Assessing the integration of planning instruments for urban land use and water service

Land-use planning instruments guide development, significantly affecting future water demands. Hence, land-use and water-service planning should be integrated. However, water availability issues in urban areas might indicate that this integration is not happening. To evaluate the integration among planning instruments, we propose a set of indicators to quantify the magnitude of the integration and an appraisal framework for exploring the possible causes of a lack of integration. We apply them to eight settlements in Chile, and we find some inconsistencies between water service and land-use planning instruments. Suggestions are proposed to enable the desired integration.

Automated summary

Land-use planning instruments guide development and have a significant impact on future water demands. However, there may be a lack of integration between land-use and water-service planning, particularly in urban areas with water availability issues. We propose indicators and an appraisal framework to evaluate the level of integration and identify potential causes of the lack of integration. Applying these tools to eight settlements in Chile, we found inconsistencies between water service and land-use planning instruments, suggesting the need for improved integration.