Dr Matt Kirby

Please to be hosting a World Café session at ESP Europe 2026 on advancing citizen participation in social-ecological scenario planning 🫂🏞️

👉Session overview: cdn.aanmelderusercontent.nl/i/doc/88995799…

📭Accepting abstracts to contribute to part 1: scene setting

Please to be hosting a World Café session at ESP Europe 2026 on advancing citizen participation in social-ecological scenario planning 🫂🏞️

👉Session overview: cdn.aanmelderusercontent.nl/i/doc/88995799…

📭Accepting abstracts to contribute to part 1: scene setting

Blackheath and Greenwich looking more like a Savanna than a Common and Park on this hot London day! But #GreenInfrastructure providing "more than human" urban cooling benefits and interesting to see drought resistance of non-cut vs cut!

‘Dark day for parks’: Plans to build Spurs academy on London green space approved Residents had unsuccessfully challenged Enfield council in court over club’s plan to build pitches on rewilded area rich in bats and newts

A dark day indeed... www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Excited to be starting the new year in a #NewJob working on #UrbaReLeaf based at @dundeeuni.bsky.social and across Europe to provide innovative and participatory approaches to create liveable, and resilient cities through urban greening which empower citizens

"Other countries should take note that it is possible to put a price on agriculture’s climate impact without widespread uproar" - really important blog from the Danish Society for Nature Conservation on Denmark's tripartite (govt, ag & NGOs) agreement on climate & farming.
shorturl.at/OtxbN 1/

#TNOCEssay: Re-envisioning the Green Belt for Biodiversity, Recreational Access, and Climate Resilience
By Lincoln Garland, Bath

Read more and Join the conversation 👉 www.thenatureofcities.com/2024/12/09/r...

#UrbanResilience #Biodiversity #GreenBelt

New blog : changing the #nature of Government rhetoric and policy about nature. mainstreaminggreeninfrastructure.com/blog/posts.p...

A fantastic day yesterday at my PhD graduation and a fitting end to my time at @northumbriauni.bsky.social as part of the ONE Planet DTP

I feel increasingly lucky to have had @profajscott.bsky.social by my side as a truly superb supervisor and mentor

📢📜 My 5th PhD paper has been published in #LandscapeandUrbanPlanning w/ @profajscott.bsky.social Claire Walsh

Drawing on stakeholder co-developed exploratory scenarios our timely research asks what English #GreenBelt landscapes might look like in the future?

doi.org/10.1016/j.la...

...🧵(1/10)

An additional research aim was to test #AI tools for landscape research.

AI tools were effective for creating scenario landscape visualisations and may be an key tool for expanding participatory research methods, such as photo collages to depict desired #FutureLandscapes 🧵(10/10)

With a new government willing to rethink #GreenBelts we are at an opportune time for #change

We argue they should be “strategic urban support landscapes” to help city regions adapt to a changing climate, reframing their spatial proximity which once made them a planning challenge, as an asset🧵(9/10)

Nearly all stakeholder involved felt that #GreenBelts need change for the 21st Century.

The #Multifunctional scenario was perceived as having most benefits, likely and preferred.

There is substantial cross-sector consensus for more (multi)functional Green Belts as a uniting framework 🧵(8/10)

The co-developed scenarios reveal #GreenBelts are under increased pressure from multiple land-uses, societal demands, and policies, many of which are in conflict, stemming from either a prioritisation or balancing of these demands through varying governance mechanisms.🧵(7/10)

3: Multifunctional 🌳🏘️A joined up policy agenda recognises the functional potential of Green Belt landscapes, seeking to integrate policy to manage trade-offs and deliver important ecosystem services, alongside much needed affordable housing and strategic growth. 🧵(6/10)

2: Build-Build-Build 🏘️: Green Belts are eased around the urban edge to meet increasing market demands for housing in a growing housing crisis. But at the expense of wider benefits to ecosystem services, under an uncoordinated approaches and absence of strategic planning. 🧵(5/10)

1: Intensify & Diversify 🚜- Driven by global food and energy markets and supported by planning deregulation, land is agriculturally intensified and diversified in the Green Belt. Green Belt policy is unable to counter these trends due to its narrow disintegrated nature.🧵(4/10)

Three diverging scenarios were created: “Intensify & Diversify”, “Build-Build-Build” and “Multifunctional” framed on a governance-functionality axis.

