dedicated to the promotion of urban environmentalism

      Israel's green line is one of the most controversial and best known artifact of the state. 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. From the air, Israel is green while the states around 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 green.

At the south, beyond Beer Sheva the land is brown. The green patches are made up of farms, cities, sparsely populated villages and forests. Looking carefully at the cities, they are just as green as the agricultural areas. You would think of cities as roofs and roads, but blended with trees and lawns they are more green than black.

      Israel's cities are dark green patches because of gardening along roads and in apartment building yards. I think that parks are too small and thinly placed to turn roofs, roads and empty lots into green from above. Blending economical watering techniques like drip irrigation with dedicated gardening, Israeli cities look more like tropical or northern hemisphere cities than the sandy desert cities you would expect. Tel Aviv's older sections, with century old trees, surprise visitors. Some expect sand dunes and cactus or thin brush. In newer cities like Raanana, Hertzelia and Cesarea smaller trees and bushes are more common. Israelis cities invest time and resources in making them green. In a semi-desert climate seeing green makes for a good place to live.

      This winter (2009-2010) there is more rain than past years. Before the rains there was talk of stopping the water used for gardening specially along intercity roads. 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 apartment. Each household will have a quota following the Knesset's (Israel's parliament) new guidelines for water overuse. Each person is entitled to 10 meter cube per two months at a basic rate. Usage above the basic allotment will have a surcharge of 20 shekels per meter cube. Basic rates vary in cities and for agricultural and institutional customers. It is hard to tell what will happen. Maybe water use will go down and our green line will turn to 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. These use bath and kitchen water to irrigate gardens. There is a big plastic lawn selling effort, now that everyone is worried about water maybe people with gardens will put in plastic, green line will stay, water ... will go to other places.
Complete article and more: http://israeltomorrow.blogspot.com/2010/01/israels-urban-green-line-park...