Green or gray? Zoetermeer is so petrified

taketonews

In some Dutch neighborhoods you can no longer see the forest for the trees, so to speak, and in other streets there is not even a blade of grass to be found. This is apparent from research by environmental organization Natuur en Milieu.

In the research published in February 2022, it looks at the availability of at least 75 square meters of green space per home in the 32 largest municipalities in our country. Everything that is not petrified is counted as green, such as parks, lawns, roadsides and water. In the Note Space from 2004, the national government calls this surface area per home the minimum lower limit for the amount of greenery in a neighbourhood. What about Zoetermeer?

Petrification in Zoetermeer

Let’s talk numbers: in Zoetermeer, 16 neighborhoods were studied. At least five hundred Zoetermeer residents live in these neighbourhoods. Only three neighborhoods have less than 75m2 of green space per home. The average amount of green space per home is 110 m2. That is quite a lot compared to, for example, Delft (63m2), Westland (59m2) and The Hague (90m2). And also good to know: there is no neighborhood in our city without a continuous patch of greenery! Incidentally, the Biezen-West district in Boskoop is one of the least urbanized areas in the Netherlands. Nice to cycle to from Zoetermeer.

The most and the least urbanized neighborhoods

Curious about the most and least urbanized neighborhoods in the Netherlands? You can find them below:

  1. Van der Helstplein neighborhood in Amsterdam – 0.0 square meters of green space per home
  2. Concertgebouw neighborhood in Amsterdam – 0.1 square meters of green space per home
  3. General neighborhood in Haarlem – 0.2 square meters of green space per home

And the least petrified neighborhoods? You can find them at the following locations:

  1. Zuiderpark in Rotterdam – 3,310 square meters of green space per home
  2. Zestienhoven in Rotterdam – 1,588 square meters of green space per home
  3. Klarenbeek in Arnhem – 1,436 square meters of green space per home

Neighborhoods of concrete

The conclusion of the study: The Netherlands is petrifying. As a result, streets are flooded for hours after a heavy rain shower and causes heat stress in cities. Petrification is also one of the main causes of the decline in the number of birds and insects, according to the research. In the 32 largest municipalities in our country, with 100,000 inhabitants or more, 53 percent of the neighborhoods do not meet the criterion of 75 square meters of green space per home.

ttn-47