1 Chapter 19 – Bioregional planning and growth management Aysin Dedekorkut-Howes Introduction Planners face many problems and issues that are best dealt with at a regional scale, such as air quality, water quality, habitat protection, transportation planning, urban sprawl (land use and growth management), economic development and social equity. Stephen Wheeler (2000), a professor of planning in the United States (US), argues that sustainable development requires planning at the regional scale. However, regional planning is easier said than done. Planning powers and authority are usually fragmented among competing local governments and agencies with different missions (see chapter 5), which can frustrate planning at a regional scale. But regional planning exercise in Australia show how useful this scale of planning can be to achieving environmental planning objectives. A key question though, is ‘how do we define the boundaries of a region’? Defining appropriate boundaries for planning and management purposes has always been tricky. Regional boundaries are usually defined by the variables under study (e.g. vegetation, soils, transport) and sometimes by external factors, such as the availability of data or political jurisdictions, which may configure boundaries (Tiebout 1964). US planning scholar John Friedmann (1964), has showed how economic development transcends boundaries, and how different regional boundaries are necessary at different stages of development, to achieve efficient planning. When the region is ill-defined, planning may not achieve its goals (Friedmann 1964; Simmonds 1997). Are there unique kinds of regional boundaries that environmental planners seek to define and manage? And how does this affect planning practice? This chapter examines new developments in regional level environmental planning. First we consider the need for regional planning for natural resource management, and we discuss how the boundaries of a region should be determined. Next we compare some holistic management strategies, which can be useful in regional level environmental planning. Last we concisely overview some recent (bio)regional plans in Australia, which address environmental planning objectives. The Need of Regional Planning for Natural Resource Management Environmental planning is a discipline where attention to the regional scale is absolutely essential. Scholars and practitioners widely acknowledge the need to plan and manage natural resources and ecosystems in a holistic and integrated manner (Rabe, 1986; Slocombe 1993a; Grumbine 1994; Sparks, 1995; Yaffee et al., 1996) (also see chapter 6). The reason for this is that ecosystem functions are readily observed at the regional level. For effective management of trans-boundary natural resources, consistent environmental goals and standards are necessary (Adler 1995). For instance Slocombe (1993a) argues that the environment needs to be managed in whole ecological or landscape units based on integrative biological, physical, and/or socioeconomic assessments. A good example is river catchments; as Waterbury (1979) has noted, rivers do not respect arbitrary administrative boundaries: