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Land Use Planning Topics: Planning-Environment and Hazards (scholarly references)

Land Use Planning Topics

Planning: Environment & Hazards

References that have links are freely available on the internet.

Burby, R. J., & Dalton, L. C. (1994). Plans can matter! The role of land use plans and state planning mandates in limiting the development of hazardous areas. Public Administration Review, 54(3), 229-238.

Examines how local governments can reduce susceptibility to losses in natural disasters by using land use plans in the policy making process. Analysis of empirical data from 176 local governments in five states; Limitation of development of areas at risk from natural hazards; Role of state mandates and planning; Implications for administrative theory and practice.

Burby, R. J., Deyle, R. E., Godschalk, D. R., & Olshansky, R. B. (2000). Creating hazard resilient communities through land-use planningNatural Hazards Review, 1(2), 99-106.

The Second National Assessment on Natural and Related Technological Hazards calls land-use planning the single most promising approach for bringing about sustainable hazard mitigation. This article describes the essential elements of land-use planning for hazard mitigation. It highlights important choices involved in formulating planning processes, undertaking hazard assessments, and crafting programs to manage urban development so that it is more resilient to natural hazards. Research conducted over the past two decades suggests that if local governments make the right choices in crafting land-use-planning programs, communities will be less likely to suffer severe losses of lives and property in natural disasters.

Laheij, G.M.H., Post, J.G., & Ale, B.J. (2000). Standard methods for land-use planning to determine the effects on societal risk. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 71(1–3), 269-282

In the Netherlands, the individual risk and the societal risk are used in efforts to reduce the number of people exposed to the effects of an accident. In principle, the societal risk for each new land-use plan should be recalculated. Since this is proving increasingly cumbersome for planning agencies, several methods have been developed for SEVESO establishments and establishments for which in the Netherlands a generic zoning policy is used to determine the effects of new land-use plans on the societal risk. The methods give the uniform population density from a certain distance around the establishment at which the indicative limit for the societal risk is not exceeded. Correction factors are determined for non-uniform population distributions around the establishment, non-continuous residence times and deviating societal risk limits. Using these methods allows decision-making without the necessity of repeating quantified risk analyses for each alternative proposal.

Randolph, J. (2004). Land use planning for environmental management. Environmental Land Use Management. Island Press. 36-52

This chapter turns the discussion from the concepts of environmental management to land use planning and development. The use of the land is perhaps the most significant driving force in human impact on the natural environment. Land development for human settlement and resource production poses critical impacts on the land itself, but also on water, air, and materials an energy use.