Water Sensitive City

This Call for Partners aims to establish a new Thematic Partnership under the Urban Agenda for the European Union (UAEU) on the theme Water Sensitive City.

The registration for the Call closed on 2 October 2024. All applications submitted via the EUSurvey form are currently under review.

Rapid urban growth in European cities has led to significant artificial land cover, which in some cities has greatly increased the effects of rainwater runoff. This phenomenon, combined with the effects of climate change, including increased precipitation alternating with droughts, can lead to significant flood risks. In the EU context, several ongoing developments within cities contribute to the pressing issues of water scarcity and floods, which pose challenges to sustainable urban development (Climate Change, Ageing infrastructure, Land-use changes, inefficient water management practices, lack of integrated approaches).

To address these challenges, a multi-level governance approach could help improve and create tools, measures and governance mechanisms to help implementing sustainable urban drainage systems, reusing water, set up storage systems promoting water conservation measures, to build models of water sensitive urban management and promote integrated approaches.

Before a Thematic Partnership within the Urban Agenda for the EU can be established, an Ex-Ante Assessment report of the theme must be developed. The EAA, is an evidence-based research report, written by an external experts which explores the relevance and necessity of the theme and defines the scope of the potential partnership. What exists and what has already been done on these themes? What are the challenges, the gaps and the opportunities? Once the report is finalised, it must be presented to the Directors General Meeting on Urban Matters (DGUM) which gathers representatives from the European Commission, Member States, the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, and relevant urban networks and umbrella organisations. On 26 June 2024 this meeting was organised and the Ex-Ante Assessment was successfully endorsed.