ABSTRACT
The interdependencies of water and space are structured significantly by urban water supply and wastewater disposal. Urban water management provides basic services that are crucial for people’s livelihood and at the same time constitute a key interface between nature and society. Particularly in European countries, governance issues are less related to (initial) access to such services, but concern redevelopment, modernization and the further development of water infrastructures. The latter may already have been developed to high standards in order to facilitate the improvement of their efficiency and secure their sustainability in the face of multiple changes. This requires a high level of coordination and close collaboration by the actors involved. This is even more the case for urban regions, which are usually characterized by longstanding traditions and a multiple entanglement of regional collaboration in different areas, in their respective individual spatial layouts and on different levels. In the scientific governance debate the subarea of ‘regional governance’ addresses this subject and predominantly includes issues of multilevel governance.
