# Flash Floods Hazard to the Settlement Network versus Land Use Planning (Lublin Upland, East Poland)
## 4 Results
### Flash Flood Hazard in Local Land Use Planning  
The studied municipalities are diverse in terms of size, land use, and spatial development potential (Table 8). The studied municipalities are quite distinct in terms of their socio-economic profiles. Permits and construction notifications in 2018-2023 identify municipalities with a buoyant construction industry, mainly involved in building single-family housing (Glusk, Wolka), which is confirmed by the number of housing units completed per 1000 residents. These two municipalities are seeing intensive suburbanization. From the point of view of preserving spatial order and rational development, an essential element is to ensure the municipalities are covered by local plans. The worst situations are found in Trzydnik Duzy, Szczebrzeszyn, and Zamosc, where there are no local plans. For parcels of land that are not covered by local plans, decisions on development conditions are issued. Statements for the years 2009-2022 show intensive movement in this regard, with up to 3675 decisions in the case of Zamosc municipality (Table 8). A detailed analysis of planning documents (Table 9) allows us to conclude that local governments make little use of planning instruments to reduce flood risk, especially the risk from flash floods. Studies for agricultural areas indicate increasing small-scale retention of water through afforestation (including watershed areas) by introducing midfield hedges. A little more attention is paid to reducing hazards in river valleys. Only one document, the Krasnobrod study [68], defines the principles of spatial policy for dry valleys. Due to, among other things, the need to provide conditions for the free flow of periodic waters, the study establishes the protection of dry valleys and valley depressions from development that obliterates their guiding features and threatens their main functions. It also indicates the need for local plans to prohibit the construction of buildings in this location, to ban the construction of embankments and fences transverse to the axis of the valleys, and to provide culverts for transport routes which cross the valleys. The study also highlights the need to establish permanent vegetation to reduce erosion, mainly through afforestation, especially of slopes, but with a ban on afforestation of water runoff lines. It allows development of sloping zones only where they do not disturb the geodynamic balance of the slopes. The analyzed local plans specify detailed principles and methods of development:  
1. For urbanized areas and within the development areas of various functions--the principles for the formation of a proper functional and spatial structure, guidelines for technical and road infrastructure networks, the permissible minimum proportion of biologically active areas, the principles of discharge of rainwater into the ground, the maintenance of tree plantings, the principles of distribution, and the technical parameters of buildings;
2. For agricultural areas--maintenance of an appropriate share of green areas, especially in watershed zones and areas prone to soil erosion (forests, permanent grassland, wasteland), the creation of buffer zones (wooded and shrubby) on agricultural land, the maintenance of midfield and roadside hedges, the introduction of phytomelioration, the maintenance of naturally valuable enclaves, the development of small retention of water, and the prohibition of development. An analysis of the texts and graphic appendices of local plans shows that flood hazard is addressed only when such areas are indicated on hazard maps and in plans drawn up after the current legislation came into force. Rural areas where agricultural use predominates and which are outside the flood plains of large rivers are not seen as problematic in this regard. The problem is usually publicized in the media after the occurrence of flash floods, especially in mountain and upland catchments.