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PLANNING CONCEPTS The Utility Concept It is useful to develop an overall attitude or conceptual approach to planning stonnwater management systems. A recent paper (8) describes planning in its historical context as Uthe utility approach. U It is described as having the following components: U(a) basic indicators such as population or gross national product are extrapolated to project a future situation (b) the future is converted by per capita use or some similar factor into a demand or need for a product or service (c) the need or demand is considered to be a mandate for action and (d) plans were made to ful fi 11 the demand and are justifi ed by it. U The components can be related to planning storm drainage system as follows: (a) the basic indicators such as population and gross national product are projected for future conditions; (b) these projections are related to the intensity of land use, therefore one determines the future land requirement and a reasonable amount of this requirement is allocated to the watershed and/or flood plain under study, and (c) the demand, therefore, is to provide protection for this expected future land use and since this is a public service it is justified by its need. The utility approach has'some implicit logic that is not always con- sidered by those applying it, They can be described a3 follows: (1) popula- tion and other basic trends at'e the inevitable consequences of static public values aDd choices, (2) the utility has the responsibility to meet the needs for services implied by the projections of such trends, (3) the hard- ware to provide the services is justified by the need. This logic and the utility approach in effect characterizes the planning and the provision of the faci 1 i ti es as that of always s trugg 1 i ng to barely keep ahead of the 14