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Preventing Urban Growth
Greenbelt
There is pressure for development on the rural-urban fringe with the risk of cities linking up & causing massive urban sprawl. This would cause:
- Huge conurbations
- Loss of agricultural / recreational land.
Therefore the government developed the policy of greenbelts.
Function of the greenbelt
- Check the spread of urban development.
- Keep neighbouring towns separate.
- Preserve the special character of towns – maintain identity.
- Assist urban regeneration – Towns have to manage the land they have and so it encourages the use of brownfield sites.
- Preserve character of rural areas
- Provide recreation & leisure.
- Create a better environment around the edge of the city.
- Protect agricultural land & woodland from development.
- Safeguard agricultural practices.
The first greenbelt was used in London and was set-up from 1954-1958. There are now 20 greenbelt regions taking up 15% of the land in the UK.
Other greenbelt schemes
- Wedges – Penetrate to the heart of city e.g. Copenhagen
- Green corridor – Run straight through city e.g. Geneva.
- Green Buffer – Separate cities e.g. Ruhr.
- Green heart – preserve open space at the centre of urban regions e.g. within the ring of Amsterdam/ Rotterdam.
Greenbelt land may extend up to 10km beyond the city boundary. Urban growth is restricted not prevented. Any proposals for land-use must go through government.
The greenbelt prevents the unification of 2 cities but it does not always work. E.g. the greenbelt in Coventry has not been entirely successful as Coventry & Bedworth are merging. Urban development may jump over the greenbelt.
Problems
There have been some successes in preventing urban sprawl, however:
- There is a great deal of pressure on the rural-urban fringe. Especially to use it for housing or transport links.
- Much of the land is brown-belt – damaged or degraded land.
- There is pressure on rural settlements to build & expand, as people want to live in rural areas - commuter belt.
- Causes land prices to rise due to shortage of new houses being built.
- The greenbelt is not really successful as a lot of greenbelt is now being lost by being nibbled away to allow new developments e.g. NEC which has increased pressure on greenbelt nearby.
- Jobs are lost as a result of prohibited development e.g. London.
Also See
Comments
These notes were originally written by F1_fanatic and posted here on TSR Forums. They are suitable for people studying for geography at A Level.
