City Blueprints: Assessment of sustainable water management in European cities

“Cities play a prominent role in our economic development as more than 80% of the Gross World Product (GWP) comes from cities. Only 600 urban areas with just 20% of the world population generate 60% of the GWP. Rapid urbanization, climate change, inadequate maintenance of water and wastewater infrastructures and poor solid waste management can lead to flooding, water scarcity, water pollution, adverse health effects, and rehabilitation costs that may overwhelm the resilience of cities. Megatrends pose urgent challenges in cities and the cost of inaction is high. Against this background we discuss the categorization of cities based on baseline assessments, i.e. City Blueprint research on 45 municipalities and regions predominantly in Europe. This article describes our findings for Europe, whilst findings from a global perspective will be presented in a future article.”

(Citaat: Leeuwen, C.J. van, Koop, S.H.A. – City Blueprints: Assessment of sustainable water management in European cities – www.Global Water Forum (2016) posted on March 21 in Urban Water)