Land-Use Planning and Environmental Protection: Convergence or Divergence?

There exist two streams of activity operating side by side with regard to the environment: Urban and regional planning, and environmental protection. They have a common goal, the enhancement of man's environment. The first question is whether or not they should converge or diverge; this being answered affirmatively, then the question is how? This is considered in relation to control over the development of projects. Advanced practice is reviewed here, and then how practice could be improved by environmental impact analysis being matured into development-impact analysis with impact being seen as three sequential aspects: physical, activity, and welfare. The conclusions can then be translated into planning analysis, through the use of planning balance-sheet analysis, aimed at drawing a conclusion which is more suitable for decisionmaking than the conventional environmental impact analysis. The merging of the two streams would both sharpen the use of environmental impact analysis as currently practised and raise the level of performance of conventional planning analysis.