Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
try to conserve areas around growing urban places, and to provide more open or
green space. Many different approaches to land preservation have been used, some
by fiat from a state or national government, others by various land use polices, such
as: the purchase of development rights, buying the land, or zoning areas for agricul-
tural use only. After decades of criticism even the Green Belt concept has been re-
vived in the last twenty years. For example a Green Belt Biosphere zone around Sao
Paulo was designated in 1994—although this is as much about protecting local habi-
tat as sprawl—while a European Green Belt was designated along the line of the old
Cold War barrier between the democratic west and the Communist countries, a zone
that was originally heavily fortified. In urban terms the revival of interest in this
approach is best seen by the implementation of the world's biggest urban green belt
in southern Ontario in 2005, an area encompassing 1.8 million acres (720,000 ha).
Figure
4.1
shows that it surrounds the conurbation known as the Golden Horseshoe,
centred by Toronto, an urbanized area of 8.4 million people at its time of designa-
tion, one that is expected to increase to over 11 million by 2031. Most of the land
within the belt is protected from development, with existing settlements in the area
required to produce development plans and what amount to growth boundaries. Al-
though heavily criticized by conservative forces at the time (Cox
2004
), the plan did
gain wide public support. One of the reasons for its acceptance is that the regional
population was already familiar with the utility of previous conservation measures
that had protected parts of the zone, namely: the Niagara escarpment, formed by
Fig. 4.1
Ontario's Green Belt
