Since 2007, the majority of our global human population lives in urban environments and it is estimated that by 2050, two-thirds of all humans will live in cities. While cities are vibrant centers of growth and innovation, there are also many drawbacks associated with cities; they have an enormous resource consumption even though they only occupy two percent of the global land mass. Cities account for over 60% of global material consumption, more than two-thirds of the world’s energy use and over 70% of the world’s CO2 emissions.

Growing cities heavily impact their surrounding environments with these increasing demands. An especially heavy pressure is placed on water resources within and in the proximity of cities.Intensified agriculture, domestic waste and industrial activities pollute water bodies. Increasing water demand typically leads to an unsustainable depletion of remaining unpolluted water sources. Additionally, in rapidly urbanizing areas, many cities struggle to provide service and infrastructure needs such as piped water and sanitation, thus adding pressure on publicly accessible water sources. To maintain the expected growth of cities while simultaneously increasing living standards, the question arises: how to prepare for a doubled urban population by 2050?

There exists an opportunity to rethink the current development approaches for fast-growing cities and peri-urban areas. Classical development approaches that suppose a constantly growing centralized infrastructure no longer reflect the realities, needs and capacities of modern cities. Infrastructure development in constantly transforming urban spaces requires more flexible, integrated modular approaches that can adapt to the development and needs of the cities over time.

The first international conference within the framework of the PolyUrbanWaters research and development project takes this as a starting point towards a global exploration of the political, ecological and social relevance of polycentric approaches to the management of urban waters. The conference will bring together international

researchers, practitioners, cities and regional representatives, policy makers, and global networks to discuss the state of the art in this field and diverse case studies from Southeast Asia, Europe, North America and Latin America.

This two-day conference will shed light on current development challenges, new experimental approaches towards polycentric water-sensitive urban planning, knowledge transfer and transnational learning.