This paper addresses the issue of informal urban development with a special focus on planning control and integrated land-use management as a means to prevent and legalise such development.

In this context the paper presents an overall understanding of the land management paradigm for sustainable development. The paper then identifies the diversity of planning systems in a European context and the key legal means of control.

Planning is politics. The framework for political decision-making should therefore be organised to facilitate an integrated approach to land-use management that combines the three areas of land policies, land information management, and land-use management. Such a framework, that includes monitoring and enforcement procedures, should support sustainable development, and, at the same time, provide the basic means for preventing and legalising informal urban development.

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