ITU‐T's Technical Reports and Specifications 535 with regard to the smart water technology market. In other instances, they have contributed to stifle the development of this market. Countries such as Canada, Israel and Singapore have been implementing policies at both the national and state levels on smart water systems, supporting green innovation and intelligent water technologies, which have led to the emergence of new smart water companies43. However, these policies have not specifically targeted smart water systems, but instead have been presented in the form of \"Sustainability, Environment, and Water initiatives\", \"Water Technologies\" and \"Efficiency Initiatives\"44. The key issues, however, have remained. What types of policies are required to accompany the development and stimulate the diffusion of ICT for water management? When should these policies be implemented? In addition to these issues, the baseline methodologies that need to be established for determining the trade‐offs and synergistic benefits for ICT innovations within water management frameworks at the national and regional levels, have been overlooked, or otherwise focused on narrow sector‐driven mandates. Since the current smart water market is fairly new and fragmented, policies will need to be adaptable, while at the same time reflecting the country's intention of deployment and the type of technologies considered. Unfortunately, due the young nature of the smart water market, there have only been limited incentives and initiatives that pursue a more integrated research approach across sectoral domains. Herein lies a problem. Since policy developers need to co‐ordinate efforts and have access to clear informational resources (many of which can only be provided through research and careful examination of the water sector within a given country), inadequate and narrow‐minded frameworks are often designed. In brief, properly timed and flexible policies are essential for the adoption of smart water management initiatives in urban areas. Therefore, governments should support new, generic, flexible smart water management incentives, especially those that support full system integration. This ensures that policy makes are better equipped with the knowledge necessary to design effective smart water polices. Coherent cross‐sector policies developed through a multi stakeholder approach will ensure the success and sustainability of these tools. Consequently, a coherent strategy must be the starting point before implementation of any city‐wide SWM initiative. This facilitates the development of innovative partnerships to harness and utilize the necessary information effectively, thereby creating guidelines, strategies and best practices properly tailored through protocols and standards. Standardization and policy development must be appropriately co‐ordinated and taken forward based on robust research, including a careful examination of the water and wastewater sector, as well as the broad engagement of key stakeholders (e.g. different governmental sectors, non‐governmental organizations (NGOs), academia, and the private sector) within a given city. Conclusions Although cities represent just 2% of the world's surface area, they hold more than half of the global population. Providing sustainable access to water will be among the greatest challenges in the coming half century. As the analysis presented in this Technical Report suggests, fast‐paced urbanization places high competition on existing water resources, and is exacerbating pressures linked to rapid population growth and to the uncertainty posed by climate change impacts. Failing to meet the new challenges and demands associated to water resources could seriously undermine