**5. Conclusions**

There is general agreement that urban water resources need to be managed better. We all depend on clean water for survival and the make-up of our communities reflects the quality of water resources flowing through them. The need for improvement is great and good policy needs both the natural and social sciences to generate good governance of our water resources [98]. But urban water management seems stuck in a state of maladaptation essentially locked into a societal need for large infrastructure and the never ending need to maintain it [99]. Change only occurs in response to some catastrophic or shock event (such as a flood) that in no way bears the needed one-on-one logical change to what triggered the shock event in the first place. This leads to changes in urban infrastructure that may bear no resemblance to real societal needs or watershed management.

What is ultimately needed is water policy adapted to societal needs instead of knee jerk responses to a crisis. Resources spent on stream restoration and flood mitigation upstream will be well received when urban residents understand the benefits downstream [100]. Local efforts to pick up trash and minimize plastics may have far reaching impact on communities when understood in the context of the world's oceans [101]. Or the necessity to rebuild current infrastructure to deal with ongoing climate driven precipitation change [102]. Good monitoring can expose the need and document the improvement. Urban rivers can be rehabilitated given a dedicated citizenry aided by governmental and scientific support. Our future depends on it.
