This chapter addresses the need for an integrated approach of water management and governance in the urban areas. Water is understood as a natural and social common good, and the relations between different uses and current management practices are analyzed. This approach needs otherwise to influence not only the technical and social spheres but also the policy one. Therefore, a policy effective integration of the comprehensive and interdisciplinary understanding of water problems is advocated and proposed under the concept of integrated urban water policy (IUWP). The final objective is a contribution to an adequate conceptual and operational framework that enables a better and more effective understanding of the multiple dimensions and complexity of integrated management of water uses, in coherent relation with land use planning.
Part of the book: Water Challenges of an Urbanizing World