Regional governance vis-a-vis water supply and wastewater disposal: research and applied science in two disconnected fields

Water supply and wastewater disposal constitute a key stake in the sustainable development of urban regions. The provision of urban water management is often the responsibility of the municipalities. Currently, extensive governance challenges for the optimizing of water supply and wastewater disposal emerge. Based on an analysis of three German urban regions, the paper argues that there is an increasing need to enter into regional collaboration for the strategic further development of urban water management. From a spatial research perspective, therefore, the so far severely neglected intersection between infrastructure governance and regional governance is elucidated in its various dimensions.