**2. Methodology**

A systematic literature review was chosen to identify, analyse, and interpret all the available research in this domain. This section describes the methodological process to initiate the search and to collect, screen, and analyse selected papers from the existing literature.

This review was conducted based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines to guarantee the review process's reproducibility, traceability, and transparency. The review's objective is to find and analyse scientific literature framing urban adaptation in the context of climate change and its articulation with the urban water cycle and, with this, to respond to the research questions previously presented. Chronologically these steps were followed:



**Search Strategy for Scopus Conducted on 18 October 2022**

**Table 1.** Results of the combination of keywords in the iterative process.

The next step of filtering was performed to select additional relevant papers through the snowballing process. This step added 40 other articles and reports to the 15 previously identified.

Figure 1 synthesises the screening process and the number of articles excluded from the initial database and those that were added later. After concluding this screening process, the resultant set of articles was extracted into a final Excel file.

**Figure 1.** Methodological flow diagram summarising the steps to retrieve the articles (PRISMA).

#### **3. Results and Content-Based Analysis**

This section analyses the content of the selected articles, searching for how water service providers and urban planners respond to the challenges of climate change and how they respond, when they do, together. The information obtained is systematised and

integrated into figures and tables. The presentation of results is first concentrated on the bibliometric analysis, then on the scientific literature, and finally on the grey literature.

#### *3.1. Bibliometric Analysis*

The evolution of articles published in recent years related to the selected keywords is represented in Figure 2, which shows a very sharp growth and attests to the growing scientific interest in the relationship between climate change, sustainable urban water management, and urban planning.

**Figure 2.** Annual distribution of the number of articles after Scopus search for the selected keywords and criteria. Figure source: Scopus.

The geographical distribution of articles and case studies, represented in Figure 3a,b, shows a prevalence of the Netherlands, USA, Australia, China, and the UK, which confirms the pancontinental nature of interest in this theme. That said, a joint analysis of those figures also suggests that most of the articles focus on the authors' territory, being the majority from developed countries, which makes it possible to infer that underdeveloped countries still need to be subject to such an in-depth analysis. The contribution of authors from Israel and Singapore should also be underlined, especially considering the perspective of the size of each of these countries, although it is known that these two countries are among the ones that faced severe water scarcity.

**Figure 3.** (**a**) Geographical distribution of the articles considered in this article (1st author). Figure source: Datawrapper; (**b**) Geographical distribution of the case studies considered in the article. Figure source: Datawrapper.

#### *3.2. Concepts of Sustainable Water Management in Cities*

#### 3.2.1. From the Scientific Literature

With the concept of SUWM, some authors [31,32] associate decentralisation, resource efficiency, and sustainability as critical factors. Also associated with this concept are technical configurations, such as the collection and reuse of rainwater [33], "grey water" recycling [34,35], design of "blue" and "green" infrastructures [36,37], and the optimisation of water consumption by the final consumer [38]. Within the concept of SUWM, other urban water cycle management concepts/frameworks are included, such as integrated urban water management (IUWM), water-sensitive cities, low-impact development (LID), sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS), and Sponge Cities, to mention the most relevant. Despite their complementarity, other innovative city concepts primarily based on digital development and technology, such as those related to smart cities, will not be studied here since water management, sustainability, and urban planning are not at their core [39].

All these concepts, presented in Table 2, seek to respond to the new challenges by integrating the management of water resources with the drivers that most affect their availability and ecological status: climate change, population growth, and increasing urbanisation.


**Table 2.** Key sustainability concepts associated with water management and the new paradigms in the 21st century.

#### **Table 2.** *Cont.*


#### **Table 2.** *Cont.*

