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SECTOR:Green/Blue COUNTRY:Norway

BACKGROUND
Fredrikstad a city in the south of Norway is chosen to show how The green poster can be used in the municipality plan as a tool to secure the green structure of the urban area in a more sustainable way. As described in chapter xx. The green poster is not a plan but an evaluation of certain values and functions of the urban green areas.

During the 1990-ties five Norwegian cities, among them Fredrikstad joined The environmental friendly cities project which was organized by the Ministry of Environment. The main objective of the project was to develop the cities in a more sustainable direction according to the report of the Brundtland commission. In each city there were established groups focusing on: 1) Transport system and spatial planning, 2) Local development 3) City centre development 4) Cultural heritage 5) Waste treatment and 6) Green structure planning.

In the last years the green structure work in Fredrikstad has been developed further due to a new project called Arealis conducted by the Central survey agency of Norway. The main objective in the Arealis project was to establish and evaluate GIS standards for the urban green structure. Arealis is a database for planning, and the goal is to have relevant data available for all Norwegian municipalities. The figure below illustrates the main data structure of The green poster of Fredrikstad which also has been suggested as a national GIS standard for the urban green structure.

n the municipality of Fredrikstad The green poster was used in the 1997 plan as well as in the latest plan decided on in 2002. The written document of 2002 plan stresses the importance of the Green poster as a premise on the long-term spatial planning of Fredrikstad. It also is underlined that if a plan proposal conflicts The green poster this should clearly be mentioned to let the politicians and the public be aware of the consequences of the proposal. The green poster is in other words even a tool for the plans at the detailed level and is available at the website of the municipality.

INDICATORS

In the environmentally friendly cities programme five green structure indicators were developed and tested
• The amount of green areas within the built up zone
• The content and quality of the green structure
• The amount of water, rivers, pounds etc.
• The amount of recreational areas
• The amount of children’s playgrounds and local parks

EVALUATION
Comparing the last municipality plan of Fredrikstad with previous plans, it is evident that the green structure is taken more in to consideration in the 2002 plan. Certainly some green areas have been changed in the latest plan and will be built on in the future. However it seems as the Green poster has formed a better basis for the solution on densification avoiding the most valuable green areas. The main tendency is that there is more green space shown in the 2002 plan and that the areas are more detailed described. This seems to be due to more knowledge about the values and functions of the green areas of the city and more knowledge about the need for green space established through the Green poster.

The municipality plan of Fredrikstad 2002, a detail

BENCHMARK DATA
The amount of green areas within the built up zone: Data available from the basic GIS survey of the land cover is used to see changes over time. The benchmark data is the previous survey.
The content and quality of the green structure: Data available on special qualities of the green structure from the basic GIS survey of the land cover is used to see the variety of the structure and changes over time. The benchmark data is the previous survey.
The amount of water, rivers, pounds etc: Data available from the basic GIS survey is used to see changes over time. The benchmark data is the previous
The amount of recreational areas: None of the inhabitants shall have more than 500 meters to reach a recreational area of less than 0,2 haa without crossing a road with heavy traffic
The amount of children’s playgrounds and local parks: None of the inhabitants shall have more than 200 meters to reach a playground or park l of less than 5000 m2 without crossing a road with heavy traffic

This kind of GIS based data can also be used to compare the situation in different cities. The figure shows the situation I Fredrikstad (below) compared to the situation in Bergen (in the middle) and Tromsø (above).

DRIVERS
All the time since 1992 White papers on spatial planning policy of Norway has
focused on densification within the urban fabric to avoid urban sprawl and reduce CO2. Obviously this policy is a threat to the green space of the cities. That is why the government on the other hand also stresses the importance of the green areas for health and life quality. This was also an important part of the environmentally friendly cities project which Fredrikstad joined.

LESSONS LEARNT
As demonstrated above The green poster has been a useful tool in the municipality plan. The most important lessons learnt from the Fredrikstad case are as follows:
• The importance of cross sectorial work and public participation
• To implement The green poster at the municipality level it is necessary to handle the organisational aspects of the accomplishment. Especially there is a need for understanding at the top level of the organisation.
• There is a need for a maintenance system of the database
• There is a need to educate people to use The green poster

APPLICATION
Many Norwegian cities have developed Green posters during the last 10 – 15 years. The most important reason for this seems to be that the green poster system helps the planners to work in a structured way to collect the data. They are even forced to describe the criteria for the evaluations which mean that criteria are transparent to everybody joining the planning process.

The databases concerning land survey and city planning are now increasing all over Europe. Therefore, the Green Poster system can be established in any city, and become a useful evaluation tool for town and city planning.

TRANSFERABILITY
The transferability of The green poster has mainly to do with the structure and the process of making it. The details concerning functions and values will differ so much in different countries and cultures and will often be of less importance to transfer. Many municipalities in Norway as well as in other countries have developed similar tools. Since most of the municipalities today use GIS-systems The green poster should be quite easy to transfer. In Norway the development of The green poster has been a part of different governmental projects and there are some handbooks and guidelines presenting the structure and process of making it.

SUMMARY OF IMPACT ON SUSTAINABILITY
The table describes how this special tool has influenced the municipality plan.

ECOLOGY		ECONOMY		SOCIAL
Emissions		Cost effective		Participation
Natural recycling		Willingness to pay		Transparency
Biodiversity		Effective organisation		Safety, health, amenity
TOTAL		TOTAL		TOTAL

1. Taking care of green areas within the urban fabric might lead to more emissions due to urban sprawl, but The green poster shows the most important green space in an efficient way
2. Willingness to pay has not been a part of this study

PROJECT CONTACT
Kine Halvorsen Thorén
Dep. Of landscape architecture and spatial planning
The Agricultural university of Norway
Boks 5029. 1432 Aas Norway
kine@thoren@ilp.nlh.no

REFERENCES
Direktoratet for naturforvaltning, 2003. ”Grønn by - arealplanlegging og grønnstruktur.Håndbok 23 – 2003 (Handbook: The green structure and green
poster in the municipality planning process) http://www.dirnat.no/wbch3.exe?ce=17571

Erik Engelien og Margrete Steinnes 2003
”Tilgang til friluftsområder- metode og resultater 2002” (The supply of recreational areas - methods and results 2002) Statistics Norway 2003/1 SFT
Å beskrive miljøtilstand og bærekraftig utvikling i byer og tettsteder" (About indicators for sustainability) SFT-brosjyre 1726/2000
Thorén A-K. Halvorsen 2000 "The green poster": a method to evaluate the sustainability of the urban green structure “Environmental impact assessment review, vol 20, no3 June 2000 [359-371]