In rapidly growing urban contexts, water plays a pivotal role in the transitions the urban environment goes through to sustain the quality of life of its population. Spatial planning and design are essential for the facilitation and manifestation of such transitions. Focusing on Bhuj, a rapidly growing Indian city in a hot arid desert climate, its crucial yet changing sensitivity to urban water flows over time is assessed. The concept of water sensitivity is coined as a goal to pursue by the Water-Sensitive Urban Design approach. In India, however, much of the urban design and development processes are of an unplanned and informal nature, seemingly inhibiting the water sensitivity of urban transitions. Reviewing spatial planning paradigms and their manifestation in space in Bhuj over time, however, brings to light a pre-existing water sensitivity. Yet it also shows a shift from the supply security-oriented ingenious watershed expansion to catastrophe-steered and urban expansion-driven water system negligence. Review and discussion of past and present urban water transitions and management points out drivers, barriers, and their interrelationships, to enable and advance water-sensitive urban development tied to local history, traditional knowledge, and context specificities.

Cities around the world today are facing common issues of rapid urbanization, varying climatic conditions, and challenging economies, which are known to impact the environment and quality of life. In response, multiple concepts have emerged related to water management practices over the past few decades. One such recently discussed concept is of Water Sensitive Cities, which envisions a place that judiciously uses its existing resources, building resilience for tomorrow by simultaneously ensuring community participation for sustainability. Synonymous with this notion, there exist other overlapping concepts such as Water Sensitive Urban Design, Low Impact Development, Best Management Practices, Green Infrastructure, and the like. This research intends to deconstruct these concepts and their practices through a review of 120 case studies located across different agro-climatic and water-stressed regions globally. These cases were analyzed for their inclination to three thematic components: society, water sensitive urbanism, and technologies. The evidence suggests that there is not a single water sensitive city in the world today. This paper discusses the Utopian nature of this notion and identifies relevant pathways to explore to reach the destined vision of Water Sensitive Cities.