Water is a common good and a limited resource that must be protected and used in a sustainable manner. However, it is under pressure due to its multiple uses in different and diverse sectors such as human consumption, agriculture, fish farming, tourism, transportation and energy. The current situation regarding water quality in some categories of protected areas demonstrates that the lack of a normative act for the identification, delimitation and management of protected areas of water bodies is one of the causes of the continuous degradation of water quality. This also relates to the identification of protected areas in urban ecosystems.