From urban water resource management to urban water ecosystem management

Historically, urban areas were built with the presence of freshwater ecosystems. It is well recognized that freshwater is a significant factor in urban growth and development, which supports the reciprocity of urban growth and water environments since historical times. Yet, what is not often realized is that freshwater is a subset of complex socio-ecological interactions between ecosystems and people, including in urban areas. This can be argued as one vital bottleneck due to which one of the main factors of urban development, freshwater environments, have suffered significantly and in many cases, irreversibly in urban environments. If this lack of holistic ecosystem-based understanding of the water environment continues, then urban areas will have less resilience with high uncertainty with water scarcity, food security, diseases, violent conflicts, and migration among others. Asia and Africa also are seeing some contrasting urbanization patterns while both continents are undergoing high urbanization rates. Moreover, these urbanizations have different types of agglomerations, for example, expansion of the old cities to regional urbanizations, or growth of new urban areas such as satellite cities and towns, which exert different pressures on urban water environments. Through a review of literature from Asia and Africa with real-world examples of the possible impacts of degraded water environments, the opening chapter sets the stage, arguing that there is a need for thinking to shift from urban water management to urban water ecosystem management. The chapter then goes on to introduce the different but complementary angles of urban water management by introducing the different case studies discussed in the volume. The chapter expands the understanding of water conservation and restoration in Asia and Africa, blending perspectives from both theoretical and empirical studies to bring out biophysical and socio-political dimensions of water ecosystems in an urban context.