The country between the east-west flowing rivers of the Ruhr in the south, and of the Lippe in the north, and the Emscher in the center, is actually neither a landscape in geographic terms nor historically a political unit. It is called Ruhr area and has been the industrial heart of Germany for more than 100 years. Industrialization formed a whole region and influenced not only the urban area, but also specifically the development of the landscape. The result is a man-made, artificial environment.
From the middle of the 20th century onwards, the industrial boom declined, and many of the industrial plants based on coal and steel were no longer in use and therefore, many workers became unemployed. A deep structural and social transformation in the Ruhr began and the landscape can now be changed again. (Lethmate)
In 1988, the regional government of North Rhine-Westfalia started the International Building Exhibition (IBA) Emscher Park, to prepare a strategy for the ecological, economic and social development of the Emscher region (784 sq. km.). In ten years time up until 1999, IBA provided impulses for new ideas and projects for the redevelopment of the entire area.
The IBA Emscher Park has successfully changed the appearance of the Emscher Region. It was a strategic approach to link urban development and landscape planning, to combine public and private investments with architectural quality and to establish systematic cross-border-planning of 17 municipalities in the northern part of the Ruhr Region. More than 120 projects were implemented - with a total investment of €2.5 Billion. (Lethmate)
Since the year 2000, the cities and counties in the area continued to work on IBA- themes like the regional "Emscher Landscape Park" and the changing of the Emscher System.