Objectives of study are three-fold: (1) to demonstrate need for regional water resource planning in emerging urban areas; (2) to examine how regional water resource planning can be realized within the emerging organizational framework of Federal, State, regional, and local planning; and (3) to examine the process, substance, and techniques of field level planning for regional water resource systems. Analysis of present river basin planning and development indicates that problems of urban areas and linkages with river basins have been largely ignored. The substance of regional water resource planning is examined using a case study of the Piedmont Triad Region of North Carolina. (Author Modified Abstract)