Adaptation of integrated land use planning

Integrated land use planning is a strategy to prevent climate impacts as there are flooding, drought, water scarcity and heat stress, as well as to avoid exposure of valuable elements to risks. Climate impacts can be prevented when changing land use in a way that it positively affect the regional water balance, which influences the evapotranspiration process through infiltration, the soil water redistribution process, and surface roughness, which controls overland flow velocity and floodplain flow rates. Afforestation, forest transformation, sustaining wetlands, avoiding bare soil during precipitation season, modified vegetation cover, and introducing drought/flood-tolerant crops can also reduce flood and drought risk. Measures to avoid exposure of valuable elements to risks generally involve  zoning, building codes, such as minimum floor heights and water proofing, as well as land use permits.Land-use planning is also useful in case of snow avalanches, as for instance is used in Switzerland, where zoning restricts new building areas at risks.  Three zones are established: red where building in strictly prohibited, blue where building is possible but designs have to take impacts into account, and yellow with no restrictions. The use of maps and plans provide information regarding these restrictions and negative impacts are considerably avoided. Some areas are more prone to flooding than others. Therefore, when planning new constructions in cities, there should, among others, be kept in mind that:<ul><li>Construction in flood areas should be avoided if possible;</li><li>Urban development should be planned in low hazard areas;</li><li>Development of buildings, housing, economical values etc. in flood risk areas should be restricted;</li></ul>Storm water services should be planned.The same rationale of zoning is also applied in Flanders (Belgium) by the water test. Furthermore, it is acknowledged that integrated land use planning could assist to improve microclimates, in particular in urban areas, where these measures can contribute to reduce urban heat island effects. Meanwhile, land use design principles are also developed to cope with the fire risks, as is the case in the State of Victoria in Australia.