Southeast Asian cities are challenged to find new ways to strengthen their resilience, inclusion and comprehensive water resource security. In view of urban development dynamics, climate change and limited financial and institutional capacities, classical models of urban planning and the development of water infrastructure are reaching their limits. Gaps in the supply of water-related municipal services of general interest, vulnerabilities in extreme weather events and the overuse of natural resources are becoming increasingly apparent. There is a need for the integrated development of blue, green and grey infrastructures, which are polycentrically combined in a situation-appropriate and site-specific manner, especially with regard to their sustainable management. Therefore »water« should be anchored across sectors as a cross-cutting issue of urban development planning, especially in its multiple governance dimensions.

PolyUrbWaters is a transdisciplinary research collaboration with partners from science, civic institutions, city administrations, government institutions and practice partners, focusing on water-sensitive urban planning and infrastructure, sustainable municipal services of general interest, climate adaptation and integrated land and water resource management. The »LivingLabs« are located in Sam Neua (Laos), Sleman (Indonesia) and Kratie (Cambodia). These cities are representative of Southeast Asian cities with up to 3 million inhabitants. Exploratory and co-production-based research methods are used with a focus on capacity building, the development of practice-oriented instruments and guidelines, and policy dialogue. In addition to regional and multilateral cooperation, the project creates a far-reaching research and learning partnership between the Southeast Asian countries and Germany.

By developing practice-relevant instruments that take development dynamics as well as institutional, financial and social realities into account, PolyUrbanWaters particularly contributes to the inclusive, sustainable and water-sensitive transformation of secondary and tertiary cities in Southeast Asia. Polycentric solutions in different governance contexts are identified while following the »progressive implementation« principle recommended by the United Nations. These make it possible to specify the concept of »resilience« in a prominent field of urban development. The instruments developed allow urban development actors to initiate and shape holistic and modular water-sensitive transformation processes in the context of urban co-production. The experiences and work results will strengthen the technical and methodological capacities of practice-oriented scientific processes and contribute to the formation of scientific discourse in the regional context.