By 2030 up to 60 percent of humans may live in cities. This super-urbanisation will put increasing pressures upon freshwater ecosystems and critical ecosystem services delivered to cities. This session will present some of the decision-support tools available to assess human impacts on freshwater ecosystems and  provide guidance on sustainable management of freshwater resources. The session will include case studies from local to global scales that demonstrate how science, tools and conservation/water management frameworks are integrated within freshwater conservation and water resource management portfolios. Examples of such case studies include ecosystem service payments, global analysis of the impact of human related stressors upon fresh water, and evolving approaches for an improved management of wetlands. A focus will be on demonstrating how developing countries can justify conservation and meet their growing urban water supply needs.  During a concluding open discussion, with a panel, the potential opportunities and challenges of integrating decision support tools to facilitate greater protection and restoration of freshwater ecosystems in an urbanising world will be outlined. An objective will be to make recommendations that may be brought to wider audiences, such as the World Water Forum, for improved policy making within freshwater conservation and water resources management frameworks.

Chairs: Dr. Ian Harrison, CI, USA; Dr. Mark Mulligan, KCL, UK; and Dr. Chris Baker, Wetlands International (WI), Netherlands.