Green Belt

When you think about the rapid growth and expansion of a city or a town, it sounds quite positive, doesn't it? More people are coming from rural areas to work, making industries flourish and bringing economic growth. However, it can also be an urban planner's worst nightmare. Cities, towns and urban growth are spilling out of carefully planned areas and taking over nearby agricultural land, whilst infrastructure is stretched to facilitate the overflow. So, what can we do? The development of the green belt is one solution to this problem. How do we define the greenbelt? Are there already examples today? Let's find out!

Green Belt Definition

As cities and towns begin to grow, they can become victims of urban sprawl. To counter this, there are various policies that exist. One of the widespread policies in Europe and North America is the greenbelt.

Urban sprawl can contribute to air pollution with higher emissions from transport, loss of open spaces, and puts stress on public services such as hospitals and schools. A greenbelt, then, is a ring of land around a town or a city, like parks, agricultural areas, or other types of open space to limit urban sprawl. The designated border is protected by law from development, and the open space is available for leisure and recreation, as well as agricultural use and habitat for wildlife.

Green Belt Movement

Greenbelts were essentially created to reduce or stop urban sprawl. The first proposal was in London; it gained widespread support from the London Society in its 'Development plan of Greater London' in 1919. They lobbied alongside an environmental campaign group, Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), which worked for a sustainable future for the English countryside.

In the 1930s, the expansion of cities and towns grew rapidly as public transport became widespread, and the private ownership of cars allowed people to commute from further away. By 1947, greenbelts had become a part of the Town and Country Planning Act. This was central in planning permission for land development in the UK.

Fig. 1 - Map of The Metropolitan Green Belt in London and the surrounding green belts in the UK.

At present, there are fourteen green belts in the UK covering around 16,716 km² of England and 164 km² of Scotland. It has been implemented around the world in places such as:

• Ottawa Greenbelt in Ontario.
• Barton Creek Greenbelt in Texas.
• BeltLine Greenbelt in Atlanta.
• São Paulo City Green Belt Biosphere Reserve in São Paulo.

Green Belt Benefits

There are many benefits of implementing a green belt when urban planning.

• They prevent urban sprawl.
• They stop neighbouring towns from merging with each other. By protecting the towns from merging into each other, each town's distinctive character and culture can be protected.
• They allow the preservation of the countryside for agriculture and recreation within a reachable distance for the urban residents.
• They assist in urban regeneration by encouraging developers to use brownfield urban land rather than greenfield agricultural land.
• The open green space assists in the conservation of wildlife as it is protected from development. Green belts are also referred to as the city's 'green lungs' and help with the air quality.

Disadvantages of Green Belt

Green Belt Project Examples

Although green belts are seen as an initiative to stop urban sprawl, there are variations in how green belts came to be and are being used.

Golden Horseshoe Green Belt

Fig. 2 - The Salburua Wetlands in Vitoria-Gasteiz, SpainIt was created in the early 1990s with the main intention of restoring and recovering the natural features of the land on the outskirts of the city. There are six parks, Armentia, Salburua, Zadorra, Errekaleor, Olarizu, and Zabalgana, which provide different environments, from woodland to open fields. In particular, the restoration of the wetlands of Salburua and the River Zadorra ecosystem has been internationally recognised. The green belt is close to the urban centre and can be accessed by the public on foot or by bicycle.

European Green Belt

There are some green belts that are more environmentally focused rather than just for controlling urban expansion. The European green belt is an example of an environmental initiative that was developed along the corridor of the former Iron Curtain.

Fig. 3 - Map of the European Green Belt

The aim of the European green belt is to connect the national parks, nature parks, biosphere reserves, transboundary protected areas, and non-protected valuable habitats from the Barents Sea to the Adriatic and Black sea. After the Cold War, strict border regimes were abandoned, starting with the German reunification and the opening of border zones. Many of the military facilities for training or research along the border were shut down. It was unclear to whom these lands belonged and what would happen to them, so the initiative for the European Green Belt was formed to conserve the natural assets along the former Iron Curtain.

Green Belt Development

The concept of the green belt has been developed into different versions.

• 'Green buffer' is a green space that stops two cities from merging. There is an example of the green buffer being used between Cheltenham and Gloucester in the UK.
• 'Green wedge' intends to bring green space closer to urban areas and is a linear version of the green belt which runs from a centre to the outskirts, through urban areas rather than around it. An example of the green wedge can be seen in Berlin, Germany.
• 'Green heart' encourages urban growth around the green space. It is seen in Randstad, Netherlands, where the green space is surrounded by the major cities of the Netherlands, such as Amsterdam, The Hague, and Rotterdam.