Mainstreaming green infrastructure: how to better use the green belt to address the climate and biodiversity emergencies in North East England

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

There is considerable public & policy attention around the optimal use for green belts (GB). This is polarised between those who see GB's purpose simply as preventing urban sprawl and those who see GB as potential sites to meet housing need through careful and selective GB releases. A further dimension relates to GB as green infrastructure, stressing its potential for nature-based solutions. It is this hidden and neglected dimension that this PhD proposal is built upon. Specifically, how GB can be made more "environmentally productive" as a core component of a green infrastructure network. Here potentialpolicy "hooks" arise from the convergence of the UK climate emergency, severe and ongoing natural capital/biodiversity declines and health and well-being concerns. This work builds on existing NERC research undertaken by Scott on mainstreaming green infrastructure1 and work by Walsh on valuing greeninfrastructure and alternative business models for delivering green infrastructure in cities2 and NEENP's work on rethinking our peri- urban spaces. This PhD will involve working primarily in North East England GB but with application across UK and globally to:-1. Undertake a literature and policy review of green belt policy and impacts globally with particularrelevance to the role of environmental innovation.2. Undertake a policy assessment of extant and proposed green belt policies across the North Eastarea and the impact of national/international policies and guidance.3. Identify and prepare a natural capital assessment of the north east England green belt, drawing uponthe latest approaches and providing a critique of these (currently no systematic assessment of green beltvalue has been undertaken in the UK)4. Identify suitable land uses and delivery mechanisms that can help address the climate andbiodiversity and health emergencies as well as deliver other ecosystem service benefits5. Identify, secure and test 2-3 pilot areas (including benchmark data and indicators) to measureprogress and, if appropriate, model a range of scenarios e.g. flood risk; woodland cover6. Propose new green belt policies and principles to show how environmental value can be betteridentified, captured and delivered to help respond to climate, health and biodiversity emergencies