page_title: Metz
section_title: Urban ecology
hierarchical_section_title: Metz / Cityscape and environmental policy / Urban ecology
caption_attribution_description: English: Metz (France): the Place de la Comédie and the Temple Neuf Nederlands: Metz (Frankrijk): de Place de la Comédie en de Temple Neuf Français&#160;: Metz (département de la Moselle, France): la Place de la Comédie et le Temple Neuf
context_page_description: Metz Latin: Divodurum Mediomatricorum is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand Est region. Located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany, and Luxembourg, the city forms a central place of the European Greater Region and the SaarLorLux euroregion.
  Metz has a rich 3,000-year-history, having variously been a Celtic oppidum, an important Gallo-Roman city, the Merovingian capital of Austrasia, the birthplace of the Carolingian dynasty, a cradle of the Gregorian chant, and one of the oldest republics in Europe. The city has been steeped in Romance culture, but has been strongly influenced by Germanic culture due to its location and history.
  Because of its historical, cultural, and architectural background, Metz has been submitted on France's UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List.
context_section_description: Under the leadership of such people as botanist Jean-Marie Pelt, Metz pioneered a policy of urban ecology during the early 1970s. Because of the failure of post-war urban planning and housing estate development in Europe during the 1960s, mostly based on the concepts of CIAM, Jean-Marie Pelt, then municipal councillor of Metz, initiated a new approach to the urban environment.
  Based initially on the ideas of the Chicago School, Pelt's theories pleaded for better integration of humans into their environment and developed a concept centered on the relationship between "stone and water". His policy was realized in Metz by the establishment of extensive open areas surrounding the Moselle and the Seille rivers and the development of large pedestrian areas. As a result, Metz has over 37 m² (400 sq ft) of open areas per inhabitant in the form of numerous public gardens in the city.
  The principles of urban ecology are still applied in Metz with the implementation of a local Agenda 21 action plan. The municipal ecological policy encompasses the sustainable refurbishment of ancient buildings, the erection of sustainable districts and buildings, green public transport, and the creation of public gardens by means of landscape architecture.
  Additionally, the city has developed its own combined heat and power station, using waste wood biomass from the surrounding forests as a renewable energy source. With a thermal efficiency above 80%, the 45MW boiler of the plant provides electricity and heat for 44,000 dwellings. The Metz power station is the first local producer and distributor of energy in France.
caption: Water games on the Islands District
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