presented by Eric Tilman in Asia Water Week 2013, Manila 11-13 March 2013

1. riversnetwork orgriversnetwork.org
Concept and Tools for sharing Knowledge and
Awareness on the Rivers of the World
Eric Tilman
a e ess o t e e s o t e o d

2. The Challenge
 The sustainable management of river basins and watersheds
l h l d lis a very complex issue. There are many general guidelines on
how to proceed.
 When confronted to the reality, we have to face numerous
t i t ( liti l d l l t t l d d tconstraints (e.g. political and legal context, land and water
use, human resources and basin issues). This requires
building specific approaches.
 Sharing kno ledge and lessons learned from the ario s Sharing knowledge and lessons learned from the various
experiences and case‐studies may contribute to develop new
ideas and elements of comparative analysis of strengths and
weaknessesweaknesses.
 Internet creates opportunities: interactive and social
platforms that may contribute in sharing transparent
information and data.information and data.

3. What is “riversnetwork.org”
Website:
www.riversnetwork.org
TOOL
To share knowledge,
To raise awareness
T b id d t k
LinkedIn Group:
“riversnetwork org”To bridge and network
the rivers decision
makers, practitionners
and stakeholders
riversnetwork.org
Twitter: @riversnetwork

4. Why ?...
 To share lessons learned, success stories, worrying
situations, approaches and methodologies, decision tools and
new technologies related to River Basins and Watersheds
management
 To capitalize “real life” experiences through “river specific”
case studies. Topics are presented in terms of “case studies”
classified into “river blogs”.classified into river blogs .
 To cross these geographical case‐studies with key topics in
order to get material for more holistic analysis
 T l h I d S i l N k h l To explore how Internet and Social Networks may help
bridging and networking river basins and watershed
stakeholders.

5. www.riversnetwork.org
Rivers blogs
Tag Clouds
g

6. The Basic Principles
• The core element of www.riversnetwork.org is g
the “River Blog”.
• The River Basins of the World are classified
according to 12 regions Each region (Level 1) isaccording to 12 regions. Each region (Level 1) is
subdivided into 10 to 20 “Major Basins or Areas”
(Level 2) – approx 190 Basins/Coastal Entities for
covering the world
• These Major Basins are then divided into “Sub‐
Basins (Level 3) and in some casesBasins (Level 3) and in some cases
• A level 4 can be built in when substantial material
may be presented. y p

7. The River Blogs

8. Exploring South Asia…

9. Exploring Sri Lanka…

10. Exploring the River Blog Mahaweli river

11. Interactive Web‐Mapping
A likely unique feature of the “River Blogs” is the y q g
constant reference to the geographical context with a
nearly world‐wide coverage (only extreme North basins
are still partly missing)are still partly missing)
Interactive Web Maps show the limit of the basins and
watersheds, the water streams and water areas. For
trans‐boundary basins, the country boundaries are
shown as well (boundaries are indicative just to show
the level of complexity of transboudary issues))the level of complexity of transboudary issues)).
The background of the maps is based on Google
Services.

12. Interactive web‐map of the Lake Balkash
All maps can be embedded into
your website:
Just copy the html code shown
at the bottom of the map you
want to display and past it into
a page of your website.

13. What kind of information in the river blogs…
Link Video
Document
Tweets
Google Earth scene

14. Crossing “geographical case studies” to Key Topics:
The Tag Cloudsg

15. Exploring some “case Studies” on Transboundary Dialogue
(138 items under for this topic right now)( p g )

16. Exploring some “case Studies” on River Restoration
(62 items under for this topic right now)( p g )

17. Exploring some “case Studies” on RAMSAR sites
(46 items under for this topic right now)( p g )

18. Exploring some “case Studies” on Sharing Information
(48 items under for this topic right now)( p g )

19. Audience
• By mid‐February, the website counted more thanBy mid February, the website counted more than
1000 river blogs and more than 2500 items (pages)
• It is now becoming significantly popular with the g g y p p
number of “guests on line” being nearly always over
500 and regularly exceeding 1000 to 1500.

20. The @riversnetwork Twitter account
 The Twitter Service @riversnetwork allows following a wide range of Twitter
Accounts and is followed as well by an increasing number of “followers” (more
h 220 i h )than 220 right now).
 Twitter starts indeed to be a very interesting tool not only for Water Dialogue but
also for close monitoring of the river conditions. Twitter is also more and more
used for providing Early Warning for flood events.
 i i b f i h f d di d ifi An increasing number of Twitter Accounts are therefore dedicated to specific
rivers. For example, the events occurring on the Willamette River, a tributary of
the Columbia river in the United States, are followed amongst others by the
WillametteInitiative @W_R_I and the WillametteRiverKeep @WilRiverkeeper.
 In the “riversnetwork org” concept Twitter provides with the following outputs: In the “riversnetwork.org” concept, Twitter provides with the following outputs:
 Sending tweets out by @riversnetwork in order to highlight outstanding items that have
just been introduced in the website.
 Re‐tweeting of relevant tweets from third parties that refer to specific rivers (concept of
“case studies”)case studies )
 Sending tweets that may help promote partner activities. For example, riversnetwork is
now promoting the International River Foundation / RiverPrize 2013 by sending out
specific tweets related to this event.

21. Front Page @riversnetwork

22. The LinkedIn Group of Discussions “riversnetwork.org”
(675 members for the time being)( g)

23. And next ?....
This initiative may be considered as Research Work. In the future,
li ti ld b d i d d d l d th b i f thiapplications could be derived and developed on the basis of this
concept. For example:
 Improved website layout and ergonomics (development of a rivers
data base with a direct link to the blogs)data base with a direct link to the blogs)
 Countries’ interactive maps developed showing the river basins to
be managed at country level and river basins that are “trans‐
boundary” basins.
 Introductions to case‐studies related to specific topics such as
“River Restoration” or “Urban River”developed more systematically.
 Potential of LinkedIn improved in order to create and manage
ki f ifi i d i b iworking groups for specific regions and river basins.
 Improved management of different languages
 …….

24. Possible development: Country maps
Example: Afghanistanp g

25. HELP !...
 Riversnetwork.org is an open resource “free access for all”
 If you find it is worth supporting this project… It is the right time to do it
together !together !...
 evaluating and focusing on the most valuable and strategic outputs
 supporting future developments and initiatives
 bringing sustainability to the project
 Partner(s ) are needed to bring support for technical development, advises
and for suggesting new approaches for improving the concept.and for suggesting new approaches for improving the concept.
 Sponsor(s) are needed for funding the further developments and O&M
Contact : Eric.Tilman@gmail.com

26. The End….