Rivers continue as central for urban life although at times they have become neglected and polluted to the extent of becoming a nuisance. This chapter offers an overview of what water management and governance can bring to revival and sustainability of urban rivers as well as meeting the increasing water demands in cities. Urban water management has traditionally been limited to single-sector approaches and it is often found that the management of urban rivers does not have a dedicated space in this. Over the years, a transition is noted with the evolving concepts around IUWM, SUWM, urban water resilience, and source-to-sea management, which could be beneficial for urban planners. These approaches will not only help cities in managing their rivers but also mitigate the water-related hazards like floods, droughts, sea-level rise; in conserving ecosystems; improving management of the continuum of land to freshwater, coastal and marine systems; and protecting the health and well-being of people. But applying these concepts in the context of urban rivers might not be easy, given that roles and responsibilities of managing river basins spread across different governance levels, from municipalities to national, involving a wide range of stakeholders. Overlapping governance responsibilities with a lack of clarity of roles and responsibilities can lead to inaction and inefficiencies, and conflicting aims. In this chapter, we present practical tools and case studies that will guide cities to identify and address these governance challenges, and further strengthen their institutional arrangements for urban river governance. A set of guiding principles is outlined that will enable urban planners, practitioners, and other stakeholders to better understand how to integrate river management within urban planning and urban water management.

This article discusses experiences of applying the source-to-sea approach, contextualized to source-to-lake, in the Lake Hawassa sub-basin of the Ethiopian Rift Valley, particularly for the purpose of generating in-depth knowledge on sediment flows, building a geographically relevant comprehensive stakeholder and governance analysis and using this to design impactful interventions that can reduce sediment flux into Lake Hawassa. The source-to-sea approach has proven to be a useful and flexible for evaluating sediment management in the context of a sub-basin such as that of Lake Hawassa.

There are many important linkages between land, freshwater and oceans. Source-to-sea (S2S) management has been proposed to support environmental management that considers interests along the S2S continuum. This study takes the Bohai and Baltic seas as examples to analyse the legislation system, administrative structure and stakeholders of freshwater and marine management in China and the European Union and presents the related challenges and opportunities for S2S management. The results of this study can provide a basis for designing initiatives to support healthy ecosystems and sustainable green and blue economies, reduce the burdens on water-related ecosystems, and improve economic opportunities and livelihoods.