Dublin-Belfast Development Corridor: Ireland's Mega-City Region?

The concept of the Dublin-Belfast Economic Corridor is to link together several towns and cities by various modes of communication in an attempt to create a poly-centric mega-city region in Ireland on a scale large enough to compete with the major urban clusters of continental Europe. While each town would develop its unique economy and cultural attributes, they would function in a manner complementary to those of the others, so that the whole system has a synergy. This concept has frequently been discussed generally, but has never before been the subject of a focused study. This volume brings together an interdisciplinary team of leading scholars and practitioners to discuss the twin topics of the Dublin-Belfast corridor and the associated challenges of cross-border development from economic, geographic, regional studies, sociological and planning perspectives. With a foreword by Sir Peter Hall, the book is divided into three main sections. The first provides context, reviewing current plans and policies. The second part presents analysis and discussion of various sectoral topics, such as transportation, cross-border trade, land management, urban design, planning and institutional development. The final section outlines visions for the future, sketching out possible end-results of a corridor development in a relatively concrete way.