Too little water in too many cities

City Blueprint Website

Approximately 80% of the world’s GDP is produced, and 75% of the global energy and material flows are consumed in cities. Cities are concentrated centres of production, consumption, and waste disposal that drive land change and a host of global health and environmental challenges. Cities are highly dependent on other cities and hinterlands to supply materials (including water), energy, and to dispose waste. Urbanization takes place at an unprecedented rate of almost 200,000 people per day and therefore, most of our global challenges, i.e. the Sustainable Development Goals can best be addressed at the level, where these problems will concentrate: in cities. Research has shown how important it is to involve the civil society and private parties to create success. Governance is the main challenge. The goal of this EIP Water Action Group is to develop and implement further initiatives: (a) by creating awareness among potential partners (cities and regions), (b) by networking, and (c) by sharing best practices among cities to allow municipalities and regions to provide solutions to their urban water challenges. The Action Group can organize interventions at the local level to overcome barriers in governance systems that hinder the development and uptake of innovations in municipal water management. Over the last years the City Blueprints team has developed a process and methodology to provide a baseline assessment of municipalities and regions. This City Blueprint® Approach is a diagnosis tool and consists of three complementary frameworks. The main challenges of cities are assessed with the Trends and Pressures Framework (TPF). How cities are managing their water cycle is done with the City Blueprint® Framework (CBF). Where cities can improve their water governance is done with the Governance Capacity Framework (GCF).