Urban Water Governance

Most of the world's population lives in urban areas, and the population concentration in urban centres significantly affects water flows and ecological functions. We consider urban water as a smaller water cycle within the global water cycle. It thus has ecological and social characteristics. As we face the so-called water crisis, comprehending urban water use, delivery, and management is essential. Yet prior to 2005, limited scholarly attention was directed towards understanding the nuances and challenges of urban water governance. This has now shifted, with urban water governance regarded as a critical field of research. But the field remains fragmented, which limits knowledge cumulation and ability to deal with urban water governance issues. We aim at clarifying the field to overcome this difficulty and ease a systemic understanding of urban water governance. We depict urban water governance as a particular and generic object. To present its multiple dimensions and challenges, we define the generic dimensions, i.e., water, urban, and governance, to then focus on associations of generic dimensions.

Urban governance is as much about infrastructure as it is about people and processes. In particular, the history of urban governance is closely intertwined with the history of urban water services. Historically, as urban areas became larger and more densely inhabited, the collective need for better water services (drinking water, sanitation and flood protection in particular) became overwhelming. Cities simply could not grow beyond a certain relatively modest size without the simultaneous articulation of an integrated water services infrastructure to replace the piecemeal local arrangements previously in place. This necessarily implied new and more complex governance arrangements, in this case the institutionalisation of water services management in functional departmental structures, linked to political decision-making, finance, quality assurance and related functions. Whilst other papers have presented case studies of the urban hydrosocial transition (UHT) in terms of the physical extension of water services (e.g. water supply, sanitation and surface water management), this chapter focuses specifically on urban governance of water. We argue that the progressive breakdown of Fordist neo-corporatism in water services has opened up the field to a proliferation of ‘glocal’ (to use Swyngedouw’s useful neologism) governance arrangements. Whilst integrated water resource management (IWRM) principles imply a supra-urban scale of governance, the fact that urbanisation brings with it local concentration of water-related impacts means that there is an ineluctable local and urban dimension to water governance. It is therefore not surprising that cities around the world are asserting themselves as central players in water governance. Brief case studies from around the world are presented by way of illustration.

This article discusses whether the COVID-19 pandemic acted as a catalyst for change in urban water governance in Mexico. We analyse the National Water Commission’s action plan; the private firm Veolia’s use of digital technologies and strategic partnerships in Aguascalientes; and the grassroots activities of the Bajo Tierra Virtual Museum in Queretaro. We argue that the pandemic had no real impact on the first two cases since their initiatives were circumscribed by centralized and market-oriented structures, but constituted an opportunity for Bajo Tierra to gain visibility and recognition to transition towards more adaptive forms of water governance.

Political ecological analyses of urban water governance are produced by a broad community of researchers and practitioners with the aim of transforming water-based knowledge into policies, programs, and action. This work is often underpinned by a normative commitment to exposing the uneven effects of socio-environmental change, in the hope of realigning socio-natural interactions for the broader good of human societies and natural environments. In this chapter, we point to three current areas in which political ecological analyses of urban waters provide prominent contributions. First, traditional commitments to Marxist approaches to understanding urban water have evolved into an understanding of water-related territories that extend beyond the confines of the city. Second, the materiality of water and the social relations of science intertwine to direct investment into infrastructures that realise certain visions of urban water over others. Third, urban water governance is increasingly acknowledging and attending to a plurality of water-related worlds, knowledge, and relationships, including those of Indigenous peoples. While urban political ecology may be at a current crossroads in terms of its future application, these examples illustrate how political ecological analyses of water continue to be relevant for understanding urbanisation as an ongoing process that unfolds across space.

Recently, three processes were used to analyze the consequences of plausible climate change scenarios for urban water governance in Lima. The first process, led by a German-financed research team, developed climate change scenarios using innovative tools. The second, Chance2Sustain, brought spatial perspectives to urban development and water governance, mapping spatial inequities in water-related vulnerabilities and including community-based knowledge. The Metropolitan Municipality of Lima (MML) initiated the third process, to prepare a city development and Climate Change Adaptation Strategy. This paper examines how these processes of knowledge construction contributed to transitions in water governance and climate change adaptation strategies. Although all processes used concertación (1) in their knowledge construction, the actors and the incorporated knowledge differed considerably. While the first example was dominated by professional groups and technical–professional knowledge, the Chance2Sustain and city processes included a wider range of actors and shifted thinking about adaptive management towards including contextual-embedded knowledge.

