Integrating Planning with Nature

The power of integrated planning with nature

Climate change and development pressures are creating an urgent need to build more resilience into the ecosystems we live in and rely upon. To create such resilience, planners need to couple rural and urban areas, because they are generally part of the same landscape system in which decisions made in one area affect outcomes in another. Silicon Valley exemplifies this situation, where land-use planning in Coyote Valley, higher in the watershed, affects outcomes in the city of San José, lower in the watershed, and vice versa. Such outcomes include flood risk, groundwater recharge, support for biodiversity, vehicle miles traveled (and the greenhouse gas consequences), and human health and well-being. For example, stormwater management in urban areas is far more effective if it is complemented by infiltration and flood detention upstream in rural landscapes.

This analysis demonstrates how integrating planning with nature can create healthy and beneficial landscapes. Click here to view the document.