Green belt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges which have a linear character and may run through an urban area instead of around it.

In those countries which have them, development in green belt areas is heavily restricted. The 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 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, where there are fourteen green belt areas, 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).

[edit] Notable greenbelts

Australia

• 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
• Toronto Greenbelt (Golden Horseshoe), is a band of land stretching for a few hundred km's across the Niagara Peninsula and to the west and north of the city of Toronto. 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 recent years urban sprawl has encroched on these lands. But it has recently been protected by the Provincial government from all future development, with the exception of limited agricultural use.
• Vancouver, British Columbia^{[citation needed]}

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).

Sweden

• Stokholm Eco park

United Kingdom (see 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
• Anchorage, Alaska has extensive greenbelts throughout the city, complete with recreation trails for walking, running, biking, and for groomed Nordic skiing in the winter.^[1]
• There is actually a city named Greenbelt in Maryland.

[edit] References

1. ^ Anchorage Alaska Parks & Rec.

[edit] See also

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

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The Greenbelt has many benefits for people : - walking, camping, nad biking areas close to the cities and towns. - places for wild plants and animals. - cleaner air and water