Water policy and urban planning

Both in Europe and in our country, water policy aims to protect water as a resource to ensure human supply needs and the performance of its function in natural ecosystems. But no public policy is sufficient by itself to achieve its objectives, since it is necessary to legally articulate its relationship with other policies and other sectors of the legal system. This article analyses the relationships in Spain between water policy and urban planning; in these relationships (although presided over by the principle of coordination and respect for the areas of competence of all levels of territorial power of the State), the constitutional principle of sustainability, the EU water policy and the enhancement of ecosystemic urbanism doctrinally and jurisprudentially tilt the point of balance towards the prevalence (with nuances and competence limits) of the legal instruments in which water policy is embodied.