The Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) said it is now digitalizing its land use and urban planning endeavors to help more local government units (LGUs) implement their comprehensive land use plans (CLUPs) amid rising climate change challenges.
Henry Yap, undersecretary for land use and urban planning development at DHSUD, said the agency launched in February this year its Planado project, a program aimed at digitalizing land use and urban planning development “towards building smart, green, resilient, and inclusive human settlements.”
He pointed out that the program is important considering that the Philippines is saddled with numerous climate change and disaster-related issues.
“If we turn a blind eye to climate change risks, the Philippines potentially could lose 6% of the GDP by 2100. In fact every year the damage caused by typhoons and other calamities is estimated at around 1.2% of GDP. However if we could just invest 0.5% of our GDP yearly in climate change adaptation programs we will be able to address all those issues,” he said.
Yap noted that many LGUs have still not complied with the requirement to develop their CLUPs and “we are trying to digitize the system so that it will allow our local governments to do it much faster.”
“We want to do a very efficient planning process incorporating eco-friendly practices, making sure that (communities) are resilient against climate change and disaster-related issues, and promote inclusive communities with affordable housing,” said Yap in a recent webinar presentation.
He said the Planado program has six proposed outcomes. These are to have all LGUs come up with ridge-to-reef and risk-informed land use plans by 2028; harmonize and digitalize land use plan formulation and monitoring; implement innovative urban development and urban green space projects; optimize use of idle government lands; integrate land use and housing and urban development database; and ensure participatory land use, urban planning and development.
To this end, Yap said the agency, which was created just five years ago, has undertaken some initiatives such as designing a digital training module on climate change and risk assessment for LGUs and creating an information system for data collection, analysis and databasing of land use and zoning datasets.
All projects are essentially geared toward the successful implementation of the PlanSmart for Sustainable Human Settlements, which was launched in 2023 and is targeted for completion by 2026, Yap continued.
PlanSmart is a digital, integrated and automated platform designed to formulate climate and disaster risk-informed land use plans, open spaces and resilient urban designs. It also aims to streamline and digitalize the supervision of land use implementation.
The web-based information system for developing land use plans is now being piloted in many local government units or LGUs with support from the Department of Science and Technology and the World Bank, said Yap.
The program calls for about 200 LGUs to develop zoning regulations based on disaster and climate risk information. Thirty LGUS will also be piloted with integrated resilient urban design strategies, while 40 other LGUs will be implementing plans for green and open spaces using DHSUD’s CLUP guidelines.
Yap shared that PlanSmart is the cornerstone of the department’s existing and pipeline digital planning tools intended to develop greener, smarter and climate change and disaster-resilient cities in the Philippines.
Other plans of the agency include transitioning from the manual form of the agency’s comprehensive land use plan guidebooks to electronic and digital format “so that it would be easier now for our local governments to prepare and update their plans,” Yap said.
Additionally, “we are also, hopefully, releasing by next year additional guidelines on open space development as well as resilient urban design and development guidelines.”
DHSUD was created in 2019 and consolidates the functions of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council and the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board. It is the national government entity tasked to manage housing, human settlements, and urban development.