Integrated Urban Water Resources Management and Policy

Dear Colleagues,

Water adequacy is a sine qua non of civilization, and, for this reason, it is considered to be a non-excludable good. At the same time, water is a rivalrous (limited) resource which, combined with the previous definition, renders it a common-pool resource (CPR). The water supplied to urban settlements is usually called urban water. Urban water is expected to meet specific requirements, which presupposes careful governance. Governance includes tasks of policy-making and implementation processes. Policies include various decisions that form the framework of the provision of a good—a CPR, in the case of urban water. On the other hand, the implementation process includes all the required actions and procedures aimed at realizing a policy. It is evident that policy decisions and implementation procedures are interlaced and interactive. For example, water pricing influences the choice of resources that are used, the required system capacity, and the demand. This, in turn, influences the management of resources. Likewise, the tariff structure influences attitudes and efficiency, which, in turn, also influence the management of resources. Apparently, there is not only a great variety of factors involved in this sequence of interactions, but an extensive combination of influences also exists among them. The scope of this Special Issue comprises the study of the interactions involved in the policy-making and implementation procedures of urban water supply systems. This could include, for example, an integrated model based on optimization theory, systems theory, game theory, computational sociology, etc. or a holistic survey regarding the acceptability of solutions, public participation, habits, etc., and their influences on the system. The objective is to provide tools and knowledge that can help achieve better governance of the systems which supply this precious good to urban areas.

Dr. Evangelos Rozos
Guest Editor

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