Integrated land and water planning is based on the principle of total water cycle management which holistically considers all aspects of water including drinking water, groundwater, stormwater run-off, wastewater, waterway health and water reuse. This informs sustainable urban planning and development decisions, and results in water sensitive urban design.
In recent years substantial progress has been made in integrating water planning and management with land use planning and development.
The department is partner to the Better urban water management joint government agency framework, which guides integrated land and water planning and the implementation of State Planning Policy 2.9 - Water Resources.
We also provide local and state government agencies with specialist advice on water and land use planning.
Water resource information provided at each planning stage is used to inform subsequent stages to ensure there is a holistic and sustainable approach to total water cycle management.
Better urban water management is now being adopted as part of new urban design and development.
Guidance
We have developed a range of supplementary guidelines, publications and tools to assist land developers and government agencies in the implementation of better urban water management including a series of guidance notes.
