Dr Marco Amati is a lecturer at the Graduate School of the Environment, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.

'It is astonishing to realize that no book has attempted to compare international efforts to construct green belts around cities, despite the fact that this idea has been a powerful element of urban planning for the past 100 years. Marco Amati and his collaborators fill this gap with a wide ranging and important book that will be essential to students and to scholars, planners, and designers working on the emerging megacities of the world.' Michael B. Teitz, University of California, Berkeley, USA 'Sometimes provocative, sometimes rueful, the authors combine narratives of green belts in eleven cities around the world with critical reflection on the aspirations of 20th (and indeed 19th) century governments to stem the tides of urban expansion. Why the title ? So tomorrow's smart growth strategies can learn from yesterday's rather mixed fortunes.' Michael Hebbert, University of Manchester, UK '...those interested in greenbelts and how a planning ideal has fared across a range of cities will find this collection of material well chosen and able to readily be used as a resource to illustrate contemporary planning issues.' Urban Policy and Research '...offers new insights on the history and on the future of urban planning in the 21st century...For the future of green belts, these essays offer arguments in favour of a new policy, through the use of a renewed and more flexible "green belt" concept.' Urban Studies Journal

• Contents: Preface; Green belts: a 20th-century planning experiment, Marco Amati; Part I The Coalition of the Un-willing: Landowners and the Green Belt: The abandonment of Tokyo's green belt and the search for a new discourse of preservation in Tokyo's suburbs, Takashi Watanabe, Marco Amati, Kenya Edo and Makoto Yokohari; Issues with green belt reform in the Seoul metropolitan area, Jekook Kim and Tae-Kyung Kim. Part II Falling Out of Favour: Deregulation and Green Belts: Protecting Melbourne's green wedges - fate of a public policy, Michael Buxton and Robin Goodman; The green belt that wasn't: the case of New Zealand from 1910 to the 1990s, Caroline Miller and Marco Amati. Part III Re-Forming Greenery: From Green Belts to Green Nets: The Adelaide parklands and the endurance of the green belt idea in South Australia, Christine Garnaut; Ottawa's greenbelt evolves from urban separator to key ecological planning component, David Gordon and Richard Scott; Instruments to preserve open space and resource lands in the Seattle, Washington Metropolitan Region - a US alternative to green belts, Alon Bassok. Part IV Works in Progress: Patching Together a Flexible Green Belt: The Vienna green belt: from localised protection to a regional concept, Meinhard Breiling and Gisa Ruland; From green belts to regional parks: history and challenges of suburban landscape planning in Berlin, Manfred Kuhn and Ludger Gailing; Controlling urban expansion in Italy with green belts, Guilio Senes, Alessandro Toccolini, Paolo Stefano Ferrario, Raffaele Lafortezza, and Pasquale Dal Sasso; The Paris-Ile-de-France ceinture verte, Nicolas Laruelle and Corinne Legenne; Index.

Dr Marco Amati is a lecturer at the Graduate School of the Environment, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.

'It is astonishing to realize that no book has attempted to compare international efforts to construct green belts around cities, despite the fact that this idea has been a powerful element of urban planning for the past 100 years. Marco Amati and his collaborators fill this gap with a wide ranging and important book that will be essential to students and to scholars, planners, and designers working on the emerging megacities of the world.' Michael B. Teitz, University of California, Berkeley, USA 'Sometimes provocative, sometimes rueful, the authors combine narratives of green belts in eleven cities around the world with critical reflection on the aspirations of 20th (and indeed 19th) century governments to stem the tides of urban expansion. Why the title ? So tomorrow's smart growth strategies can learn from yesterday's rather mixed fortunes.' Michael Hebbert, University of Manchester, UK '...those interested in greenbelts and how a planning ideal has fared across a range of cities will find this collection of material well chosen and able to readily be used as a resource to illustrate contemporary planning issues.' Urban Policy and Research '...offers new insights on the history and on the future of urban planning in the 21st century...For the future of green belts, these essays offer arguments in favour of a new policy, through the use of a renewed and more flexible "green belt" concept.' Urban Studies Journal

• Contents: Preface; Green belts: a 20th-century planning experiment, Marco Amati; Part I The Coalition of the Un-willing: Landowners and the Green Belt: The abandonment of Tokyo's green belt and the search for a new discourse of preservation in Tokyo's suburbs, Takashi Watanabe, Marco Amati, Kenya Edo and Makoto Yokohari; Issues with green belt reform in the Seoul metropolitan area, Jekook Kim and Tae-Kyung Kim. Part II Falling Out of Favour: Deregulation and Green Belts: Protecting Melbourne's green wedges - fate of a public policy, Michael Buxton and Robin Goodman; The green belt that wasn't: the case of New Zealand from 1910 to the 1990s, Caroline Miller and Marco Amati. Part III Re-Forming Greenery: From Green Belts to Green Nets: The Adelaide parklands and the endurance of the green belt idea in South Australia, Christine Garnaut; Ottawa's greenbelt evolves from urban separator to key ecological planning component, David Gordon and Richard Scott; Instruments to preserve open space and resource lands in the Seattle, Washington Metropolitan Region - a US alternative to green belts, Alon Bassok. Part IV Works in Progress: Patching Together a Flexible Green Belt: The Vienna green belt: from localised protection to a regional concept, Meinhard Breiling and Gisa Ruland; From green belts to regional parks: history and challenges of suburban landscape planning in Berlin, Manfred Kuhn and Ludger Gailing; Controlling urban expansion in Italy with green belts, Guilio Senes, Alessandro Toccolini, Paolo Stefano Ferrario, Raffaele Lafortezza, and Pasquale Dal Sasso; The Paris-Ile-de-France ceinture verte, Nicolas Laruelle and Corinne Legenne; Index.