A Case Analysis on the Extent the Green Belts

Can Prevent Urban Sprawl in Frankfurt am

Main, London, and Seoul

Madenancil, Glen Jay F.

Navarette, Maria Luisa
Torino, Mecilda, B.

Errole A. Maxey
Nat Sci 103 Instructor

BSEd Science, 3rd Year

1 | A Case Analysis on the Extent the Green Belts Can Prevent

Urban Sprawl in Frankfurt am Main, London, and Seoul
INTRODUCTION

Green belts are undeveloped areas, maintained natural, that surrounds urban
areas (Shore, 2021). In the endeavor to protect and improve the societal and
ecological environments, green development has become a mainstream value
orientation of global economic and social development. Countries such as the
European Union (EU) and the United States have made great efforts towards a
sustainable future by proposing green development strategies, policies, and actions
(UNEP, 2012; Wang et al., 2018). Green belts were essentially put up to reduce or
even stop urban sprawl.

During recent decades, urban sprawl has been substantially debated in the
literature, carrying significant social, economic and environment implications, much
earlier than of sustainable development concept being introduced. While sustainable
urban development is a highly developed spatial form of integrated cities, urban
sprawl mostly occurred in lower densities accompanied by expansion of urban
periphery. Urban sprawl is also characterized with leapfrogging type of development.
Therefore, urban sprawl is the most impactful urban development patterns that
occurred at an unprecedented rate that threaten sustainable development (Yasin et
al., 2020).

Further, this case analysis is focused on the comparative study of the

effectiveness of green belts to prevent urban sprawl in Frankfurt am Main, London,
and Seoul. This paper will venture on what are green belts and its influence over
urban sprawl, ecological benefits of green belts, urban growth pressure, and the
environmental challenges tied with urban sprawl. The paper will revolve specifically
in the context of mentioned cities of Frankfurt am Main, London, and Seoul. Along
with it, this paper will analyze the effort made by the cities to prevent urban sprawl.

ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

Green Belts and Environmental Sustainability

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Urban Sprawl in Frankfurt am Main, London, and Seoul
 Green belts are significant in achieving environmental sustainability. Such that
green belts can greatly help in minimizing extreme temperature and act as buffers.
More importantly, not only it combats air pollution in densely populated urban areas,
it is also a method in controlling urban sprawl.

In the case of Frankfurt am Main, green belt policy was mobilized to preserve
the River Nidda and the areas surrounding the river. From then on, using areas that’s
part of the green belts for development and allocating it for commercial use is not
advised – it is even against legal guidelines. This act greatly established a strong
sense of commitment to preserve green spaces in the urbanized area. Such that,
this is to combat climate change and to ensure quality of life in the future. This
implies that sustainability is put to practice in such a way of letting existing spaces be
and view it as an important part of the resources for futures to come.

Further, the London Green Belt was established with just the idea to set
agricultural lands in between settlements. As such, it was mobilized with the goal to
supply agricultural produce to the town. Taking advantage of that, they promote an
environmental practice that is efficient and sustainable. From then, the green belts
serve another purpose/reason and these are to keep an eye on urban growth,
prevent merging of settlements, and preserve the natural identity of the area. This
clarification over the significance the green belts serve promotes an understanding
that there is no need to utilize green spaces for development. As this will preserve
the natural areas for future generations.

On the other hand, the Seoul Green Belt were regarded as Restricted
Development Zones to control urban sprawl with their increasing population size.
However, a legal document is put into action to designate these areas. In order to
make sure that the designations are in good condition, the city’s Management Plan
checks it every five years. The case of green belts in Seoul and with the way how
they deal with it have both advantages and disadvantages to environmental
sustainability. It is advantageous in such a way that it supports the public’s right to
safe and quality residential areas and for possible economic benefits. However, the
drawbacks are it can erode the green space and further damage the quality of the
environment due to human activities.

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Urban Sprawl in Frankfurt am Main, London, and Seoul
Urban Heat Islands and Diversity

Aside from promoting environmental sustainability, green belts help in

mitigation of climate change. With that, a climate-related consequences faced by
most cities is extreme heat which is termed as urban heat island effects. According
to United States Environmental Protection Agency (2019), the occurrence of urban
heat islands is rooted from the fact that urban areas are congested with concrete
infrastructures and pavements in replacement of the natural land cover – this leads
to absorption and retention of heat. However, with green belts, the urban heat island
effects can be mitigated. It can improve air quality and lessen the extreme
temperature enveloping the areas. This can happen due to existence of trees and
vegetation that made use of Sun’s energy for photosynthetic activity to release
oxygen to the surrounding – leads to less heat in the environment. Also, green
spaces are great buffers against radiation as it serves as a natural shade and
absorbs heat instead to further prevent surfaces from heating up too much.

Green belts are significant in promoting biodiversity even in urban areas.

According to UNESCO World Heritage Centre (2018), it serves as habitat networks
where ecological niches along the green belt provides refuge and dispersal for
species and habitat types. In the context of urban areas, these patches of green
spaces allow different animals to move from one to another with the purpose to feed,
breed, and seek shelter. This further contribute to the diversity of life forms in these
areas. That being said, urban ecosystem will improve its resilience to habitat loss
and quality of life.

