From Green Belts to Green Infrastructure? The Evolution of a New Concept in the Emerging Soft Governance of Spatial Strategies

Abstract

The green belt idea is being questioned as an effective way of managing the protection and development of urban fringe areas, and a new concept—green infrastructure (GI)—is being proposed as a better way to plan and manage these spaces. GI is claimed to allow for more sophisticated and dynamic understandings of such spaces and to enable the identification and quantification of formerly under-appreciated assets of the urban fringe, including newly identified economic benefits. The rapid evolution in England of regional and sub-regional ‘soft governance’ bodies that prioritize economic development provides fertile territory for the claims for GI to be promoted. We track the progress of the new discourse around GI in two northern regions in relation to emerging strategies for spatial and economic development planning. We conclude that the policy purchase of the greenbelt is being challenged by the ‘upstart’ GI policy and we explore some implications of the evolving policy transition.