Multifunctional Green Belts: Mainstreaming Nature in a Contentious Policy Space

Abstract

Green Belts and comparative urban growth management policies govern peri-urban landscapes globally by restricting development. Yet, they often lack explicit goals for the land within them. This is especially true in England, where Green Belt policy has remained largely unchanged since the 1950s. Today, the policy is highly contentious and under renewed scrutiny as society faces climate, nature, health and housing crises, leading many to question Green Belts’ role and efficacy in the 21st century. Yet, there has been little research into how multifunctional benefits are treated in Green Belt policy, and no dedicated assessments of the ecosystem services supplied by English Green Belts, representing a key research and policy gap. Furthermore, much of the international research on Green Belts has been through single methods and siloed perspectives. Responding to these gaps, this thesis assesses and critically evaluates the ecosystem service benefits provided by Green Belts and explores pathways to mainstream multifunctionality within the policy. To do this, a conceptual social-ecological framework is developed and applied through a novel mixed-methodological approach, which champions pragmatism and interdisciplinarity by bridging policy analysis, participatory mapping, biophysical modelling, and participatory scenarios. The collective results reveal that Green Belts can, and do provide multifunctional benefits from nature, but these benefits are not sufficiently mainstreamed, requiring new joined up, holistic and strategic governance approaches. Here, multifunctionality was found to be a uniting concept amongst stakeholders for reimagining Green Belts. The results challenge the unsubstantiated claims about Green Belts in England having no particular social or environmental value, thus emphasising the need to move beyond reductive arguments which frame Green Belts as a ‘no man's land’, and instead view it as a multifunctional peri-urban opportunity space and place. Through an impact focused research agenda, these results contribute to local, regional, and national approaches to Green Belt planning.

Date of Award	24 Oct 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Northumbria University Newcastle University
Supervisor	Alister Scott (Supervisor), Jason Luger (Supervisor) & Claire L. Walsh (Supervisor)