The adoption of a Smart Growth strategy should favour the protection of greenlands, because the underlying principle of more compact, sustainable communities is predicated on the more efficient use of land, lowered reliance on automobiles, wise use of water and energy, and the protection of natural areas. The typical structure of many of our present-day communities - land-consumptive, resource-consumptive, with a high degree of dependency on automobiles and limited protection of natural areas - would seem to represent the antithesis of the Smart Growth vision.
In practice, however, it will be difficult to achieve greater protection of greenlands as part of a Smart Growth Strategy without making major improvements in the following four areas:
- identification;
- delivery;
- securement;
- management.