The Blue Banana (also known as the Hot Banana, Bluemerang, European Megalopolis or European Backbone) is a discontinuous corridor of urbanisation in Western Europe, with a population of around 110 million. It stretches approximately from North West England in the north to Milan in the south.
The curvature of this corridor (hence the "banana" in the name) takes in cities such as Leeds, Sheffield, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, Birmingham, London, Lille, Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, Brussels, Antwerp, Eindhoven, the Ruhr, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Frankfurt am Main, Luxembourg, Strasbourg, Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Munich, Zürich, Turin, Milan, Venice, and Genoa and covers one of the world's highest concentrations of people, money and industry. The concept was developed in 1989 by RECLUS, a group of French geographers managed by Roger Brunet.
Read more about Blue Banana: List of Cities and Regions, History, Criticism, Implications, Development
Famous quotes containing the words blue and/or banana:
“One way to do it might be by making the scenery penetrate the automobile. A polished black sedan was a good subject, especially if parked at the intersection of a tree-bordered street and one of those heavyish spring skies whose bloated gray clouds and amoeba-shaped blotches of blue seem more physical than the reticent elms and effusive pavement. Now break the body of the car into separate curves and panels; then put it together in terms of reflections.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“I never liked bananas much anyway. Two-thirds of the way down even one banana I am willing to concede defeat smilingly and give the rest to the nearest monkey.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)