1.
Integrating River Basin
Management Plans with the
Planning System
Alaine Clarke MIPI
Physical Planner
EPA March 2015

2.
Objective
 Appreciate existing linkages between catchment management
and the planning system
 Recognise that the planning system is a key tool to
implementation of RBMPs
 Understand what is needed to deliver a water-friendly planning
system
 Get feedback!

3.
Structure of presentation
 Policy Context
 Legislative context as it relates to planning & RBMPs
 What guidance is out there?
 Existing RBMPs + interaction with planning system
 Developing appropriate & measurable policies
 Next cycle of RBMPs

4.
Why do we need sync planning &
catchment management?
No water. No life. No blue. No green.
Sylvia Earle
 Risk of not doing?
 Impact on water resources & aquatic health;
 Constraints on new development due to lack of water supply
and waste water treatment capacity;
 Missed opportunities for cost-saving;
 Increased flood risk;
 Poorer quality environments in which we live;
 Impact on our health and well-being.

5.
A water-friendly planning system
 What is a water-friendly planning system?
 Do we have one?
 How can we deliver one?
 Water is seen as a constraint or a challenge to development
The planning system has a key role to play in delivering the
requirements of the WFD through its influence on location, layout
and design of new development.
Planning authorities are ideally placed to address pressures on the
water environment associated with land-use.

6.
How does the Planning System Work?
 3-pronged approach:
Forward Planning
Development Management
Enforcement

7.
Policy Framework
National Spatial Strategy
Regional Planning Guidelines
City/County Development Plans
Local Area Plans
Local Economic and Community Plan
National Planning Framework
Regional Spatial and Economic Strategies

8.
Linking Water Policy to Development

9.
Spatial Scale
Planning Advice for
Integrated Water
Management,
University of
Cambridge

10.
Legislative Context: General
 Public authorities must (S.I. 722 of 2003):
 exercise its functions ……..which achieves or promotes
compliance with the requirements of the Directive
 take such actions …….secure compliance with the Directive,
RBMP and POMs
i.e. responsibility of planning authorities to ensure that future
development does not negatively impact on the achievement of
WFD objectives and to implement measures where necessary.

11.
Forward Planning (1)
 Legislative Context…
 Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2010
includes an important provision in support of the WFD:
a mandatory objective (of development plans ) requires
local authorities to integrate water management with
planning policies and objectives in preparing their
development plans….

12.
Legislative Context
A development plan shall include an objective for:
“the promotion of compliance with environmental standards and objectives
established—
for bodies of surface water, by the European Communities (Surface
Waters) Regulations 2009;
for groundwater, by the European Communities (Groundwater)
Regulations 2010;
which standards and objectives are included in river basin management
plans (within the meaning of Regulation 13 of the European Communities
(Water Policy) Regulations 2003

13.
Legislative Context
 Complex to understand!
 The effect of this explicit new linking provision is that the
policies and objectives of all development plans must be
specifically aligned with the applicable RBMP.
 As a result, development plans are now in effect required
to be key agents for achieving WFD objectives.

14.
How do we align RBMPs and DPs?
 First need to understand the RBMP objectives
 The RBMPs establish the following core environmental
objectives to be achieved generally by 2015 and beyond:
 prevent deterioration in status;
 restore good status;
 reduce chemical pollution;
 achieve water related protected areas objectives.
 Future land-use plans should ensure that they contribute
to achieving these environmental objectives and other
relevant objectives in RBMPs.

15.
 Water Services Strategic Plan
 Has to be consistent with RBMPs, NSS & Regional Planning
Guidelines
 Development plans have to have regard to WSSP and
provision of infrastructure
 Linking provision of infrastructure to WSSP
 getting the right type and quality of development, in the
right place and at the right time
How do we align RBMPs and DPs?

16.
Use full range of DP Objectives
 Supplementary objectives (Planning Act) should be assessed
against RBMP objectives e.g. Regulating, restricting and
controlling:
 the development of coastal areas and development in the vicinity
of inland waterways;
 development in order to reduce the risk of serious danger to
human health or the environment;
 the exploitation of natural resources;
 development on the foreshore, or any part of the foreshore;
 Protecting and preserving the quality of the environment,
including the prevention, limitation, elimination, abatement or
reduction of environmental pollution and the protection of
waters, groundwater, the seashore and the atmosphere.

