Future outlook of urban water environment in Asian cities
To enhance the capacity of local governments and to increase the understanding of the latest urban water management techniques, the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability initiated a four year project, the Water and Urban Initiative (WUI). This project aims to contribute to sustainable urban development by creating scientific tools to forecast the future state of urban water environments. The WUI also seeks to contribute to capacity development aimed at improving urban water environments in developing countries in Asia by focusing on population growth, urbanization, and low-carbon measures. The research findings generated through the interdisciplinary approach of the WUI will fill an important gap in the understanding of urban water environments globally and contribute to improved policymaking in this key area. The purpose of this report is to highlight several cities in Asia where the WUI has applied an integrated analysis framework to address and promote sustainable urban water management. Eight cities - Hanoi, Jakarta, Manila, Chennai, Lucknow, Medan, Kathmandu, and Nanjing - were chosen from a long list of developing urban areas in Asia to provide a range of geographical, cultural, economic, and hydrological contexts.
