This paper presents the application of a proposed analytical framework that takes cultural dimensions as main parameters to explain territorial development processes. It is illustrated through the analysis of flood risk management in Morocco. This paper explores this relationship and suggests that a cultural studies approach, despite its weaknesses, potentially revitalizes the significance of culture in relationship to territorial development. It aims to help planners and policy makers to better understand how local planning cultures should be taken into consideration in policy planning processes, The culture -territorial development conceptual framework shows a high level of validity and applicability to explain territorial development processes in the Moroccan cultural contexts. The paper addresses three principal elements that are necessary for understanding relations between culture and territory development, local planning cultures and spatial development outcomes. They are (i) three facets of culture expressions relating to flood risk management – risk perception, conception on human-nature relationships and conception on human relationships; (ii) four fundamental factors (physical conditions, attributes of the community, formal institutions and informal institutions) and their interrelationships that condition decision-making processes; and (iii) three change-determining factors (diversity, consistency and power relations).