Configuring transformative governance to enhance resilient urban water systems

This article concentrates on how hydro-social relations are differentially structured across technical experts engaged within diverse and multiple networks of institutional and bureaucratic practice and the implications this has for more inclusive forms of environmental governance and decision-making. I empirically focus on stormwater governance in Chicago and Los Angeles as a means to capture the range of geographical and institutional variations in environmental knowledge. Both cities face considerably different water resource challenges in the United States but are at the forefront of developing comprehensive and progressive urban water governance programs. In the article, I identify four visions of hydrosocial relations: hydro-reformist, hydro-managerial, hydro-rationalist, and hydro-pragmatist. Each of these represents a particular understanding of how hydrosocial relations should proceed. They all align around shared framings of integrated management and the utilization of the best available science and technology to drive decision-making. Consensus, however, masks fundamental differences among the varying groups of expertise. Differences center on the perceived effectiveness of different types of infrastructural interventions, of market and economic incentives, and the role of new institutions and rules to govern stormwater. I argue that each frame looks to structure hydrosocial relations to fit their own vision but consequently offer apolitical strategies that reduce water quality and quantity problems to their technical and hydrological components.

This book examines the role played by business in urban water governance by analyzing the evolution of the global private water sector along with four public-private partnerships in Mexico and the U.S. The local nature of water services often hides the global developments behind the rise of transnational water corporations, which have gone from being local operators to becoming dynamic and powerful actors within an interconnected transnational space for water. This book focuses on the French groups Veolia and Suez, two of the most prominent private actors in global water governance, and the development and adaptation strategies of both companies in the cities of Aguascalientes, Mexico City, Atlanta, and Milwaukee over the past 30 years. Drawing on over 100 interviews conducted with corporate executives, public authorities, and local users of water services, this book moves beyond the simplistic dichotomy of the public-private debate and develops a theoretical framework that analyzes the economic and political power wielded by transnational business actors in global water governance. Not only does the book explain how Veolia and Suez strategically mobilize resources at difference scales in order to expand their global operations, but it also provides a nuanced picture of how state regulation remains of central importance to understanding the dynamics and evolution of the global water sector. Students and scholars interested in business and the environment, including public-private partnerships, business management and transnational corporations, and water governance, will find this book of great interest as will professionals and policymakers working in these fields.

This paper is a case study of the limitations to urban climate resilience of the city region of Udon Thani province in Thailand which is rapidly growing and aims to become a regional hub despite being confronted with climate-related challenges such as drought and flood. The research focuses on the formal institutional factors which are obstacles to mainstreaming climate change adaptation into urban management and thus exacerbate Udon Thani’s vulnerability to drought and flood. The research examines plans and policies of land use and water supply services at national, regional, and local levels regarding the provincial development strategy and the spatial coordination of public agencies at the same level of governance in order to examine the vertical and horizontal institutional arrangement, legal framework, policy drivers, and other limitations to the mainstreaming of climate resilience into urban development planning. Interviews were also held with relevant public officials and practitioners. The findings reveal that there are limitations caused by formal institutional arrangements and gaps which have resulted in the lack of coordination between agencies at different levels or administration or agencies operating under different ministries. There are also discrepancies of responsibility and information and financial resources which significantly undermine the efficiency of the two urban services, and, consequently, Udon Thani city region’s climate resilience and ability to accommodate spatial and socioeconomic growth.

Research on urban service delivery strategies lacks a multilevel approach able to account for the influence of authority structures on effective reform. A comparative analysis of efforts to increase recycled wastewater production in the United States (specifically California) and Australia is used to evaluate the effectiveness of centralized and decentralized urban governance systems in reform efforts and, more importantly, the institutional and political mechanisms underlying these differences. The results show that Australia, with a more centralized system, has more effectively set and implemented an urban water governance agenda that includes recycled urban wastewater. However, in both places local resistance has been a barrier to effective change. These findings demonstrate that reform capacity and policy success may differ between governance systems while common barriers and political dynamics persist.

