by enemy fighters and/or flak batteries within 20 minutes. After the war, the Royal Air Force destroyed all the German facilities including planes, hangars and equipment but left the passenger facilities intact. By 1960, Aalborg had become known as the "city of smoking chimneys", with half of the inhabitants working in industry or manufacturing. Ten years later, Aalborg's population had grown to around 97,000 inhabitants. Recent history The significance of Aalborg's industry began to decline in the 1970s, precipitating a fall in the city's population until about 1990, when it began to increase again. By the year 2000, the service and education sectors accounted for about 60 percent of the workforce, partly as a result of the founding of Aalborg University (AAU) in 1974. Since 1970, Aalborg and the northern suburb of Nørresundby have become a major administrative centre, thanks in part to the offices of the Region Nordjylland established in the east of the city. In addition to large industrial companies including Aalborg Portland, the only cement-producing company in the country, and the building products company Eternit, many small and medium-sized enterprises have been established. The telecommunications and information technology sector has developed with the support of Aalborg University and the North Jutland knowledge park NOVI. The First European Conference on Sustainable Cities and Towns took place in Aalborg in 1994. It adopted the Aalborg Charter, which provides a framework for the delivery of local sustainable development and calls on local authorities to engage in Local Agenda 21 processes. The Fourth European Sustainable Cities and Towns Conference, held in Aalborg in 2004, adopted the more binding Aalborg Commitments on local sustainable development. The commitments have now been signed by 650 local authorities while over 2,500 have signed the earlier Aalborg Charter. Geography Aalborg is in North Jutland (northwestern Denmark), at the narrowest point of the Limfjord, a shallow sound that separates North Jutlandic Island (Vendsyssel-Thy) from the rest of the Jutland Peninsula and connects Aalborg to the Kattegat about to the east. Aalborg is north of Aarhus, north of Randers, and southwest of Frederikshavn. It is by Great Belt Fixed Link to Copenhagen, by the Frederikshavn-Göteborg ferry to Gothenburg in Sweden, and by the Frederikshavn-Oslo ferry to Oslo in Norway. The area close to the waterfront is low-lying, with an elevation averaging about , but there are many hills in and around city, some reaching over . Nørresundby, on