Rural Vision Ep. 05│Raising cattle and boating in the heart of Dutch cities! National spatial planning and the "Green Heart": agriculture and cities coexisting, giving land back to the river

Text / Baohua Communications Planning & Execution: Song Ruozhen

In the western Netherlands, the metropolitan area formed by several major cities - Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht - is home to more than 1/3 of the country's population. Yet at the center of this urban cluster lies a large agricultural belt of about 1,800 sq km known as the "Green Heart."

The "Green Heart" lies low, with 90% of its land below sea level, and is densely dotted with marshes and lakes. Since ancient times, residents have had to work together to build dikes and create farmland, grow pasture grass and raise cattle, putting every hard-won inch of land to its most appropriate planned use.

After World War II, facing a massive reconstruction effort and population growth, how to produce enough food and how to build enough housing became the two challenges the Dutch government urgently needed to solve. Through compromise, the "Green Heart" was preserved as an agricultural production belt while the outer areas were left for urban development and housing. This kept the agricultural zone intact and favorable for production, and also kept urban areas concentrated, making it easier to provide public services - becoming an important strategy in Dutch national spatial planning.

Ultimately, the Green Heart is only a concept. It has no clear geographical boundary and no single administrative body in charge, and the issues involved are both broad and deep; "preserving the Green Heart" is definitely not something a top-down policy alone can achieve. Mr. Bart Vink is a senior official responsible for national spatial planning at the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment. We asked him what the key to the Green Heart's success is. He said:

"The Green Heart is the result of cooperation between the people and the government. First, there must be a vision, a vision that everyone can identify with and understand; there must be rules, rules that create the environment for the vision to be realized; and finally there must be an investment plan to make the vision come true. These three things - vision, rules and plan - must be closely linked. And the success of the Green Heart concept lies in the fact that this concept is deeply rooted in people's hearts, not because the government made it policy. 'Deeply rooted in people's hearts' is the most important key."

The documentary series Rural Vision airs every Tuesday at 10 p.m. on PTS's main channel. The episode "Netherlands Groene Hart - Green Heart, Green Core" had its global premiere on December 18, 2018.

Rural Vision official Facebook page: https://goo.gl/EidHU3
"PTS+" platform: