We investigate what a regional plan should have. What zones to create and what all to include in those zones. This chapter is part of a series on Hierarchical Spatial Planning Framework

Land use capacities have varied overtime with changing spatial environmental and economic conditions. This has necessitated identification of land use capacity for alternative choices of land allocation among various uses. It is increasingly necessary to delineate the problem areas, which need separate attention. Since supply of land is fixed, use of land for one purpose will be at the expense of other. When huge investments are made on land for one purpose it cannot/should not be reverted to other uses.

The major factors driving land use changes are growth in human and livestock population, changes in cropping pattern, growth in area and productivity of agricultural crops, demand for land for non-agricultural purposes such as industries, housing, roads and other development infrastructure such as educational institutions, health and other rural and urban amenities. Besides these direct land using factors, the indirect factors such as relative pricing in agriculture and non-agriculture sectors, income, and industrial and agricultural policies also have significant influence on land use changes. The changing structure of agriculture in terms of crop pattern, land holding pattern, irrigation facilities, and labour availability are some of the factors that will determine land use within agriculture.

A state should prepare regional and sub-regional plans for delineated priorities in line with the State Spatial Strategy to ensure guided development in the state.

A state may want to delineate its regions based on governance administrative units (districts) and or function delineation. Both are fine and should be acceptable in general. The key difference is that most of the government schemes and fiscal budgeting tends to be linked to governance administrative boundaries i.e. districts.

The huge variations in size of districts in India means, the state may decide whether

• A district equals to region and block/taluka as sub-regions as in the case of Kutch in Gujarat, or Jodhpur and Nagaur in (Rajasthan) or Anantapur (Andhra Pradesh) or Ganjam (Odisha) etc.
• A cluster of districts equals to region and each district as sub-region as in the case of Coimbatore region (comprising of Coimbatore, Erode, Nilgiris and Tirupur) in Tamil Nadu.
• The entire state wherein the State Spatial Strategy and Regional Plans merge as in the case of smaller states like Goa, Sikkim, etc.

(Click here and here to look at detailed case studies of Odisha and Tamil Nadu as mentioned above)

Alternatively, the state or states may want to ensure a functional delineation of regions and sub regions. For example, National Capital Region, Mumbai Metropolitan Region, or Agroclimatic Zones etc. Such a delineation should give due consideration to:

• Environment and Land Suitability (including soil cover & fertility, topography, geology, geomorphology, lithology & drainage, surface water body & ground water table, green & forest cover, buffer areas, agriculture cover and intensity of production, hazardous zone and other environmentally sensitive areas)
• Demography and quality of life (including population growth rate, urbanisation levels, migration patterns, density and other socio-economic aspects)
• Flow of goods, people, information and finances along with infrastructure links, governance and administrative structures.
• Economic and investments patterns and settlement dependency levels/hierarchy as well as agglomerations and conurbations.
• Integrated development with contiguity of areas, adjustment of boundaries with other planning areas and manageable size of region.

The regional and sub-regional plans should be prepared for a period of 15-20 years with a review and revision every 5 years on rolling basis.

A regional plan would ideally provide the strategy for planning future developments and land uses within its notified boundaries. The development priority zones, preservation and conservation zones, rural and agricultural zones and the transition and buffer zones should be demarcated along with or without their sub-classifications depending on their representability on a map.

The boundaries demarcated for these zones and areas may be flexible enough for minor modifications and reconsiderations during preparation of Local level plans, but stringent enough to guide decisions related to investments, economy, fiscal transfers, administrative structures, environment and conservation planning, etc. They may or may not be converted to statutory boundaries/demarcations on case to case basis.

Let us investigate each of these zones in detail.

Development Priority Zones

Development priorities are a function of settlements. All major secondary and tertiary economic activities happen in and around settlements, whether urban or rural. This in turn reflect the built – up component of the state level land use and land cover. Built-up components of land cover are rarely reclaimed or extremely difficult to be reclaimed to a natural or agricultural land use.

Interlinkages and hierarchy of human settlements are of utmost importance in development planning. Hence, in all regional plan and sub-regional plans, the hierarchy of settlements (both urban as well as rural) should be clearly identified and highlighted along with likely future built-up patterns.

The existing built-up and likely future developable and priority areas should be ear marked in the form of Development Priority Zones.

Among other things, criteria for demarcating Development Priority Zones should give due consideration to the following:

• Settlement pattern and hierarchy including housing, education and medical facilities
• Flow of goods, people, and information with linkages to raw material, finished products and markets
• Transportation and communication networks along with other infrastructure links
• Topography, geology, natural drainage and watersheds
• Water availability and waste management (solid, liquid and hazardous)
• Avoid forests, protected areas, wetlands, grasslands, green cover, buffer areas and other environmentally sensitive areas
• Avoid heritage and conservation zones
• Positive externalities for geographical indicators and other social vulnerabilities
• Planned investments, priorities and existing land banks
• Hazard vulnerability and disaster-prone zones etc.

Furthermore, if a state intends to identify land banks, the land bank identification process should fulfil the predefined criteria for demarcation of Development Priority Zones. In addition to above, the criteria for identifying land banks should

• Preferably avoid cultivable land and grazing lands
• Protect the interest of vulnerable sections of the society
• Avoid village commons
• All areas such as the eco sensitive zones, prime agriculture lands, areas susceptible to extreme natural hazards, forest lands etc. should be avoided for land banks.

The Development Priority Zones provide for the upward and downward linkages in terms of state spatial strategy and master plans/detailed local area plans, respectively. If found necessary, as part of spatial plans for a region and its sub-regions, among other things the development priority zones may be detailed further for identifying urban and urbanisable areas, industrial areas, mining and quarrying areas and infrastructure and logistics areas.

Urban and Urbanisable Areas

Urbanisable areas tend to experience more of (and are sometimes synonymous to) land use conflicts, change in land use, shift from agriculture and other primary economy to secondary and tertiary economy, damage and threat to environment and waterbodies with unregulated development, as well as migration, socially vulnerable, speculation of land prices, etc.

Hence, it is of first and foremost importance to analyse and prioritise the settlement expansion areas in terms of ‘Urban and Urbanisable Areas’ that are in sync with settlement hierarchy, investment priorities, sustainability in terms of economic, environmental and social resources. Due consideration should be given to inclusion of Rurban Centres and agglomerations of census towns on the periphery of urban areas.

The Urban and Urbanisable Areas should provide for spatial as well as temporal priorities for development and guiding investment. Among other things demarcation of Urban and Urbanisable Areas should specifically take into consideration the migration patterns, formal and informal housing and settlements, resource and infrastructure availability.

Industrial Areas

The industrial areas should include industrial corridors, Special Investment Regions (SIRs), National Investment and Manufacturing Zones (NIMZ), Petroleum, Chemical and Petro-chemical Investment Region (PCPIRs), Information Technology Investment Regions (ITIRs), Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and all types of industrial clusters, industrial estates and/or industrial parks. The industrial areas will need to be integrated with supporting non-processing infrastructure like housing, transportation networks, trade and commerce, waste / effluent treatment and disposal installations at the time of master plan preparations. The basic objective should be to promote industrialisation with minimum land use conflicts. However, priority should be given to environment in case of proximity to preservation and conservation zones.

Mining and Quarrying Areas

Mines and Quarries are contentious land uses. Mineral deposits are naturally located. They can be extracted only at the locations where they are found. Furthermore, quarries are synonymous with settlement patterns. Construction industry requires large amount of natural resources like sand, gypsum, stones, etc. which are relatively easy to extract. Operational quarrying activities of construction material tends to be at a smaller scale and not too far from settlements.

As India accepts the United Nations Framework Classification on Fossil Energy, Mineral Reserves and Resources 2009 to standardise the mining industry practices, all areas with mine deposits, potential for mining, operational mining, abandoned mining should be spatially and temporally demarcated as Mining and Quarrying Areas as part of the Regional and Sub-Regional Plans.

The objective of demarcating such areas should be to minimise conflicts with other land uses like forests and protected areas, water bodies (due to pollution), agriculture (due to impact on soil health, water pollution and allocation), and people due to positive as well as negative impact on economic opportunities as well as settlement expansion. The prioritisation of mining and quarrying areas and sites should be reflected in the Regional and Sub-Regional Plans.

Infrastructure and Logistics Areas

Providing infrastructure is one of the most important factors for guiding development. Broadly classified in terms of physical infrastructure (roads, railways, ports, airports, waterways, transmission lines, power plants etc.) and social infrastructure (education, health, sports, recreation etc.). Social infrastructure is predominantly a function within settlements and tends to follow its’ hierarchy in regional terms.

Representation of Infrastructure and Logistics Areas should focus on those physical infrastructure, which have a greater potential of influencing development and direction of growth of settlements and economy. Among other things, these will include:

• Dedicated freight and passenger transportation corridors (road, rail, etc.)
• Coastal ports (major, minor, private, PPP), jetties and inland waterway ports and terminals
• International and National Airport Complexes
• Multimodal logistics parks, Inland container depots, container freight stations, etc.
• Tank farms /terminals, coal storage and handling terminals
• Cluster of warehouses/granaries/cold storages/truck terminals and wholesale/agricultural markets, etc.
• Transmission corridors/lines for (solids – powder/pellets, liquids or gases) electricity, tele-communication, water, petroleum, chemicals, petrochemical, gases and other products over long distances under gravity or pressure.
• Power generation plants including thermal (coal/gas), nuclear, solar farms, wind farms (on shore-offshore), tidal energy farms, hydropower (micro, mini, large), dams etc.

To facilitate better decision making, governance and spatial budgeting, heat maps representing access to infrastructure and logistics in terms of time, distance, and cost as part of thematic layers in Regional and Sub-Regional Plans should be prepared and supplemented by standard symbols / alpha-numeric codes.

Preservation and Conservation Zones

In most states in India, rivers beyond forested catchments are extensively overused and being compromised. There is extremely high dependence on ground water and virtually no recharge capacity in many states. In view of such a scenario, there needs to be greater emphasis on river basin catchment areas.

Each state in India should strive to conserve its dense forest areas, convert exotic plantations to natural forests, increase its protected area network and identify and notify eco-sensitive zones as well as ecologically fragile areas while maintaining and improving the river basin catchment areas.

To meets the targets of the State Spatial Strategy, the regional and sub regional plans should spatially and temporally identify and demarcate sensitive areas as ‘No-go/No Development’ in the form of Preservation and Conservation Zones. Among other things, emphasis should be given to protected areas, conservation reserves, areas for aquifer recharge and conservation, and areas for heritage conservation and protection.

Protected Areas and Conservation Reserves

As part of Preservation and Conservation Zones, the protected area and conservation reserves as notified by the State Government or National Government and other such environmental zones and ecosystem service areas as declared by any law or order of the State or National Government, should be clearly mapped and demarcated. Among other things, these should include:

• Protected Areas including national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, marine national parks and sanctuaries
• Conservation and Community reserves (including tiger reserves and elephant reserves)
• RAMSAR Wetland Sites

These areas should have a complete embargo on new built-up area or developments of any type, until/unless they can scientifically prove and decidedly demonstrate positive impact /improvement /benefit to the subject demarcated as ecologically fragile for preservation and conservation or as allowed under an existing conservation act.

Aquifer Recharge and Conservation Areas

As part of the Protection and Conservation Zones, Aquifer Recharge And Conservation Areas should be identified and provided with a monitoring framework to protect water bodies (especially near built-up environment) and to ensure that natural drainage channels in the catchment areas of irrigation tanks, ponds, and other natural water bodies are not blocked or encroached upon. Such areas should include (not limited to):

• Waterbodies and wetlands including lakes, ponds, tanks, reservoirs, rivers and their flood plains, creeks, lagoon, etc.
• Critically polluted areas, waterbodies and river stretches that need retrofitting and rejuvenation

Heritage Protection and Conservation Areas

As part of the Protection and Conservation Zones, Heritage protection and conservation areas should be identified and provided with a monitoring framework for all important heritage areas along with a relevant buffer. Such areas should include:

• UNESCO world heritage sites
• Archaeological Survey of India sites and surrounding areas
• Heritage and archaeological monuments, building precincts and surrounding areas and buffers of state significance or regional significance including monuments and surrounding areas declared as state heritage

Rural and Agricultural Zones

Rural and Agricultural Zones should be clearly identified and demarcated as part of Regional and Sub Regional Plans. They should ideally comprise of predominantly rural areas with agriculture as its major land use and economy. Such areas may still reflect sporadic small town (town panchayats, Notified Area Councils etc.) and census towns, occasional individual industrial units /rural /cottage industries, local tourism locations, sporadic and small-scale quarrying etc.

These zones should be characterized by extensive agricultural land uses (including horticulture, poultry farming, raising of crops/ fruits/ vegetables/ flowers/ grass or trees of any kind, breeding of livestock, including cattle/ horses/ donkeys/ mules/ pigs/ breeding of fish/ keeping of bees, the use of land for grazing cattle and for any purpose which is ancillary to cultivation or other agricultural purpose).

If necessary, among other things, the Rural and Agriculture Zones may further identify and/or demarcate Agriculture Priority Areas and Priority Village clusters and Rurban Areas.

Agriculture Priority Areas

Priority areas for agriculture and irrigation related investments should be spatially demarcated for food security purposes and as captive catchment for major agro-industrial investments identified as part of Development Priority Zones etc.

For above purposes, areas with high irrigation potential and sustainable water availability, command areas of existing surface irrigation infrastructure, high soil productivity, contiguity of agriculture/cultivable lands viz. soil classifications of Class I, II III and IV, potential for sustainable crop diversification and multi-cropping, potential for agricultural practice modernisation, precision agriculture etc. should be demarcated for prioritised investments with due considerations to the agroclimatic zones of the state in close consultations with agriculture and allied departments as well as a reputed agriculture university (preferably in the state).

Priority Village Clusters and Rurban Areas

Priority village clusters as future Rurban areas of geographically contiguous village panchayats having a combined population of about 25,000 to 50,000 in plains and coastal areas and a population of 5,000 to 15,000 in hilly or tribal areas should be identified and prioritised for improving livelihood opportunities and improving quality of life by providing housing, roads, sanitation, health care, education on cluster format. These areas should be identified irrespective of whether they are covered in the present Rurban scheme of Government of India or not.

Transition and Buffer Zones

Many lower order settlement agglomerations comprise of census towns, villages as well as town panchayats or Notified Area Councils. Some of these witness growth, which tends to conflict with natural and rural environment. Such areas, overlapping along the boundaries of Development Priority Zones or Preservation and Conservation Zones or Rural and Agriculture Zones, tend to show mix of their characteristics and may still not be categorised in any one of them.

Furthermore, water conservation, aquifer recharge and small animal and birds are immensely affected by human and economic activities in absence of demarcated buffer outside Preservation and Conservation Zones.

Hence, the regional and sub-regional plan should identify and demarcate such settlement agglomeration and ecologically sensitive areas as ‘Transition and Buffer Zones’.

Such zones should utilise practices from successful programmes like Joint Forest Management (JFM), Biodiversity Boards, Participatory Ground Water Governance, and Participatory Watershed Management etc. for regulating development works. These should be in line with strict implementation of the PESA Act, 1996 in case of Scheduled Areas.

Among other things, the transition and buffer zones should further identify and/or demarcate areas that are ecologically sensitive, important for tourism, or other relevant purposes.

In future, if found necessary, such zones may present opportunities to be re-categorised as either Development Priority Zones or Preservation and Conservation Zones or Rural and Agriculture Zones. Alternatively, they may still show characteristics that make them suitable to continue as part of Transition and Buffer Zone. Such decisions should be taken on case to case basis and updated in the regional and sub regional plans as part of regular plan reviews.

Ecologically Sensitive Areas

Ecologically sensitive areas that are not part of the Preservation and Conservation Zones should be clearly demarcated as part of Transition and Buffer Zones in the Regional and Sub-Regional Plans. Such areas should include:

• Eco-Sensitive Zones as notified by the State and National Government
• Important Bird Areas as demarcated by Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
• Coastal Regulation Zones
• Buffer areas to Preservation and Conservation Zones
• Important coastal and marine biodiversity areas including sands, beach, intertidal mudflats, mangroves, coral reefs etc.
• Wetlands and other waterlogged areas including floodplains, extremely vulnerable natural hazard prone areas etc.
• Any other environmental zones and ecosystem service areas as may be declared by any law or order of the State Government.

Tourism Areas

There can be tourist destinations, circuits and their surroundings with increasing footfalls, which are declared as destinations of tourism significance of international, national or state level by the tourism department. However, some of these destinations, circuits and their surrounding areas may not be part of Development Priority Zones or Preservation and Conservation Zones. Such areas should be clearly marked as part of the Transition and Buffer Zones. These areas should include (but not limited to) destinations with themes of heritage, culture, religious, business and convention, leisure, beach, sports and adventure, nature and wildlife, etc.

How about a quick read of Framework for Settlement Level Land Use Plans? Click here.