In the heated debate on new residential development in the countryside, rural vitality is used in three different discourses: the agri-rural, utilitarian and hedonist. Discussions on the future of the Dutch countryside in general and a designated National Landscape north of Amsterdam in...

Open space preservation is an important aim of spatial planning. In the Netherlands, the recreational, ecological and historic values of open spaces between cities, the buffer zones, are recognised and thus receive ample attention from policy-makers. This paper focuses on Midden-Delfland, an...