With all that ecological benefits we can get from green belts, it is only a must
to implement it. However, one of the major factors that greatly influence green belt’s
efficacy is pressure imposed by urban growth. The higher the rate of urban growth,
the more it leads to habitat fragmentation – even loss – and increase the rate of
pollution. Fortunately, the lower the rate of urban growth, the less likely it is for
pollution to get worst and promote habitat networks. That is why, urbanization must
be contained within the areas designated. However, managing the growth of urban
areas is a challenge. It is a choice between environmental sustainability and the
satisfaction of urbanization.
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Environmental Challenges tied with Urban Sprawl

The main predicament that this paper analyzes is the urban sprawl. This is
characterized with the high rate of built-up areas, its dispersion, and the high rate of
uptake of the landscape. In the comparative study of the three cities, Seoul notably
highlighted to harbor high weighted urban proliferation. This means that the rate of
urban sprawl was at an alarming rate. The environment suffers from the intense
economic growth that their government pursued. Such that, the designation of green
spaces was flipped to serve the purpose of developing it for economic use.
Consequently, even periphery areas were not spared with the spread out of
urbanization. This strongly implies that the supposed natural spaces for potential
habitat was now dominated with built-up structures and settlements.

Congruently, Frankfurt am Main and London also suffers from dense

population in the inner-city areas that also leads to spreading out of development in
the outer-city. The only difference with the status of Seoul was the intensity, since the
resident-population base of urban sprawl was decreased. Nevertheless, the outer-
city areas that were supposed to be left vacant for preservation of green spaces
were used up with the rapid growth of urban development. It was expected that
green belts were eroded in replacement of settlements, infrastructures, and other
unnatural developments built. This disturbs the natural environment and further
cause imbalance to the ecosystem as organisms’ interaction with it was disrupted

Preserving Green Spaces and Preventing Habitat Fragmentation

With the risk of habitat fragmentation and collapse of green spaces due to
urban sprawl, it is of importance to respond to these environmental issues. The three
cities, Frankfurt am Main, London, and Seoul have taken measures to ensure
environmental stability in urban areas. Their planned action was the mobilization of
green belt policy or the preservation of green spaces in urban areas.

The Frankfurt Green Belt ensures preservation of green spaces and avoid
habitat fragmentation through legislations like the Green Belt Act. This was adopted
by the City Council of Frankfurt am Main in 1991 to put green belts under legal
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Urban Sprawl in Frankfurt am Main, London, and Seoul
protection. As such, it is in order for these green spaces to be free from risk of being
allocated for urban development. In addition to that, to even strengthen the
resolution of attaining environmental sustainability, the city officially announced and
recognized green spaces as Landscape Conservation Area.

In contrast, during 19th century in London, an implementation was made to

purchase lands under “Green Belt Loans Scheme”. These lands are then designated
for green belts. As time went by, strict protection over green spaces was made. It can
be seen that protection and preservation of green spaces for the purpose that it
serves in the environment yields more to legal policies and regulation. As these are
put up to ensure participation in promoting environmental sustainability in the city.
That being said, the policies made by the city were mobilized to avoid risk of haring
the Green Belt’s openness.

In the case of Seoul, their policy regarding their effort to preserve green
spaces was adopted from the concept of London’s. Likewise with London’s, the
Green Belt of Seoul was designated for utilization. The difference was, Seoul’s
utilization of green spaces was flooded with a lot of facilities and resident-led
businesses. Even though they have put up a management plan to look over the
condition of the designated areas, five years of interval is quite long. It is not
sufficient to maintain the natural quality of the landscape as it will be disturbed by
human activities for a long time.

Indicators of Green Belt’s Effectiveness

In congruence with green belts efficacy in preventing urban sprawl, the

comparative study uses indicators or basis. The first ecological indicator is the
percentage of the built-up area. These are landscapes that are altered or undergone
unnatural change due to human-led development. Second ecological indicator is the
population numbers. Simply, it is the number of people in that given area – telling
whether it is dense or not. The third basis are the urban sprawl metrics which are the
land uptake per person, spatial dispersion of settlement patches, and the weighted
urban proliferation.

It was arrived that the built-up coverage in the areas of the cities under study
was increasing with time both in the inner-city and outer-city. This has a direct effect

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Urban Sprawl in Frankfurt am Main, London, and Seoul
on the density of population as it appeared to be dense. This is significantly
observable in Seoul as their sprawl value sits on top of the other two cities. With
that, the urban sprawl metrics reflected a high level of sprawl values. As such, the
data suggested that green belt policy was ineffective in preventing urban sprawl.
That was at least in the context of the three cities – Frankfurt am Main, London, and
Seoul – under study.

Historical and Legal Frameworks that shapes

Green Belts Environmental Outcomes
Historical and legal frameworks play a crucial role in shaping the
environmental outcomes of green belts policies in the city of Frankfurt, London and
Seoul. The city of Frankfurt am Main has a legal act called The Green Belt act of
1991. This solidifies the green belts status and preventing development
encroachment. This act was born from collaborative “green belt project year”, that
reflects a democratic process that ensures public participation and long-term
benefits. Furthermore, London green belts serve as a prime example of how
historical events and legal evolution shape environmental outcomes. As stated, the
concept of London Green Belt was emerged with the founding of Lechworth Garden
City, which emphasize the green belt’s importance to serves as a buffer between
settlements.

