This international conference intends to bridge the gap between the disciplines of water management, ecology and the approaches of engineering, urban design and spatial planning. Sessions will develop a series of themes, discussing the historical relationship between water systems and human settlements, and related management problems regarding urban floods, water use and water sanitation. In each session, presentations are invited on problem definition, technical and design-based solutions, but also on boundary conditions of exogenous, political or economical nature. It is hoped that this interdisciplinary information exchange and communication will lead to discussion and will contribute to a better integration of approaches currently considered in the separate disciplines of water management, water engineering, spatial urban planning and design and aquatic ecology. Also aspects of meteorological, demographic, political, economical, and educational and life-style related nature will be considered in the analysis of solutions to current and emerging urban water problems. This on the longer term might lead to new paradigms in managing water in the urban environment.