The purpose of this paper is to outline a research agenda for the evaluation of the sustainability of freshwater policies, especially as they relate to large cities in the Asia-Pacific region, and to co-work a comparative study on the cases of Seoul and Sydney on the basis of the research agenda. The overall long-tenn aim of the present research is to develop a framework for sustainable urban freshwater policy in the Asia-Pacific region. The nature of freshwater policies for a sample of 16 large cities in the Asia-Pacific region will be critically evaluated for 5 years in the future. For the purposes of this research agenda, four main types of urban water conflict have been evaluated - jurisdictional conflicts, conflicts related to accessibility, sectoral conflicts and environmental conflicts. Of course, in reality, aspects of these four types of conflict invariably overlap. In the case study, the environmental conflict over fresh water of Seoul can be seen as a jurisdictional, sectoral and accessibility-related conflict between the central government and Seoul local government which want to regulate the lan-use with the water conservation zone around the Paldang Dam located at a upstream of the Han River on the hand, and the Yangpyong local governmant and its population within the conservation zone which have struggled against such a regulation, on the other. In the case study on the Sydeny water crisis in 1998, the environmental conflict over fresh water of Sydney in Australia can be seen as a jurisdictional conflict between the State government and the Sydney local government and the corporatized Sydney Water which have been responsible to supply fresh water on the one hand, and the Sydney population who have been suffered from the contaminated water, on the other. Over the past ten years, both globally and in the Asia-Pacific region, including in S. Korea and Australia, the concept of sustainable development has taken on a growing role in the determination of environmental policy. The balance for sustainable policy would be between the requirement to augment water supply to cope with projected future demands and the need to improve efficiency of water use.