THE LEGAL BASIS FOR LID: REGULATORY STANDARDS AND LID DESIGN CRITERIA - Low Impact Development and Sustainable Stormwater Management - page 96

as an independent regulator of the land within its boundaries, and California,
the most populous state and one of the more recent (statehood in 1903), blessed
with an abundance of natural resources and constraints, not the least of which is
an arid environment on the southern coast, where a major fraction of the state
population now resides.
5.2 THE EVOLUTION OF LAND DEVELOPMENT REGULATION
For 15,000 years we have built our habitats with the natural materials locally
available, based on the level of technology that a given society or culture pos-
sessed. As we evolved from the use of rock shelters (Figure 5-1) and caves
(Figure 5-2), we developed skills to shape and form the wood and stone and
found that the metals extracted from the earth could greatly assist us in these
Figure 5-1 Oldest human habitat structure: rock shelter, 45,000 B.C .
Figure 5-2 Cave habitats (10,000 + B.C .) evolved to residences ( A.D . 1500).