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Many cities are facing various water-related challenges caused by rapid urbanization and climate change. Moreover, a megacity may pose a greater risk due to its scale and complexity for coping with impending challenges. Infrastructure and governance also differ by the level of development of a city which indicates that the analysis of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and water governance are site-specific. We examined the status of IWRM of Seoul by using the City Blueprint®Approach which consists of three different frameworks: (1) Trends and Pressures Framework (TPF), (2) City Blueprint Framework (CBF) and (3) the water Governance Capacity Framework (GCF). The TPF summarizes the main social, environmental and financial pressures that may impede water management. The CBF assesses IWRM of the urban water cycle. Finally, the GCF identifies key barriers and opportunities to develop governance capacity. The results indicate that nutrient recovery from wastewater, stormwater separation, and operation cost recovery of water and sanitation services are priority areas for Seoul. Furthermore, the local sense of urgency, behavioral internalization, consumer willingness to pay, and financial continuation are identified as barriers limiting Seoul's governance capacity. We also examined and compared the results with other mega-cities, to learn from their experiences and plans to cope with the challenges in large cities.

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Layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly techniques have been extensively studied in cell biology because of their simplicity of preparation and versatility. The applications of the LbL platform technology using polysaccharides, silicon, and graphene have been investigated. However, the applications of the above-mentioned technology using living cells remain to be fully understood. This study demonstrates a living cell-based LbL platform using various types of living cells. In addition, it confirms that the surplus charge on the outer surface of the coated cells can be used to bind the target protein. We develop a living cell-based LbL platform technology by stacking layers of hyaluronic acid (HA) and poly-l-lysine (PLL). The HA/PLL stacking results in three bilayers with a thickness of 4 ± 1 nm on the cell surface. Furthermore, the multilayer nanofilms on the cells are completely degraded after 3 days of the application of the LbL method. We also evaluate and visualize three bilayers of the nanofilm on adherent (AML-12 cells)-, nonadherent (trypsin-treated AML-12 cells)-, and circulation type [peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs)] cells by analyzing the zeta potential, cell viability, and imaging via scanning electron microscopy and confocal microscopy. Finally, we study the cytotoxicity of the nanofilm and characteristic functions of the immune cells after the nanofilm coating. The multilayer nanofilms are not acutely cytotoxic and did not inhibit the immune response of the PBMCs against stimulant. We conclude that a two bilayer nanofilm would be ideal for further study in any cell type. The living cell-based LbL platform is expected to be useful for a variety of applications in cell biology.