SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE Transforming urban water governance through social (triple‐loop) learning Åse Johannessen 1,2,3 | Åsa Gerger Swartling 4 | Christine Wamsler 5,2 | Kim Andersson 4 | Julian Timothy Arran 6 | Dayana Indira Hernández Vivas 7 | Thor Axel Stenström 6 1 Water Resources Group, Delft University of Technology (TU‐Delft), Delft, The Netherlands 2 Lund University Centre for Risk Assessment and Management, (LUCRAM), Lund, Sweden 3 Division of Risk Management and Societal Safety, Lund University, Lund, Sweden 4 Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), Stockholm, Sweden 5 Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS), Lund, Sweden 6 Institute for Water and Wastewater Technology, Durban University of Technology (DUT), Durban, South Africa 7 Stockholm Resilience Centre Alumni, Stockholm, Sweden Correspondence Åse Johannessen, Water Resources Group, Delft University of Technology (TU‐Delft), Delft, The Netherlands. Email: a.johannessen@tudelft.nl; ase. johannessen@gmail.com Funding information Swedish Research Council FORMAS, Grant/ Award Number: 2011‐901; Swedish Interna- tional Development Cooperation; Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, Grant/Award Number: 211‐946; Swedish Research Council, Grant/Award Number: 2017‐06214 Abstract The sustainable development of cities is threatened by a worldwide water crisis. Improved social learning is urgently needed to transform urban water governance and make it more integrated and adaptive. However, empirical studies remain few and fragmented. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyse how social learning has supported or inhibited sustainable transformations in urban water governance. On the basis of multiple case studies conducted in urban, flood‐prone areas in Colombia, the Philippines, South Africa, India, and Sweden, we study learning processes related to different aspects of water management and governance. Our results show that transformations in water governance are often triggered by crises, whereas other potentials for transformation are not tapped into. Further- more, learning is often inhibited by “lock‐ins” created by powerful actors. We conclude that there is a need for more proactive design of governance structures for triple‐loop learning that take into account the identified barriers and supporting principles. KEYWORDS climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction, flood risk, integrated water resources management, social learning, transformation, urban water services, water governance 1 | INTRODUCTION The sustainable development of cities is threatened by a worldwide water crisis, which is largely attributed to a failure in water governance (Intergov- ernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC], 2012; World Economic Forum, 2017). Associated risks include flooding, drought, and degradation of water resources and associated ecosystems (Howard & Bartram, 2010). These risks are often linked to urban development itself, as rapid, unplanned sprawl contributes to increased disaster risk and water stress (Wamsler, 2014). Issues such as climate change and migration make the situation even more worrying (IPCC, 2012; World Economic Forum, 2017). Consequently, scholars, government agencies, and practitioners are increasingly highlighting the need to transform 1 water governance in -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2019 The Authors. Environmental Policy and Governance published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd 1 As used here, the term “transformation” is distinct from the term “transition” used in sociotechnical systems. The former focuses on changes in the manage- ment paradigm (Pahl‐Wostl, Becker, Knieper, & Sendzimir, 2013), whereas the latter focuses on changes in modes of production and consumption (Markard, Raven, & Truffer, 2012). Received: 27 February 2018 Revised: 9 October 2018 Accepted: 17 October 2018 DOI: 10.1002/eet.1843 144 Env Pol Gov. 2019;29:144–154. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/eet