The integration of site ecological and environmental goal and requirements into all phases of urban planning and design from the individual residential lot level to the entire watershed.

An approach to environmentally friendly land use planning. It includes a suite of landscaping and design techniques that attempt to maintain the natural, pre-developed ability of a site to manage rainfall. LID techniques capture water on site, filter it through vegetation, and let it soak into the ground where it can recharge the local water table rather than being lost as surface runoff. An important LID principle includes the idea that stormwater is not merely a waste product to be disposed of, but rather that rainwater is a resource.

A sustainable landscaping approach that can be used to replicate or restore natural watershed functions and/or address targeted watershed goals and objectives.