Land-use planning legislation

Land-use planning legislation has been enacted in many countries to protect economic, aes-thetic and environmental values in rural and especially urban and suburban areas, although agriculture and forestry are widely exempted from land-use regulation. Certain planning sys-tems are timidly evolving toward the better protection of natural areas.

Environmental site planning is a reactive approach that seeks to restrict or avoid adverse envi-ronmental impacts on a site-by-site basis by, for example, specifying where a septic field drains should be placed to avoid contaminating an adjacent waterway.

Nature parks and protected landscapes.

The legislation of an increasing number of countries provides for the creation of nature parks. Human activities are allowed within a park's boundaries if they are compatible with its objec-tives. Nature parks are usually zoned, and regulated activities vary between zones. Conven-tional protected areas such as nature reserves may be included as specially protected zones within the park.