international academics have variously extolled the country as having one of the world s most successful systems alterman as being a worldwide lead in the coordination of spatial and transportation systems hall as the most planned country among the european nations dutt and costa and as no less than a planners paradise burke fainstein has dubbed amsterdam a grounded utopian actual city that w hile not of course really utopia offers a picture of possibility at least in relation to the angloamerican city in sum there is strong consensus among many experts that there is much to leam from the netherlands oftstudied spatial planning system what some view as success such as the containment of open space in the green heart and buffer zones between agglomerations others view as problematic roodbolmekkes van der valk and altes