Environmental planning is the process of facilitating decision making to carry out land development with the consideration given to the natural environment, social, political, economic and governance factors and provides a holistic framework to achieve sustainable outcomes. A major goal of environmental planning is to create sustainable communities, which aim to conserve and protect undeveloped land. Elements Environmental planning concerns itself with the decision making processes where they are required for managing relationships that exist within and between natural systems and human systems. Environmental planning endeavors to manage these processes in an effective, orderly, transparent and equitable manner for the benefit of all constituents within such systems for the present and for the future. Present day environmental planning practices are the result of continuous refinement and expansion of the scope of such decision making processes. Some of the main elements of present-day environmental planning are: Social & economic development Urban development Regional development Natural resource management & integrated land use Infrastructure systems Governance frameworks The environmental planning assessments encompass areas such as land use, socio-economics, transportation, economic and housing characteristics, air pollution, noise pollution, the wetlands, habitat of the endangered species, flood zones susceptibility, coastal zones erosion, and visual studies among others, and is referred to as an Integrated environmental planning assessment. It is the ability to analyze environmental issues that will facilitate critical decision making. Many environmental planning actions currently revolve around the reduction of emissions and material reuse, not adaptations in order to lessen future climate change impacts. This is most frequently seen as a result of the difficulty of predicting the long term effects of climate change. Climate action is very complex in nature and the timeline of emissions mitigation is unpredictable. However, as an alternative to avoiding adaptation, several cities in the US have taken an "anticipatory governance" approach. This method intends to explore the uncertainty surrounding the impacts of climate change specific to their communities in order to include adaptation in their environmental planning. Environmental Justice Environmental justice is the equitable inclusion and treatment of all human beings in all aspects of environmental planning, as well as in the enforcement of environmental legislation. It is increasingly recognized as a key part of environmental planning. Environmental justice issues are usually fought within communities to establish environmentally-friendly and accessible neighborhoods and living conditions, and to improve the local ecology. The Environmental Protection Agency has declared it essential