Local planning and zoning

The Local Planning Direction 5.2 Sydney Drinking Water Catchments requires planning authorities, such as local councils, to consider the outcomes of the Sydney Catchment Authority's (SCA) strategic land and water capability assessment (SLWCA) when preparing planning proposals in the drinking water catchment. The SLWCA assesses the physical capability of natural features of land and waterways to identify appropriate types and intensities of land use that will not adversely affect water quality and catchment health.

The SCA prepared and delivered the SLWCA to local councils in the drinking water catchment in a staged approach. Stage one developed landscape criteria and threshold data to use in the SLWCA model. These inputs included:

  • slope
  • soil erodibility
  • soil permeability
  • soil depth
  • distance to watercourses
  • vegetation cover.

Stage two of the SLWCA involved modelling of land and water capability for 10 land use types:

  • Intensive livestock agriculture
  • Intensive plant agriculture
  • Extensive agriculture
  • Forestry
  • Residential unsewered lots 2,000 – 4,000 square metres
  • Residential unsewered lots 4,000 square metres – 2 hectares
  • Residential sewered lots
  • Retail/ Commercial
  • Light Industrial
  • Hazardous/ Heavy Industrial.

SLWCA maps for the entire drinking water catchment are available to the public for each of the land use types listed above. They are also available at the Penrith office of the Sydney Catchment Authority.

The SLWCA maps show land use capability, based on risk to water quality, according to the following classification system:

Representation fo map colour coding described in text

When viewing the SLWCA maps, if the risk to water quality is high, there will be more red and orange areas on the map.  This means that the land has low to very low capability to sustain that particular land use from a water quality perspective. If the risk to water quality is low, there will be more green and yellow areas on the map, meaning that the land has a high to moderate capability land to sustain that particular land use from a water quality perspective.

The SLWCA maps do not show land use capability information for National Parks or SCA owned land. Each land use map blocks land areas that are not relevant to that particular land use.

SLWCA can be used by councils, other planning authorities, and the SCA to help determine the potential impact of future land use changes on water quality. Planning authorities can use information from the SLWCA with other environmental constraints mapping and data, and social and economic information, to help develop their planning proposals.  Incorporating capability information at an early stage will help planning authorities to decide land use zones and accompanying land uses that are most likely to have a neutral or beneficial effect on water quality.