17.
What Guidance is out there?
 Nationally, not a lot!
 Waiting on DECLG guidance which is due to be published
as an Appendix to the revised DP Guidelines: How to
improve integration of RBMPs and DP’s.

18.
Existing RBMPs & Planning
 Has been a ‘disconnect’ between the implementation of
RBMPs and DPs. The objectives in the RBMPs have not
always translated coherently into DPs.
 Reference to integration through the SEA process in
RBMPs.
 ‘Development Plan Guidance on the Water Environment’
– SEPA, February 2015 – very useful re SEA process
Source: Register of Plans and Programmes
Background Document to the River Basin
Management Plans Development
Management, December 2008

19.
SEA, HDA +
Evidence-based Planning
 RBMP process can provide a robust evidence base to help the
key planning stages of spatial planning, including informing
alternative scenarios.
 Evidence base for preparing DPs can also be facilitated
through SEA & (Habitats Directive Assessment) HDA.
 SEA should consider the effects of policies on the water
environment.

20.
Evidence-based Planning & DP
 Baseline information…e.g. wfdireland.ie; gis.epa.ie/envision;
edenireland.ie
 local water body status, risk scores, objectives and measures
 Water management unit action plans
 Groundwater vulnerability, GW Protection Areas etc (GSI
https://www.gsi.ie/Mapping.htm)
 Annual environmental reports (AERs)?
 (Emerging) Water Safety Plans
 Wetlands inventory..?
 Consultation with key stakeholders: critical to a well-informed
plan

21.
Appropriate DP Policies, e.g
 Conserve, enhance and give access to watercourses and riverside
habitats;
 Encourage development proposals to improve the water environment,
e.g. restoring ‘natural’ watercourses through the removal of culverts;
 Protect sensitive locations, e.g. wetland habitat and drinking water
supplies;
 Seek upgrades to local water infrastructure (water supply, wastewater
sewerage and treatment, flood risk mgt, sustainable drainage and
green/blue infrastructure)
 Support an integrated and collaborative approach to local catchment
management
 Restrict exempted development in sensitive locations?

22.
Statement to accompany DPs
 The written statement of the development plan is required to
include a separate statement which shows that the
development objectives are consistent with the conservation
and protection of the environment. S 10(1D)
 Statement should address the environmental objectives as set
out in the RBMPs. The SEA process should facilitate the
drafting of such a statement.

23.
Development Management(2)
 Encourage the incorporation of sustainable drainage
systems into new developments;
 Where required, applications to be accompanied by a water
management statement which identifies water cycle issues
and the means of addressing these;
 Relies on Development Plan policy;
 Use of environmental assessments for schemes where local
evidence shows there might be significant impacts on water
bodies.

24.
Development Management (cont)
 Environmental Assessments, e.g.
 Habitats Directive Assessments
 Environmental Impact Assessment
 WFD Assessment (NIEA 2012)

25.
Enforcement
 Resource intensive
 Costly
 Time intensive
 Measurable compliance procedures would be beneficial,
& linked to SEA objectives to help secure implementation

26.
Next cycle of RBMPs
 Engage with planning authorities in contributing to the next cycle
 Questions arising:
 what are the RBMP outputs and how can they be used to inform land-use
and spatial planning?
 Will the POMs be sufficiently detailed to be of value to the planning
system?
 What are the potential risks of various potential forms and patterns of
development to achieving water objectives?
 Support Tools should help in the day-day management of development
control and in forward planning through evidence based planning.

27.
Summary
 Room for improvement across all levels and sectors of
planning;
 WFD and Integrated Catchment Management (ICM) needs to
be imbedded at a national and regional scale – statutory
context;
 Through the new ‘National Planning Framework’ & ‘Regional
Spatial & Economic Strategies’;
 These will influence County Development Plans and Local Area
Plans and development management;
 Need robust objectives and measurable compliance measures;
 Scientific evidence needed to support policy!

28.
TAKE HOME MESSAGE!
 Increase awareness of Catchment Managers of
the planning system and how it can influence
catchment management
 Increase awareness of the Planner of catchment
management and its integration with the
planning system
 Land-use planning and RBM planning needs to
develop and deliver hand in hand
Image curtsey of
Emma Quinlan, EPA