DO GREEN BELTS CHANGE THE SHAPE OF URBAN AREAS - A PRELIMINARY-ANALYSIS OF THE SETTLEMENT GEOGRAPHY OF SOUTH EAST ENGLAND

In this paper, we embark on a preliminary exploration of the settlement geography of South East England, with specific reference to the effect that the green belt has had upon the shape and size of towns comprising this region. In common with several other researchers who have examined the impact of such containment policies, we argue that the green belt is likely to have had a significant effect on the geometry of settlement, distorting the geometry from the urban forms which might have arisen in the absence of such policy. We tackle this problem by hypothesizing four different scaling relations which pertain to size and shape. These are based upon allometric relations which explain population size in terms of built-up area and the urban field within which urban development takes place, and upon geometric relations which explain how the irregularity of the envelope bounding urban settlements is related to the areas of the built-up development and the urban field. Using a unique and only recently available digital data base on the boundaries of settlement in South East England, we show that there are indeed significant differences between settlements which have been subject to green belt policy and those which have not been so affected. In essence, settlements which have been constrained by green belt policy are more irregular and fill less of the space available to them than settlements which are not so constrained. We also note that some caution is required in interpreting these results but that the analysis, which is in its preliminary stages, appears promising and has great potential for exploring the physical efficiency of settlement geometry and the extent to which this is changed through green belt policy.