Student: Alejandra Pathé-Pastor Study:
Greenbelts: Controlling Urban Sprawl Keywords:
ecology, city-scale A greenbelt is a policy to prevent urban sprawl and protect the environment and natural resources by keeping land permanently open. Urban green belts provide both lungs for urban centers, and they also act as sponges of carbon dioxide. They are especially useful in coastal cities where they can help reduce erosion and the risks of flooding by stabilizing soil and slowing runoff. Not only this but they protect biodiversity and act as protection for wildlife. The effectiveness of greenbelts is evaluated by making a calculation of social costs, and social benefits, and comparing these two. If the benefits outweigh the costs, the greenbelt’s effectiveness can be proven. The most famous greenbelt is Seoul’s, implemented in 1971. The greenbelt’s social costs come from higher prices of land and housing, and an increase in commuting expenses and infrastructure spending. In Seoul, high benefits were estimated as the ‘comfort’ value of the greenbelt land was significant and people were willing to protect land for future generations. However due to the ever-increasing population growth of the city, these benefits were not enough to outweigh social costs. However they also have their downsides. It contributes
page 30
to the scarcity and cost of decent homes and encourages bizarre and wasteful patterns of commuting. It also often fails in its original aim of providing accessible recreational space for city dwellers. Even though I believe the idea of the green belt is very attractive I would argue that a compromise seems like the best solution. The creation of green belts often leads to an increase in house pricing which is less than ideal for increasing urban populations. On the other hand, nobody wants to live in a purely concrete city. And lastly, despite the green belt having it’s negative side, the conceptual original idea of green belt thinking is also evolving. For example, the grassroots treeplanting program in Kenya to address deforestation, soil erosion and the lack of water.
