From the Frankfurt Greenbelt to the Regionalpark RheinMain: An institutional perspective on regional greenbelt governance

S. Macdonald; J. Monstadt; A. Friendly

doi:10.1080/09654313.2020.1724268

From the Frankfurt Greenbelt to the Regionalpark RheinMain: An institutional perspective on regional greenbelt governance

S. Macdonald, J. Monstadt, A. Friendly

Governance of Urban Dynamics and Transitions

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Legally protected by its own constitution since 1991, the greenbelt (or ‘GrünGürtel’) forms a ring of greenspace around Frankfurt, Germany and has been considered an effective reaction to municipal development pressures. As a response to Frankfurt’s embeddedness within a highly interconnected suburbanized region under extensive growth pressures, the Regionalpark RheinMain was established to upscale the greenbelt to the regional level. In this article, we explore the institutional complexities of upscaling a localized greenbelt to the regional scale in the Frankfurt Rhine-Main region, which is known for its fragmented institutional environment formed by numerous planning authorities and special purpose agencies with overlapping jurisdictions. Engaging with the literature on the governance of greenbelts from an institutional perspective, we analyse how the development of the Regionalpark RheinMain is shaped by horizontal, vertical and territorial coordination problems. We conclude that that the Regionalpark RheinMain is not appropriately institutionalized to serve as an effective regional greenbelt, resulting in localized initiatives and the delegation of greenbelt planning to municipalities.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	142–162
Number of pages	21
Journal	European Planning Studies
Volume	29
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2020.1724268
Publication status	Published - 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was supported by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada through funding from the Major Collaborative Research Initiative ?Global Suburbanisms: Governance, Land and Infrastructure in the twenty-first century? (2010?2019) [grant number 410-2010-1003]. Funding was also provided by Utrecht University and the German Academic Exchange Service (Project No. 57156825). We are grateful for the valuable feedback we received from J?rg Dettmar, Valentin Meilinger, Roger Keil, Michael Collens, Susanne Heeg and Bernd Belina and the anonymous reviewers on earlier versions of this article. The authors would like to thank the numerous interview partners for their support and Maximilian Hellriegel for his research assistance on this project.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Keywords

Frankfurt Rhine-Main region
Greenbelts
Regionalpark RheinMain
institutions
regional governance

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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From the Frankfurt greenbelt to the Regionalpark RheinMain an institutional perspective on regional greenbelt governanceFinal published version, 1.93 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

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abstract = "Legally protected by its own constitution since 1991, the greenbelt (or {\textquoteleft}Gr{\"u}nG{\"u}rtel{\textquoteright}) forms a ring of greenspace around Frankfurt, Germany and has been considered an effective reaction to municipal development pressures. As a response to Frankfurt{\textquoteright}s embeddedness within a highly interconnected suburbanized region under extensive growth pressures, the Regionalpark RheinMain was established to upscale the greenbelt to the regional level. In this article, we explore the institutional complexities of upscaling a localized greenbelt to the regional scale in the Frankfurt Rhine-Main region, which is known for its fragmented institutional environment formed by numerous planning authorities and special purpose agencies with overlapping jurisdictions. Engaging with the literature on the governance of greenbelts from an institutional perspective, we analyse how the development of the Regionalpark RheinMain is shaped by horizontal, vertical and territorial coordination problems. We conclude that that the Regionalpark RheinMain is not appropriately institutionalized to serve as an effective regional greenbelt, resulting in localized initiatives and the delegation of greenbelt planning to municipalities.",

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From the Frankfurt Greenbelt to the Regionalpark RheinMain: An institutional perspective on regional greenbelt governance

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

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