More importantly, it was the green belt (London and Home Counties) Act of
1938 that provides the crucial legal framework for permanent protection. The Seoul
green belt which is inspired by the British Green Belt also demonstrates the
importance of national legislation in shaping environmental outcomes. It was
renamed by the president Park into “Restricted Development Zones”. This approach
was formalized by the Urban Planning Act of 1971, which was provided a national
legal framework for controlling urban sprawl and protecting the environment around
Seoul.

Environmental Quality Over Time

Changes in green belt policies has its consequences, may that be positive
and/or negative. When green belt policies are strictly implemented, positive impacts
on environmental quality are assured. Providing that the policy is practiced and is
religiously observed, preservation of green spaces can help mitigate air pollution.

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Urban Sprawl in Frankfurt am Main, London, and Seoul
Not only that, it will promote a network of habitat for biodiversity. Also, with its main
purpose, urban sprawl ca be reduced.

These positive consequences, it indeed promotes environmental quality, is a

double-edged sword. Preservation of green spaces could lead to leap-frog
development that which could birth another environmental consequence that could
possibly do harm. Also, there will be little to no access to these areas for the public to
really ensure that human activity could not further negatively influence the
landscape. However, this can be prevented with proper and careful management
plan.

In the case of the three cities under comparative study, it was evident that
their implementation of the policy evolves over time. Their intention and purpose
were either changed or expanded for efficacy to be observed. In Frankfurt am Main,
it was established to reserve a river and its surrounding areas. From there it serves
and even grander purpose to prevent urban sprawl. Also, London uses the policy to
first utilize the green spaces for agriculture. Now, similarly the aforementioned city, it
now serves as a method to prevent settlements to merge. This can be observed also
in Seoul as they regarded green spaces as restricted areas. However, they deviate
as economic pressures allows them to designate these green spaces for utilization.

Implication of Leap-frog Development

Green belts were seen to have caused further predicaments in the

environment due to the leap-frog settlement development. Leap-frog development is
characterized by bypassing or skipping a vacant land, creating a boundary between
the urban’s center and the new development (Glockmann et al., 2021). This could
further contribute to environmental challenges like carbon emission from vehicles.
This is due to added distance to traverse from the new development to the heart of
the urban area. The distance the residents have to travel from the new development
to the urban area, and vice versa, directly imply vehicular dependence. With the
prolong use and increasing number of vehicles, it is expected that carbon emission
would skyrocket.

CONCLUSION

8 | A Case Analysis on the Extent the Green Belts Can Prevent

Urban Sprawl in Frankfurt am Main, London, and Seoul
 The analysis of the comparative study was focused on the efficacy of green
belts to prevent urban sprawl in Frankfurt am Main, London, and Seoul. As such,
details on environmental quality and challenges with urban growth pressure and its
consequences have links/connection with green belts. Green belts can either
preserve or erode green spaces depending on the management plan and the
manner of implementation of green belt policies. Mainly, urban sprawl is highlighted
in the analysis. Where it is found to do harm than good in the environmental
sustainability.

Unfortunately, green belts were seen to be inefficient in preventing urban

sprawl in the cities of Frankfurt am Main, London and Seoul. Even though the effort
to achieve sustainability in terms of preserving green spaces, it was a failure as it
was up against an uncontrollable increasing density of the population. Truly,
population numbers is a driving factor for the increase in built-up areas –
settlements, economic infrastructures, and buildings for recreation. Development
have never been friendly with the environment as one rise to the top while exploiting
natural resources of the other.

RECOMMENDATIONS
The comparative study of green belts’ efficacy in Frankfurt am Main, London,
and Seoul did not further focus on other environmental/ecological purpose the policy
may serve. In the context of urban regions/areas, environmental aspects of green
belt policies like air quality and noise control can be further looked at. Also, green
belts and its nature to act as natural buffers against heat can be studied. This is to
know whether urban areas who are known to implement green belt policy have
better air quality and effectively combats noise pollution. These gaps, when
addressed by future researchers, can be of great importance in maximizing the
environmental benefits we can possibly get from green belts.

In addition, future researchers can better make use of approaches that will
surely guarantee a comprehensive result. In the case studying green belts, spatial
metrics are effective methods to analyze the shape and pattern of an area
quantitatively. With that, future research can build more comprehensive evidence on
the benefits of green belts in the environment.

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Urban Sprawl in Frankfurt am Main, London, and Seoul
NOTE
The comparative study on the efficacy of green belts in preventing urban
sprawl provides important insights on how to prevent the sprawl and achieve
environmental/ecological sustainability. With the growing of urban regions at such an
increasing rate, planning on how to manage population density is of much
importance. The urban planning policies must be mobilized and/or implemented
strictly. This is to control the resources that we will be taken up or consumed as the
region further develops.

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