About 68 percent of the world’s population is projected to live in urban areas by 2050, increasing from 54 percent currently. Understanding the water needs, both quantity and quality, between urban, peri-urban and rural communities is crucial for sanitation, health and sustainable water management outcomes.
Australia hosts a leading research centre that focuses on improving the sustainability, resilience, productivity and liveability of cities and towns. Water sensitive cities help change the way we design, build and manage our cities and towns by valuing the contribution water makes to economic development and growth, and the ecosystems of which cities are a part. Integrated urban water management addresses issues such as degraded waterways, catchment pollution, poor water drainage and frequent flooding. Applications in peri-urban and informal settlements form an important focus of this work in the international arena.

Do you have these challenges?
- Reducing non-revenue water
- Delivering safe water from treatment plant to household tap
- Treating wastewater appropriately
- Combining hard and soft water infrastructure solutions
- Improving efficiencies for your water utility using smart technologies
- Recycling and re-using wastewaters
- Connecting your urban water management to your basin water management
- Your city running out of water – day zero
Want to learn more about…
- Integrated urban water management
- Water sensitive cities
- Sponge cities
- Peri-urban
- Informal urban settlements
- SDG 11
- Wastewater management
- Stormwater management
- Integrated urban and catchment management
- Reuse-recycle
- Nature-based solutions
- Flood management
- Sanitation and health
- Potable water supply and storage
- WASH
- Conjunctive use
- Smart cities
- Water infrastructure and investment
- Non-revenue water
- Water utility excellence
- Integrated urban and basin modelling platforms
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Further resources
- World Bank | Australian Urban Water Reform Story: with detailed case study on New South Wales (2017)
- ADB publication | Urban Development and Water Sector Assessment, Strategy and Road Map: Myanmar (2017)
- Australian Productivity Commission | Integrated Urban Water Management – Why a good idea seems hard to implement (2020)