The metropolitan landscape consists of green, open areas adjacent to and enclosed by the urban environment. Changes in this landscape are a delicate matter, because they affect sustainability, the environment and the scenic quality, as we see in processes like urban sprawl, intensive outdoor...

Open space preservation is a planner's issue that is constantly debated, in particular on the success of the implemented instruments. Assessments of policy-effectiveness face many methodological problems that are briefly discussed here. We choose to analyse the contribution of Dutch policies to...

This chapter explores the potential of geospatial analysis to characterize land use dynamics in urban areas and the surrounding urban fringe. It focuses on the difference between policy ambitions and reality with respect to urban densification. Policy ambitions for the containment of urban...

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...

The metropolitan landscape consists of green, open areas adjacent to and enclosed by the urban environment. Changes in this landscape are a delicate matter, because they affect sustainability, the environment and the scenic quality, as we see in processes like urban sprawl, intensive outdoor...

The problem of water shortage is increasingly getting attention within the field of water management, even in the wet Netherlands. Clean ground and surface water may become too scarce to allow for sustainable use for various functions. In order to assess the magnitude of this problem a water...

Concern for the socio-economic vitality of rural areas has stimulated various development programmes. This paper proposes a methodology to quantify this policy concept following a strict socio-economic interpretation and use it to assess the structural characteristics and performance of rural...

The Netherlands is one of the most densely populated countries in the world and urban functions are constantly claiming more space. This continuing urbanisation has lead to a growing concern for the preservation of open space. A loss of open space does not only mean a fragmentation of ecosystems...

Although the Netherlands is one of the most densely populated countries, two thirds of the land area are still under agricultural use. Major socio-economic changes are however expected for the agricultural sector. The increasing globalisation of economic relations in agriculture and the possible...