in the Netherlands and the Ruhr in Germany, the way the relationship developed can only be properly analysed from the transnational point of view; new economic geography and new approaches in geography such as the global value chain, supply chain and global cities approaches having called for greater...

Ageing population and urbanization have become global concerns in recent years. Concepts such as 'ageing-in-place' and 'active ageing' deal with issues of ever-larger elderly population living in the cities, especially in old urban neighbourhoods, while also taking into consideration the evolving lifestyles and well-being of the diverse elderly's demographics. To continue living in these existing urban neighbourhoods thus requires necessary interventions, both to adapt the changing needs of the ageing population and to improve the deteriorating environment for better liveability.