Regional planning for open space

In Regional planning for open space, the authors successfully examine the complexities related to the management of open spaces. This is achieved by exploring the influences that spatial, economic and governance mechanisms have on how these spaces are planned. This edited book offers a collection of case studies emerging from countries mostly in Western Europe The Netherlands, the UK, Belgium, Denmark, Germany and two examples from the US (Portland and Maryland). The editors of this book are careful to define open space in the introductory chapter as recreational, agricultural and natural spaces within the ‘blended metropolitan landscape’ (pp. 2 3). These areas are much larger than the green spaces embedded within cities themselves; instead they are the open spaces located beyond physical limits of the urban region (p. 3). The book’s aim, presented early in Chapter 1, is to understand the processes and mechanisms that affect the availability and management of open space. Furthermore, the objective is to present and critically examine examples of regions that have employed market-led, government regulated, or communicative approaches to planning open space. It is not surprising that the authors of the concluding chapter articulate the limitations to fully embracing either a market-led or a regulatory approach. These limits, including the unequal influence in decision-making processes amongst the government, the market and the public, are discussed in the political and planning theory literature (see, for instance, Hirst, 1990; Low, 1991; Lijphart, 1999; Gleeson and Low, 2000). However, this book concludes by arguing that opportunities for successful management emerge when a balance of different approaches is embraced while enabling the values of those who use these spaces to permeate the process. In addition to examining the many ways to manage open space, this book examines how open space can be preserved, used and regarded by people. The authors argue that these different management techniques are influenced by people’s varying perceptions and ways of valuing this kind of space. The introductory chapter of this book uses the figures presented by the UN world urbanisation prospects (United Nations, 2006) to describe urbanisation and the recent shift to 49% of the human population living in urban environments. The authors draw on the data from the European Environmental Agency (2006) to argue that the physical size of cities is growing at a rate that outpaces the growth in population. Van der Valk and Van Dijk present this challenge as the consequence of over consumption of space, which pushes urban regions to expand physically and strains the open space on the fringe (p. 7). The authors communicate the significance of this book by drawing upon the works of Van den Berg (2007, 2005), Sugiyama and Thompson (2008), and Sherman et al. (2005) to demonstrate that the growing detachment between where people live and open space negatively affects people’s well-being (pp. 9 10). This book describes unique approaches to preserving and managing open space. The three approaches to planning open space, looked at in this book, are the economic, spatial and governance approaches. Examined in the first few chapters is the market-led approach. In later chapters, a contrast between the concept of ‘tradeable development rights’ (in Chapter 7) and the concept of ‘land thrift’ and the 30 ha goal (in Chapter 13) demonstrate the limitations associated with a purely economic approach comparedwith those approaches that attempt to marry market approaches to people’s perception of space. The contrast between these chapters shows the different ways of valuing open space and how different market-led approaches can reinforce and even limit how open space is viewed. Chapters 2, 8 and 9 address the spatial dimensions of open space and the capacity for government to deliver policies embedded within spatial plans. The three city regions examined Copenhagen, Portland and the Randstad offer different socio-political contexts that provide the reader with a juxtaposition of different ways of planning for open space and their respective limitations. One of the strengths of this book is drawing upon case studies in both Europe and the United States, bringing some of the socio-political differences between them into view, as well as drawing Australian Planner Vol. 47, No. 2, June 2010, 105 109