Land and water management at the urban edge : an introduction

Water management is one of the key issues of the sustainable development of urbanization. Periurban catchment are characterized by their rapid land use changes, important migration and financial flows, the range of possible activities and the specific hydrologic functions they provide for the city. These transformations result in increased pressures in water availability and quality. This paper introduces a framework that points out management key nodes: land market processes, the place and role of agriculture in an urbanizing catchment, the development of water and sanitation infrastructure, institutional arrangements to articulate land and water management are key issues to understand the specificities of water management in periurban catchment. These different issues will be illustrated by the thematic contributions of this report which are based on case study of the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo (Brasil), and the Valley area of Tiquipaya in the Cochabamba Metropolitan area (Bolivia).