Open-space preservation in the Netherlands: Planning, practice and prospects

The Impact of Highways on Population Redistribution: The Role of Land Development Restrictions

“…An increase in 1% in share of municipal area defined as a buffer zone is expected to drop population growth by approximately 12.7-14.9%. This confirms the findings of Geurs and Van Wee (2006); Koomen et al (2008); Koomen and Dekkers (2013) that the Dutch policy of open space preservation was effective in preventing urban sprawl in designated areas. A positive coefficient for suburbs and central cities (column 2) indicates that urban municipalities experienced stronger population growth compared with peripheral areas.…”

“…This vision was translated into several main policy measures. First, the center of the urbanized Randstad, the 'Green Heart', was preserved for agricultural use (Koomen et al, 2008;Koomen and Dekkers, 2013). Second, concerns that expansion of large urban areas would result in a formation of one large urban agglomeration were addressed by assignment of 'buffer zones', areas surrounding large cities.…”

“…Second, concerns that expansion of large urban areas would result in a formation of one large urban agglomeration were addressed by assignment of 'buffer zones', areas surrounding large cities. Spatial delineation of the zones appeared later in 1966 (Dieleman et al, 1999;Koomen et al, 2008). Third, the central government was also involved in directing urban growth.…”

“…Data on nature coverage in 1960 was available from Alterra (Kramer, 2005). Spatial planning and land development restriction data, including the boundary of the green heart and the buffer zones, was obtained from Koomen et al (2008).…”

Land-Use Structure and Urbanization-Driven Land Fragmentation: Revisiting the Monocentric Model in a Sprawling Region

“…In many cases, greenbelts have proved to be effective in the containment of sprawl (Bengston and Youn, 2006). However, most of those policy strategies -when applied -have revealed only partly effective in northern Mediterranean cities because of the lack of explicit goals (Bengston et al, 2004;Koomen et al, 2008;Salvati et al, 2013). Nevertheless their application demonstrates the importance of strategies considering a 'building zone' opposed to a rural area inside urban municipalities (Gennaio et al, 2009).…”