Urban Planning Documents and the Environment

This article offers an in-depth legal analysis of the relationship between urban planning documents and environmental protection in Morocco. Starting from a rigorous definition of the environment and its natural and artificial components, the author critically inventories the Moroccan legislative and regulatory texts applicable to urban environmental protection, covering urban law, public health law, classified establishments regulations, and general administrative policing. The study identifies the sectoral and fragmented character of existing legislation and concludes with a call for a comprehensive and coherent legal policy integrating environmental requirements into all sectoral planning and development policies, supported by effective institutions endowed with genuine powers of control and sanction.