LONDON METROPOLITAN GREEN BELT

Valuation of Ecosystem Services in London Metropolitan Green Belt



Table of Contents

II. Background: Green Belts3

2.1 Urbanisation and Green Belts3

2.2 History of London Metropolitan Green Belt6

2.3 Necessity of renewal policy11

2.4 Value of London Metropolitan Green Belt15

III. Background: Ecosystem Approach and Assessment20

3.1 Ecosystem Approach20

3.2 UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessments23

3.3 UK National Ecosystem Assessment26

3.4 Ecosystem Assessment in Ontario's Green Belt27

IV. Methodology31

4.1 Selecting surveyed areas32

4.2 Typology of Ecosystem Services36

V. Valuation of Ecosystem Services of London Metropolitan Green Belt42

5.1 Lowland heath42

5.3 Agricultural land63

5.5 Values of ecosystem services70

II. Background: Green Belts

This section provides background information on Green Belts from the birth of Green Belt concept to the reason why the policy is currently a controversial issue between urban planners and conservationists. It also points out the necessity of renewal of the policy through a proper evaluation of Green Belts.

2.1 Urbanisation and Green Belts

The Industrial Revolution in the mid eighteenth century resulted in exponential growth in human population. Human population on the earth, which had kept under 700 million along with low fertility rate over five million years after the dawn of humanity, reached one billion in the year 1804. It took only one century that another one billion people emerged on the earth and population growth rate has been increasing constantly. According to the latest figure, over 6.9 billion people live on the earth as of 2010. It is projected that human population would swell to between 8.0 and 10.5 billion in 2050 (UNPD, 2008). In addition, people living in urban area, 3.3 billion people, outnumbered those living in rural areas for the first time in history in 2008. The number of urban residents would seem to exceed 4.9 billion by 2030 (UNFAP, 2007).

Needless to say, urbanization is likely to impose urban residents on environmental problems such as air pollution and water contamination which may cause adverse effect on human health. A study in the UK shows that there is strong correlation between life expectancy and distance from countryside (Natural England, 2009). From the standpoint of accessibility to open countryside, the maximum size of a city and population should be a 16 km radius and four million respectively (Keeble, 1961). However, currently there have been 77cities in the world embracing over four million of population from Tokyo with a population of 35.2 million to Surat in India with that of just 4.0 million. All of them are expected continuous population growth for the next several decades and additional 41 cities, most of which are in developing countries, would seem to become a member of the mega city group by 2030 (Demographia, 2010). Thus, accessibility of open countryside for urban residents would become a more and more crucial and problematic issue in the light of human health.

Most major metropolitan cities have experienced urban sprawl because of rapid population growth since middle of the last century. Low population density spread widely around the city arisen from urban sprawl in the absence of an appropriate policy on urban planning has caused long-distance commute to ...