Land use planning for reducing natural disaster risks and damages
Roy, Francis et al.
The international community has been highly concerned in the last few years with natural disasters management and risks reduction. Organisations like UN, FAO, World Bank and FIG have worked on different aspects of the problem. It is now widely recognised that land tenure must integrate disaster risks reduction (DRR) into its processes and activities. Land tenure can contribute to DRR by adopting sustainable land policies and controlling the types of rights and interests that are granted in disaster-prone and vulnerable areas. Land use planning is a basic component of sustainable land governance and is closely linked with land tenure. Land use planning is defined as an approach to envision future land development and to translate these visions into programs and actions. As indicated in the FAOOs Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure, land use planning affects tenure rights by legally constraining their usee. Specifically, land use planning is enforced by the technique of zoning, which could be defined as the art and practice of best location. Spatially defined areas (or zones) are then reserved for specific uses: residential, commercial, industrial and recreational. Zoning can also lead to define zones with a risks reduction approach. Different types of risks can restrict land uses: flood, coastal erosion, tsunami, landslide, earthquake, volcano.
Event: FIG Working Week 2013 : Environment for sustainability
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