ABSTRACT
This chapter examines new developments in regional level environmental planning. It first considers the need for regional planning for natural resource management. The chapter compares some holistic management strategies, which can be useful in regional-level environmental planning. 'Natural' or ecosystem boundaries can be used to identify the appropriate physical/geographical boundaries for the focus of regional planning and management. Ecoregion research has found that the watershed might not be the best unit to address aquatic ecosystem health, due to the inherent heterogeneity of river basins. Fragmentation makes regional planning and governance very difficult, and creates problems in providing regional infrastructure and in the protection of environmental resources. Bioregionalism essentially recognises the interconnectedness of the environment and the place of humans in it. New regionalism and growth management also have some commonalities in their roots; they both emerged in response to the same set of problems created by urban development patterns.
