The cultural territory

Situated in the large North-West European plain and limited to the East by the Meuse river and to the West by the North Sea, the Septentrion project covers a territory that is both natural and cultural, original and consistent, encompassing the North of France, Belgium and the south of the Netherlands.

This region of plains is located in the great drainage basin of the Escaut. Water has always played a fundamental role there in the organisation of the territory and town planning (see Typology of towns).

Since time immemorial populations have settled there, clearing the forests, drying out the swamplands, reclaiming land from the sea, and enriching the earth through painstaking, continuous work. Despite linguistic differences, religious animosity, the hasards of diplomacy and the battles that have divided it into three separate countries, the territory remains deeply marked by an urban culture based on a close link between towns: these towns maintain good relations despite the conflicts led by princes and States to appropriate this geographically open area at the crossroads of the main routes in North Western Europe (see History of network of towns)

Dominating the prosperous countryside, towns flourished from the 12th - 13th Centuries. The medieval towns were succeeded by modern towns, in turn succeeded by industrial towns. Today, faced with an the urban network that is progressively covering the territory (see Comparative cartography), towns are attempting to control their urban sprawl by basing themselves on the concept of a compact town.

At the very heart of the European dynamic, this network of towns can benefit from its main assets, from the urban areas of Greater London in the West, Randstad in the North, to the Ruhr in the East and Ile de France in the South. This territory must again overcome the obstacles imposed by national borders to take advantage of its transnational nature.