|
Rationale - what it means and why it is an important measure
|
|
Sustainable development, restoration and protection of land and sites in the municipality. Development addresses the use of virgin land and green areas/greenfields as sites for various development projects in the municipality. Restoration refers to the regeneration of disused, derelict or contaminated land. Protection addresses protection of sensitive ecological sites.
|
| |
|
How it is compiled, what data are needed
|
|
Percentage of protected sites lost in a year. The percentage of new developments in municipality on green field sites versus all developments in a year. The percentage of overall land in municipality that is contaminated. The percentage of overall land in a municipality that is derelict.
|
| |
|
Measurements and units
|
Contaminated land (%)
Derelict land (%)
New development in municipality on green field sites/all development in the year (%)
Protected sites lost in year (%)
|
| |
|
Possible temporal and spatial format
|
|
Pie-charts or bar graphs
|
| |
|
Reference to methodology resources
|
|
EC, Directorate General Environment, Working Group of the Expert Group on the Urban Environment, 2000. Towards a Local Sustainability Profile - European Common Indicators. http://www.sustainable-cities.org/indicators/
|
| |
|
Objective
|
|
The sustainable use of land. To icrease the amount of green and restored areas. To eliminate losses of protected sites and reduce contamination of land.
|
| |
|
Targets, benchmarks, reference values
|
|
There are international agreements to protect certain biodiversity sites (Ramsar Convention) as well as European legislation (Habitats Directive 92/43/EEC). There are also local nature reserves in some countries. Contaminated land is also subject to improvement targets; these are targets to direct new development to Brownfield sites (e.g. 60% of new housing in the UK) and to protect green sites in most countries.
|
| |
|
References to examples of application
|
|
New housing development on Brownfield sites as a percentage of new housing is published each year in the Bristol Quality of Life Report, as is the total number of local nature reserves. Norwich City Council publishes the amount of land developed from one year to the next, the proportion of this land that is on Brownfield sites and the increase or reduction of land developed on greenfield sites in comparison to the previous year.
|
| |
|
Other comments / background
|
A sustainable city is one that protects land with biodiversity value and green areas from development, and restores/enhances/redevelops disused, derelict and contaminated land.
There are local, national, European and global policies to protect ecologically-sensitive sites and those with high biodiversity value, and also European policies to restore contaminated land, and direct development to ‘brownfield’ sites in some countries. Some clarification may be needed until common definitions are agreed upon for derelict and contaminated land.
|
| |
