Information and knowledge are vital to effective management of water resources and to environmental sustainability. Paradoxically, this is a time of both information overload and lack of information. What water decision-makers don't know-and need to know-often exceeds what they do know. Lessons from water management outcomes and the changing nature of environmental challenges starkly illustrate gaps in information. Evolving water management and policy processes create new information and knowledge demands, and advancing information and communication technologies open up new avenues for knowledge partnerships and collaborations across geographic, political, scholarly, societal, and institutional boundaries.
While information is not the sole driver of water management policies, it is an important component. Water professionals work to ground management and policy in sound scientific understandings and data. One of the biggest needs is for tools to collect precise data on water. A diverse cross-section of organizations and water and information technology professionals from the public and private sectors and a wide range of concerned users will discuss information needs in developing and developed countries, information technologies and the Internet, knowledge sharing, information for policy-making and governance, concerns of information users, and information challenges for water management. Organizations such as Water Web Consortium, World Meteorological Organization, International Association for Hydraulic Engineering and Research, International Association of Hydrological Science, and the World Conservation Union (IUCN) will present their work on information technology to solve water problems, use of geographic information systems to integrate knowledge for international river basin management, measurement technology and data on the variability of global hydrological cycle, technological solutions for global freshwater monitoring, and development of a water resources e-atlas.
Events will encompass a Plenary Session, a Statement to the Ministerial Conference, Water Information Day activities (March 18th), sessions, panel discussions, information exchange activities, and poster sessions. |
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Organaizer / Convening Organizations |
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Opening Plenary : Water and Information [INFO-OP] |
18.March 10:30-12:00 |
American Water Resources Association, Water Web Consortium, Foundation of River & Basin Integrated Communications (FRICS), National Space Development Agency of Japan(NASDA) |
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Water e-Atlas : Integrated Information for Improved Decision Making [INFO-02] |
18.March 12:30-15:15 |
The World Conservation Union (IUCN) , , |
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Water Information Day [INFO-03] |
18.March 12:30-18:30 |
American Water Resources Association, Water Web Consortium, UNESCO |
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Observing Global Rain From Space [INFO-04] |
19.March 8:45-11:30 |
National Space Development Agency of Japan(NASDA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA) |
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Information and Indigenous Disaster Prevention Technologies to Resolve Water Issues [INFO-05] |
19.March 8:45-15:15 |
Foundation of River & Basin Integrated Communications, Japan |
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Water Information Day [INFO-03] |
19.March 8:45-15:15 |
American Water Resources Association, Water Web Consortium, UNESCO |
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Hydrological Information Systems [INFO-06] |
19.March 12:30-15:15 |
World Meteorological Organization (WMO) |
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Access to water, access to info:
SHARING KNOWLEDGE AND BUILDING CAPACITY THROUGHOUT DEVELOPING COUNTRIES [INFO-10] |
19.March 15:30-18:15 |
pS-Eau, CREPA |
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Sharing knowledge in the water sector, a starting point for broader collaboration. The case of the Euro-Mediterranean Information System on the know-how in the Water sector (EMWIS) [INFO-07] |
19.March 15:30-18:15 |
EMWIS Technical Unit |
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Translating Awareness Into Concrete Action [INFO-08] |
19.March 15:30-18:15 |
Junior Chamber International - World Wide Water Awareness Project Team |
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Wrap up Plenary : Water and Information [INFO-WP] |
19.March 18:30-20:00 |
American Water Resources Association, Water Web Consortium, Foundation of River & Basin Integrated Communications (FRICS), National Space Development Agency of Japan(NASDA) |
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