Cities and their environments are continuously changing. During the last two hundred years urbanization has replaced a predominantly rural landscape with an urban landscape. Al-though the urbanization apparently has transformed the western countries most, the pace of urbanization is now highest in economic less developed countries. However, this does not mean an end to urbanization or a stabilization of the urban landscape in more developed countries. In the second half of the 20th century growth of large cities ceased and medium sized and small cities went into a period of rapid growth. This new pattern of urbanization (counter urbanization) was strongly debated during the 1970s and onwards, in particular in relation to its practical implications. Decentralisation of political decision making and pub-lic service production was soon following the population and often used as an instrument to stimulate growth in less prosperous regions. The Scandinavian countries are cases in point. During the last decade still more examples points at a reversal of the trend; metropolitan areas have begun to grew again both due to net migration and natural increase of the popu-lation.
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