# Flash Floods Hazard to the Settlement Network versus Land Use Planning (Lublin Upland, East Poland)
## 3 Methods
### Spatial Planning and Flash Flood Threat  
To study planning conditions, a selection of municipal documents was made. Ten studies (text and graphic annexes) and more than 20 local plans or their amendments (text and graphic annexes) were critically analyzed. Of the latter, only those referring to areas containing highly (4) or very highly (5) susceptible catchment areas were selected. We examined to what extent the threat had been identified in a given municipality, how it was presented in documents, and what measures were indicated to reduce the threat. Susceptibility analysis of the catchments indicates the areas most at risk, while analysis of land use documents makes it possible to determine whether the threat is noticed. It allows us to test our research hypothesis.  
Land use planning takes into account various considerations which arise from the specific characteristics of a given unit, as well as legal regulations governing the use of the natural environment. Following the implementation of the EU Flood Directive [61] into Poland's Water Law [62], there is a mandatory requirement to take into account flood risk, which is determined in flood hazard maps (FMMs), flood risk maps (MRPs), and flood risk management plans (FMPs). The law on land use planning and development specifies land use and zoning rules [63]. In turn, the law on the protection of agricultural and forestry land [64] limits the possibility of allocating land with the highest production values for non-agricultural purposes. For years, the Polish land use planning system at the local level included a study of the conditions and directions of spatial development with two elements (mandatory for the area within the municipal boundaries, in the form of an internal management act defining the directions of spatial policy of the municipality) and a local spatial development plan (mandatory only in certain cases and an act of local law). The 2023 amendment to the law on land use planning and development [65] introduced a new document, the municipality's general plan, in place of the study. In the absence of a local plan, zoning decisions are issued in two versions. The location of a public purpose investment is determined by a decision on the location of a public purpose investment, and the land use and development conditions for other investments are determined by a decision on development conditions. Since they apply to individual parcels of land and do  
Figure 4: Scheme of watersheds merging during delimitation of buildings threatened by flash floods. Colors indicate different watersheds linked to individual buildings (left side) and borders of final watersheds included in analysis (right). Colors of outlines of watersheds express the degree of susceptibility to flash floods.  
not cover the same multidirectional conditions as local plans, they are considered a source of disturbance to spatial order [66]. According to the environmental protection law [67], the basic document in which the natural conditions for land use planning are presented is an ecophysiographic study.