The paper describes a problem of surface water resource availability and a problem of its water quality in connection with urban development. The authors research catchment areas in the Ural cities and find a dependence between catchment area functional zoning and the geoecological conditions of surface hydrographic objects. The objects of research are small surface water reservoirs typical of the Ural industrial centers. To satisfy the demands of a concentrated urban population, a sufficient volume of suitable water resources should be provided. In this article the authors analyze the possibility of obstruction the ecological approach into the procedure of the territory urban development. The authors worked out a GIS-based technology of the catchment area analysis and revealed the dependence between the structure of land use and the geoecological conditions in hydrographic objects. Urban planning in this case is presented as an instrument of the geoecological management.