ABSTRACT
The problem of how best to manage the outward extension of urban areas, to reconcile the aims of those seeking suburban homes and those seeking to farm and preserve the countryside, is as old as urban growth itself. Similarly, the idea of 'green belts' around cities to prevent them coalescing goes back to biblical times. But for a number of reasons the issues have become more urgent, and more politically visible, in the last two centuries of urban/industrial growth.
