One of the best-known environmental effects of cities is that they induce soil impermeabilization, which in turn increases the impacts of global warming. The construction of infrastructures, such as streets and sidewalks made of pavement or concrete, leads to disruption between the population's activities and the natural hydrological cycle. The change in land use and extraction for drinking water supply without urban sustainability criteria aggravates the situation in many cities around the world. In the development of the review article, a comparative reading was made on the management of rainwater in the contexts of the integral urban water cycle and sustainability; 61 records were reviewed that allow observation that Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems are an essential alternative to counteract the effects of climate change, and although they imply a challenge of implementation, their development is necessary to mitigate the important variations in the distribution of annual rainfall patterns in different regions, especially for Latin American cities. © 2024 Instituto Mexicano de Tecnologia del Agua. All rights reserved.