Purpose: The study investigated the relationship between Monitoring and Evaluation systems and performance of Urban local governments in Jinja District of Eastern Uganda. Specifically, the study focused on establishing the relationship between M&E systems inputs, M&E systems process, M&E systems outputs and performance of Urban local governments in Jinja District.
 Methodology: The study used a cross sectional study design employing both qualitative and quantitative research approaches. The population (112) of the study consisted of the Town clerks, Political leaders and Town council employees to which simple random sampling was applied. Quantitative data was collected from a sample of 76 respondents using researcher administered questionnaire. Responses were rated on a 5-Likert scale and analyzed for descriptive and inferential statistic using SPSS software presented in tables. Qualitative data was collected from 10 key informants using interview guides analyzed using content analysis and presented as text.
 Findings: Correlational analysis revealed that a significant and a strong positive linear relationship between performance of urban local governments in Jinja District and M&E systems inputs (r= 0.730**, p < 0.05), M&E system process (r= 0.814**, p < 0.05) and M&E system outputs (r= 0.739**, p < 0.05). Regression analysis showed a significant and positive influence of M&E system inputs (β=-.203, p=.001, <0.05), M&E system process (β=.071, p=.001, <0.05) and M&E system outputs (β=.315, p=.000, <0.05) on the performance of urban local governments in Jinja District.
 Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: There are weaknesses in the M&E systems in urban local governments in Jinja District in terms of failure to track results despite the huge investments in area of M&E. Therefore, there is need to strengthen the M&E systems of urban local governments in Jinja district by; placing trained M&E human resource; developing M&E frameworks and developing costed M&E work plans Future studies should examine the perception of local government employees on the institutionalization of M&E system in the public sector of Uganda.

Climate Change Adaptation in Urban Water Governance in the Zimbabwean Context

Sustainable urban water governance in rapidly transforming cities requires integrative decision-making frameworks capable of balancing social equity, economic efficiency, and environmental resilience. This study develops an Integrative Decision-Making Framework (IDMF) for optimizing urban water policy in Yerevan, Armenia, built upon AI- and GIS-assisted diagnostics and incorporating a Governance Readiness Index (GRI) together with spatial hotspot overlay analysis. The framework employs an AHP–TOPSIS multi-criteria structure to evaluate five policy alternatives—leakage reduction, demand-side management, decentralized reuse, green–blue infrastructure, and data-driven governance—based on normalized quantitative indicators across social, economic, and ecological domains. Results show that Leakage Reduction (A1) and Data-Driven Governance (A5) consistently rank as the top-performing strategies across both baseline and sensitivity scenarios, while equity-prioritized weightings enhance social outcomes without significantly compromising economic performance. The approach also demonstrates robustness under ±10–20% weight variations. Acknowledging limitations related to data availability and expert-based judgments, the study outlines the minimum governance and data-readiness conditions required for transferability. The IDMF thus advances decision-support science in urban water management by integrating governance feasibility with spatial diagnostics and provides adaptable guidance for mid-income cities facing institutional and environmental constraints.

Accra, the capital city of Ghana, is characterized by limited networked supply, heterogeneous water providers, and various forms of provision. In this paper, we explore how the people delivering water through water tankers shape the distribution of water across the city. Drawing on empirical descriptions of water sourcing and distribution by truck drivers, we show that who gets what water at what price is shaped by the ability of tanker drivers to act as brokers, piecing together various social and material arrangements and resorting to different rationalities and expertise. We analyze how state actors deal with tanker supply seeking to reconcile their mandates with the realities of water supply. Analyzing urban water supply through the practices of water distribution, we show the messy and open-ended character of water governance processes. A practice-based approach makes the complex interrelations between different water providers across the city visible, and underscores the role of individual and collective identities, emotions, moral norms, and unequal interdependencies between actors in shaping urban water distributions.

Extreme water events such as flooding and scarcity are becoming a common occurrence in the city of Bengaluru, India. I use case studies of textile mills in colonial Bangalore to argue that continued uncoordinated industrial and urban planning has resulted in ineffectual water governance in the contemporary period. First, I point out that fragmented governance of urban water associated with industry is a historical phenomenon with roots in the colonial period. Second, I show that, in addition to the fragmented governance, the political-economic nature of the relationship between textile mills and the state allowed concessions and bypasses, making negotiation a key process for powerful stakeholders to navigate access to urban resources. Last, I highlight fundamental continuities in the way contemporary industries are planned and governed at the urban scale, particularly in their relationship with urban natural resources.