Valuing multifunctional open space in Flanders peri-urban areas : creating places worth caring about
Celen, Griet
Powerpoint presentation.
The Flemish region, one of the three regions of Belgium, has one of the highest population densities in Europe (455 inh./kmm, Brussels not included). Applying the OECD threshold of 150 inhabitants per square kilometre for rural areaas Flanders hardly has any rural areas. Almost 25% of the territory is built-up land and related land use like roads and railroads, which gives an indication of high degree of urbanisation. Irrespective the parameters used, one can say that most of the Flemish area can be described as peri-urban. But overall statistics do not reflect the extreme complex Flemish reality very well. Large parts of Flanders are characterized by the fact that land use, especially housing but also industry, recreational facilities etc, is scattered in the countryside. This typical spatial morphology is due to the fact that in most of Flanders there are few physical limitations for building (i.e. compared to polders area of the Netherlands, mountainous regions, dry climate regions,,) in combination with the early industrialisation and urbanisation of the region. In Addition, while the spatial planning system was developed only in the 70, an extensive system of subsidies to individual private dwellings already existed as early as the 19e century. In other words, the government allowed and even subsidized to build everywhere in de countryside. And although strict zoning plans cover the whole surface of Flanders since the mid 70, this has not kept the Flemish of mixing land use in the open space. Moreover, the zoning plans and legislation sometimes confirmed and reinforced the habit of diffuse development and ribbon housing development. Already in the 600s the famous architect Braam described Belgium as the ugliest country in the worldd. The complex context of the Flemish peri-urban morphology is the poisoned chalice from the past in which we must shape the conditions for a sustainable future. At this moment, the amount of open space is still diminishing, fragmented and under pressure by demands posed by infrastructure, housing, mobility and economic activity at a steady rate of almost 7 ha a day.
Event: International Land Management Symposium
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