Israel's Urban Green Line: Parks, Spaces and Boulevards

Israel's green line from space, notice the state's green color with brown in the surrounding states

      Israel's green line is one of the most controversial and best known artifact of this little country. Politically it is used world wide as a term for the 1948 borders. Ecologically and environmentally it is truly a green area outlining Israel's borders, a testament to Israel's hard work. From the air, Israel is green patch of land, in contrast to the states around which are brown. If you look closely at aerial photographs the green areas are made up of tiny patches in shades from light green to deep purple-green. At the south, beyond Beer Sheva the land is brown again, Israel simply does not have the water to turn all desert green. The green patches are made up of farms, cities, sparsely populated villages and forests, yes, forests in the desert. Looking carefully at the cities, they are just as green as agricultural lands. Obviously cities have buildings and roads. Here, gardeners work hard to keep trees and lawns thrive. From the air, cities look more green than black.

      Israel's cities are dark green patches because of gardening along roads and in apartment building yards. Parks in neighborhoods are small but still help in making cities green from above. Blending economical watering techniques like drip irrigation with careful plant selection, Israeli cities look more like tropical or northern hemisphere cities than the sandy desert places. While all over the middle-east sands of the desert are eating into green ares, here people are pushing the sand back. Tel Aviv's older sections, with century old trees, surprise visitors. In newer cities like Raanana, Hertzelia and Cesarea younger, smaller trees and bushes are more common. Israeli cities invest time and resources in making them green. In a semi-desert climate living in a cultivated green environment makes for a good place to live.

Park with pool in Tel Aviv. Cities invest time and resources in greening the land / © 2010

      This winter (2009-2010) there is more rain than past years. Before the rains came there was talk of stopping the water used for gardening. Tel Aviv issued a new policy on the amount private homes can use and said they will reduce watering of public parks. Givatay'im, bordering Tel Aviv to the east, is asking citizens to register the number of people living in each home. Each household will have a quota following a Knesset (Israel's parliament) new guidelines. Each person is entitled to 10 meter cube per two months at a basic rate. Usage above the base allotment will cost 20 shekels more per meter cube. Basic rates vary in cities and for agricultural and institutional customers. It is hard to tell what will happen as Israel raises the cost of water. Maybe water use will go down and our green line will turn brown? Or maybe there will be other ways to deal with water shortage. Today there is no real effort to deal with gray water (from uses like dish washing and bathing.) Some new homes are starting to install gray water systems, but this is a small drop in the bucket. Even in this green land in the middle of a huge desert, there is always room for improvement.