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A green belt or greenbelt is a policy or land use designation used in land use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighbouring urban areas. The original concept ( Umweltamt ) for the City of Frankfurt is of Ernst May in the 20's. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges which have a linear character and may run through an urban area instead of around it.

Contents 1 Purposes 2 Criticism 3 Notable greenbelts 4 References 5 See also

In those countries which have them, development in green belt areas is heavily restricted. The stated objectives of green belt policy are to:

• protect natural or semi natural environments;
• improve air quality within urban areas;
• ensure that urban dwellers have access to countryside, with consequent educational and recreational opportunities; and
• protect the unique character of rural communities which might otherwise be absorbed by expanding suburbs.

The Greenbelt has many benefits for people :

• walking, camping, and biking areas close to the cities and towns.
• places for wild plants and animals.
• cleaner air and water

The effectiveness of green belts differs depending on location and country. They can often be eroded by urban rural fringe uses and sometimes, development 'jumps' over the green belt area, resulting in the creation of "satellite towns" which, although separated from the city by green belt, function more like suburbs than independent communities.

Green belt policy was pioneered in the United Kingdom in 1956 after pressure from the CPRE and various other organisations. There are fourteen green belt areas, in the UK covering 16,716 km², or 13% of England, and 164 km² of Scotland; for a detailed discussion of these, see Green belt (UK). Other notable examples are the Ottawa and Golden Horseshoe[1], green belts in Ontario, Canada. The more general term in the U.S. is green space or greenspace, which may be a very small area such as a park.

The concept of "green belt" has evolved in recent years to encompass not only "Greenspace" but also "Greenstructure", taking into account all urban greenspaces, an important aspect of sustainable development in the 21st. century. The European Commission's COST Action C11 (European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research) is undertaking "Case studies in Greenstructure Planning" involving 15 European countries.

An act of the Swedish parliament from 1994 has declared a series of parks in Stockholm and the adjacent municipality of Solna to its north a "national city park" called Ekoparken (the "Eco park"; it stretches from the parks surrounding the royal palaces of Ulriksdal and Haga in Solna, through the Brunnsviken area, down to the former royal hunting grounds of North and South Djurgården).

A different/contrarian interpretation of the green belt's effects/motivation (for example, suggested by economist Tim Harford [2]) is that a green belt is created by residents to preserve the bourgeois status quo of those already living within the zone, and especially the advantage of landlords who profit from a scarcity of housing (see above, "preserving the character of rural communities"). In this interpretation, the stated motivation and benefits of the green belt are well-intentioned (public health, environment), but these benefits accrue as intentioned or claimed (for example, critics claim that only a small fraction of the population ever sets foot on the green belt for leisure purposes,^{[citation needed]} and they claim that a green belt is not strongly causally linked to clean air and water). Rather, the ultimate result of the decision to green belt a city is to maintain the middle class status quo,^{[citation needed]} thus exacerbating high housing prices by concentrating demand within the zone and stifling competitive forces in general.

Another area of criticism comes from the fact that, since a greenbelt does not extend indefinitely outside a city, it might spur the growth of areas much further away from the city core than if it had not existed, thereby actually increasing urban sprawl. ^[1] Examples commonly cited are the Ottawa suburbs of Kanata and Orleans, both of which are outside the city's greenbelt, and are currently undergoing explosive growth (see Greenbelt (Ottawa)). This can lead to other problems, as residents of these areas have further to commute to work (if they seek employment in city) and little access to public transport. It also means people will commute through the green belt, an area not designed to cope with high levels of transportation. Not only is the problem of the green belt gotten around here; the green belt heightens the problem and makes the city unsustainable.

There are many examples whereby the actual effect of green belts is to act as a land reserve for future freeways and other highways. Examples include sections of the 407 highway north of Toronto and the Hunt Club Rd. south of Ottawa

Australia

• Adelaide's Central Business District is completely encircled by the Adelaide Parklands, as was initially planned in 1837.
• Melbourne has one of the largest urban footprints in relation to its population density. Recently the government has announced its Melbourne 2030 plan to curb growth.

Canada

• Ottawa Greenbelt - Surrounds the Capital city of Ottawa
• Greenbelt (Golden Horseshoe), is a 7300 km² band of land that encompasses the rural and agricultural land surrounding the greater Toronto and Hamilton regions, and parts of the Bruce Peninsula. Most of the land consists of the Oak Ridges Moraine, an environmentally sensitive land that is a major aquifer for the region, and the Niagara Escarpment, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. In an effort to restrain urban sprawl that has encroched on these lands, the Ontario government created the Greenbelt Act in February 2005 to protect this greenspace from all future development, with the exception of limited agricultural use.
• British Columbia - the Agricultural Land Reserve protects agricultural land throughout this mountainous province from urban development, including around Vancouver. This protection is strict and urban development of agricultural land is only allowed if no reasonable alternative exists. However, it does not protect non-agricultural land, particularly hillsides, leading to substantial, and highly visible, leapfrog-type hillside sprawl.

New Zealand

• Dunedin's green belt is one of the world's oldest, having been planned at the time of the city's rapid growth during the Otago Gold Rush of the 1860s. It surrounds the city centre on three sides (the fourth side being the city's harbour).

Philippines

• Ayala Center Greenbelt - A Commercial Center inside Makati City, with Parks, Cafes, Restaurants, Cinemas etc...

Serbia

• Banjica Forest, Belgrade

South Korea

• Seoul

Sweden

• Stokholm Eco park

United Kingdom

Main article: green belt (UK)

• The London Metropolitan Green Belt (5,133 km²)
• The North West Green Belt (2,578 km²)
• South and West Yorkshire Green Belt (2,556 km²)
• West Midlands Green Belt (2,315 km²)

United States

• The U.S. states of Oregon, Washington and Tennessee require cities to establish urban growth boundaries.
• Notable US cities which have adopted UGBs include Portland, Oregon; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Virginia Beach, Virginia; Lexington, Kentucky; Miami-Dade county.
• More than 20 cities in the San Francisco Bay Area have UGBs (see Greenbelt Alliance, a Bay Area organization that has been involved in establishing these boundaries).
• Staten Island Greenbelt
• Barton Creek Greenbelt
• Ann Arbor, Michigan is acquiring conservation easements on agricultural land around the city without the establishment of an urban growth boundary. While the city's initial plan did not include the participation of surrounding townships, at least four townships have participated directly or have initiated their own efforts to protect agricultural land surrounding the city.

1. ^ How Much Open Space is Enough?" St. Paul Pioneer Press (MN) - April 22, 2007 - A1 MAIN

• Land use planning
• Community separator
• Urban rural fringe
• Urban growth boundary
• Open space
• Urban sprawl
• Prime farmland