Water management assessment methodology for urban planning

Abstract One of the biggest challenges in urban planning is to balance the use of natural resources with the need to preserve them. One of the main resources is water, which is essential to human life and activities. Population growth and urban sprawl challenge water availability. Thus, it is important to evaluate development trends in order to predict future scenarios, enabling the adoption of preventive actions and decision-making. The objective of this study is to present a water management assessment methodology for urban planning as a practical and direct tool capable of conveying the necessary information for decision making in the process of balanced and harmonious urban planning, applicable to medium size Brazilian cities.