What is Risk Sensitive Land Use Planning? Basic Concepts and Terminology

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What is Risk Sensitive Land Use Planning?Basic
Concepts and Terminology

• Session 1
• World Bank Institute

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Urban Vulnerability Factors

• Large concentration of people, physical and
  financial assets
• Continuous inflow of people attracted by
  socio-economic opportunities for jobs and income
  generation
• Large number of urban poor in unsafe living
  conditions
• Located in coastal areas exposed to
  hydro-meteorologicalhazards and in geologically
  active zones
• Differential vulnerability due to differences in
  economic base,political institutions and
  management capacity

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Urbanization and Disasters
Recorded disaster events and world urban
population (19502006) Data Sources EM-DAT, CRED
database, www.emdat.net United Nations, 2005
Risk Sensitive Land Use Planning
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High and Low Probability Events
Small Shocks Large Shocks
Exposure to risk Individuals and small groups Communities, city regions, cities, global
Systems at risk Individual health and livelihoods, subcomponents of critical infrastructure, local economic or ecological systems Social stability, critical infrastructure, urban economies, ecosystem
Frequency of hazard event High (everyday) Low (episodic)
Associated loss High aggregate loss Large loss from individual event
Type of hazard Localized hazard events such as flooding or small fire outbreaks or irresponsible driving Widespread hazard events such as severe earthquakes or major release of toxic chemicals
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Urbanization and Disaster Risk

• Unregulated Development
• Settlements in hazard-prone areas
• Unsafe, sub-standard building and infrastructure
  construction
• Lack of open spaces
• Unplanned urban growth
• Lack of or inadequate planning and poor plan
  implementation
• Inadequate Governance
• Ineffective enforcement mechanisms
• Environmental Mismanagement
• Unsustainable land use practices
• Social Destitution

Risk Sensitive Land Use Planning
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Proliferation of Urban Slums

• Nearly 1 billion people live in urban
  slums, and predicted to grow to 2 billion by
  2030
• Inadequate and insecure living
  conditions that generate hazards
• Home to many people with few resources
  and thus, high vulnerability
• Have fewer assets, supporting
  institutions, and opportunities

• Result of poverty, limited access to affordable
  land, lack of political will, bad policy
  and inadequate planning

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New Risk Climate Change

• Rising global temperatures, changes in
  weather patterns and sea levels
• Increased number of extreme weather
  events such as tropical cyclones, flooding
  and heat waves

• Migration from rural to urban areas
• Cities contribute to global warming through
  carbon emissions

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Land Use Creates and Solves Problems

• Human activity changes the land natural state
• Land use affects physical, social and economic
  development of the community
• Socio-economic conditions of the community
  influence land use
• Land use decisions change the communities
  vulnerability and disaster risk
• Reduces or mitigates existing risk
• Can create new vulnerabilities

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Land Use Planning

• Involves management of natural as well as built
  environment
• Proactive and on-going exercise to regulate use
  and development of land
• Minimizes damage to physical and institutional
  assets, environmental capital, and human life
• Primarily a government function pursued at the
  local rather than national level

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Land Use Planning and Risk Reduction

• Effective tool for incorporating disaster risk
  reduction into urban development processes
• Risk reduction-driven land use planning is able
  to
• Promote sustainable urban growth with no new
  risks
• Identify and mitigate risks embedded in existing
  land use
• Modify and reduce vulnerabilities of people and
  places
• Reduce human losses and increase ability to
  recover
• Reduce the economic, social and environmental
  costs of disasters
• Pursued at local level (ideal level), which
  allows to
• Address environmental issues in detail
• Regulate land use patterns at individual parcel
  level
• Enforce safe construction practices at project
  level
• Coordinate community-based early warning systems
  and provide support

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Land Use Planning and Disaster Phases

• Pre-disaster period reduce vulnerability and
  increase resilience by undertaking mitigation and
  preparedness
• Disaster period facilitate emergency response
  and relief operations
• Post-disaster period reconstruct in a more
  sustainable manner, and link response and
  reconstruction to pre-disaster development goals

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Land Use Planning Institutional Aspects 1
Institutional arrangements for land use planning

• Take the form of optional or a mandatory
  function
• Involve a single institution or multiple
  organizations with related functions
• Permit multi-stakeholder participation by
  involving various levels of government,
  private sector, non-governmental bodies, and
  community organizations
• Delegate land use planning powers to local
  government units
• Expand the scope of land use planning to
  include aspects of disaster risk management

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Land Use Planning Institutional Aspects 2
Role of central and state governments in
influencing local land use and development takes
the form of

• Direct intervention
• Land use regulation
• Investment in land or infrastructure
• Indirect intervention
• Planning mandates
• Regulatory mandates
• Incentives and information overlays
• Financial assistance
• Technical assistance, education and training,
  information

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Land Use Planning Legal Aspects
Based on the level of decentralization, local
governments are empowered to exercise

• Planning power
• To gain community agreement on a land use plan
• Educate, persuade, coordinate, encourage
  participation and consensus,
• Regulatory power
• To direct and manage community development
• Zoning, subdivision regulations, building
  codes, design standards, urban growth boundaries,
  wetland and floodplain regulations
• Spending power
• To control public expenditures
• Capital improvement programs and budgets
• Taxing power
• To support community programs
• Special taxing districts, open-space uses
• Acquisition power
• To gain public control over lands
• Eminent domain, purchase development rights,
  conservation easements

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Land Use Management Approaches
Land Use Management
Design based / Structural (Ensure safe
construction)
Location based (Limit development in hazardous
areas)
Regulatory
Non-regulatory
Regulatory

• Building codes
• Retrofit standards
• Hazard resistance standards
• Standalone Ordinances

• Public information
• Training programs
• Low cost loans subsidies
• Investment to induce development in
  non-hazardous areas

• Zoning microzoning
• Subdivision regulations
• Buyouts
• Eminent domain
• Taxation

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Land Use Planning Approaches
Land Use Planning
(Scale/level of intervention)
Systemic / Strategic
Site-specific

• Considers the planning area as a system
• Links environmental management and
  development processes

• Individual project level
• Localized in spatial coverage

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Types of Plan

• Comprehensive Plan
• Land classification
• Land use design
• Verbal policy
• Land use management
• Separate, stand-alone disaster risk reduction
  plan
• General policy vs. specific actions
• Specific location vs. community-wide
• Special hazards vs. all hazards

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Barriers to Risk-sensitive Land Use Planning

• Low public interest in natural hazards
• Pressure for local economic development
• Lack of political will
• Difficulty of operating programs in an
  intergovernmental setting
• Deficiencies in management capacity
• Lack of budgetary allocations for proactive
  measures
• Emphasis on relief and reconstruction activities
• Weak link between existing laws governing DRR
  and LUP functions
• Gap between scientific and technological
  advancementsand policies