We used and tested #AI image generation to create fictional but typical base #GreenBelt landscapes to visualise possible changes 🧵(3/10)

#GreenBelts are more contentious than ever. As planning zones they are under scrutiny to deliver #Housing.

But as #SocialEcologicalLandscapes, wider land-use demands coverage. A cross-sector stakeholder workshop co-developed exploratory Green Belt landscape scenarios in 2044🧵(2/10)

📢📜 My 5th PhD paper has been published in #LandscapeandUrbanPlanning w/ @profajscott.bsky.social Claire Walsh

Drawing on stakeholder co-developed exploratory scenarios our timely research asks what English #GreenBelt landscapes might look like in the future?

doi.org/10.1016/j.la...

...🧵(1/10)

A greener Green Belt? Co-developing exploratory scenarios for contentious peri-urban landscapes Peri-urban landscapes experience conflicting land-use demands from co-occurring urban–rural drivers. In England, Green Belts are urban containment pol…

Delighted 4 @drmattkirby.bsky.social that his 5th peer review paper on codeveloping exploratory scenarios 4 #greenbelt futures is now on line (open access). Pleased to have supported this paper both in leading one of the workshops and its subsequent write up. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Critically Understanding the Urban Social Infrastructures (USI) Needed for Young Mens’ Health and Wellbeing in UK Cities (IDRT25/EE/UF/LUGER) at Northumbria University on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Critically Understanding the Urban Social Infrastructures (USI) Needed for Young Mens’ Health and Wellbeing in UK Cities (IDRT25/EE/UF/LUGER) at Northumbria University, listed on F...

Advertising a fully-funded PHD at Northumbria University looking at how Urban Social Infrastructures (USIs) can be better-provided in UK cities to improve (holistic) Gen-Z Mens' Health and Wellbeing. Get in touch if interested, deadline January. Details here: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Popping this 2016 vintage to celebrate my final (probably...) PhD paper being accepted in Landscape and Urban Planning

Great to see @profajscott.bsky.social giving evidence at the Environmental Audit Committee inquiryon Environmental sustainability and housing growth.

Making the case for breaking down silos, strategic planning and championing nature in planning, including Green Belts benefits. Thanks for the plug!

Landbrug & Fødevarer: Trepart er 'en sejr for både det gode landmandskab, klima, natur og miljø' Aftalen om grøn trepart vil 'ændre stregerne på Danmarkskortet', lyder det fra Dansk Industri.

Denmark's "green tripartite agreement" is a world first to introduce a climate tax on livestock emissions alongside N reduction. In one of Europe's most nature depleted countries the impetus will now be a conversion of agriculture to nature - supported cross-sector
www.dr.dk/nyheder/poli...

Though the agreement is not perfect, with Danish People's Party, Danish Democrats, Enhedslisten and Alternativet are not part of the agreement, the fact it now has political support across a majority of the folketinget shows that ambitious and radical environmental policy is possible.

Landbrug & Fødevarer: Trepart er 'en sejr for både det gode landmandskab, klima, natur og miljø' Aftalen om grøn trepart vil 'ændre stregerne på Danmarkskortet', lyder det fra Dansk Industri.

Denmark's "green tripartite agreement" is a world first to introduce a climate tax on livestock emissions alongside N reduction. In one of Europe's most nature depleted countries the impetus will now be a conversion of agriculture to nature - supported cross-sector
www.dr.dk/nyheder/poli...