Abstract
Urban rivers are central to city planning policies. The aim is to clean up rivers and encourage the return of citizens to their banks. The challenge is to align the interests of developers, water users, and politicians. In the case of the St Charles River, the City of Quebec has combined a large urban renewal program with a project to restore the aquatic ecosystem. This project provides an example of how cities in Quebec are now playing a larger role in water management than they did previously. This paper suggests that the restoration of urban rivers should be associated with a project for economic and social development. Furthermore, restoration (called in this paper “renaturation”) is not enough: cities must also fight against urban sprawl and more effectively protect their freshwater supplies and wetlands.