The article considers issues in reducing the adverse effect of town-planning activities on the environment; design methods ensuring ecological equilibrium at technogenic landscapes; optimisation of utility systems to ensure the maintenance of the natural water balance in areas being built up. The author proposes a classification of technogenic landscapes (i.e. newly built up territories) using three categories according to tendencies in their subsequent moisture-content conditions: underflooded; stable; drying, and a classification of site development methods: - B- with a set of improvement elements to drain water from the precipitation area, preventing infiltration and, thus, reducing the risk of underflooding; - B0 with a standard (classical) set of improvement elements; - B+ with compensatory measures to retain precipitations. Building projects in Russia are assessed, as a rule, in terms of their effect on the environment by the method of maximum permissible concentrations of emissions. The article proposes an ecological method of designing the engineering improvements based on ensuring a natural water balance in areas being built up. Depending on the type of improvement, recommendations are proposed to optimize compensatory measures.