Green Belt

Green belts are buffer zones of undeveloped land that are found around urban areas. Sometimes these zones form true belts that completely surround the urban region; in other cases the green areas are not contiguous but are separated into sections, often dividing the city proper from suburbs and satellite towns. The concept of preserving a natural space around urban development first appeared as a component of urban planning in the United Kingdom, just before World War II, as a response to urban sprawl and the decline of farmland and natural areas around the larger cities. Legislation passed after the war enabled city planners to incorporate the concept of undeveloped spaces into the larger urban structure, and green belts became a common feature of many towns and cities in England. The establishment of green belts and other “green spaces” in urban areas in the developed world has become a mainstay in the idea of sustainable development. Today it is estimated that about 13 percent of the total area of England is protected in the form of green belts, and some of these are quite large. The green belt that surrounds the greater London metropolitan area, for example, is more than 5,000 sq km in area—one of the largest contiguous urban green belts in the world. Only the green belt associated with Canada’s “Golden Horseshoe” conurbation and the Sao Paulo City Green Belt Biosphere Preserve are larger, although the latter is not actually a planned green belt in the classic sense of the term. A proposed “European Greenbelt,” a zone linking parks and preserves that would extend from the Baltic to the Mediterranean seas through Eastern Europe, would be the largest such space in the world if it is successfully completed. Promoters of green belts argue that they add quality to the lives of urban dwellers, allowing them to connect with and enjoy the natural environment, while preserving nature, in a limited way, in the urbanized setting. It is claimed that they help to maintain both air and water quality, and of course they provide both outdoor recreational opportunities for city residents and habitat for wildlife.

Some scholars have criticized the green belt approach as economically unsound, and often counterproductive. Some economists suggest that by reserving land for the green belt in urban areas, housing prices are maintained at high levels and the quality of housing actually suffers, because competition in the housing market is stifled. There is some evidence to support this view, especially in England. Moreover, while green belts have preserved a strip of land adjacent to the main urban area, in many cases development has simply skipped over the green belt and exploded on the other side, in the form of suburbs and satellite towns. Critics argue that this shows that the green belt simply forced urban expansion further out from the main urban center, actually increasing transportation costs and pollution levels. Although controversial, the green belt concept in urban planning appears to be widely accepted and applied, especially in Europe, and is likely to be a feature of the urban landscape of the future.