A framework for assessing effective urban water management: lessons from the Canadian Prairie

This paper presents an urban water management framework consisting of six requisites for effective water management identified based on a literature review: source water protection; stormwater management; water conservation; water pricing; wetland conservation; and drought management. The objective was to test the requisite framework in three Canadian urban centres within a region of increasing water stress, the Canadian Prairie. The findings point to variable water management efficiency across the study region and to requisite selection being regionally dependent. A common set of requisites may not be suitable for all urban regions when attempting to assess effective urban water management.