Why to exchange on water data management?
In all countries, the development of coherent water resource management is fundamental to ensure sustainable socio-economic development.
However the experience shows that there cannot be efficient water resource management without an efficient access to the necessary data and information. indeed, whether at local, national or transboundary level, the easy access to the necessary data and information such as the one on the status and evolution of water resources and uses is one of the keys to a successful water policy implementation.
Unfortunately, in most of the countries of the world, data collection processes are limited and when available, the existing data is usually fragmented, incomplete, dispersed and heterogeneous, and the organizations are often facing difficulties for organizing their access, processing and valorization, with classical specific issues such as:
- How to organize monitoring and enhancement of existing data to generate information and useful services for decision-making purposes and the information of partners and the public?
- What are the data that already exist, in what form and how to access them in a flexible and efficient manner?
- How to manage the multiplicity of data producers and available formats as well as the problems of comparability of datasets often incomplete, dispersed and of variable quality?
- What legislative / institutional framework to organize the sharing of data among partners as well as the processing and dissemination of the results?
- …
Considering this situation, an analysis of interest for developing the exchange of experience on water data management was launched by the Euro-INBO secretariat in 2014/2015, with the financial support of the ONEMA. A questionnaire was then sent to various national organizations involved water the resource management in European and the analysis of the 82 answers received from various organizations of 26 countries, underlines that:
- In 94% of the answers, the contacted persons wish to receive information on the procedures of production/management/interpretation of water related data;
- In 79% of the answers, the contacted persons are ready to contribute to a network for the exchange of experience on management/interpretation of water related data;
- The "Development of an interactive portal" (favorable opinion in 70% of responses) was considered as the best means to facilitate the exchange of experiences among partners;
As a first result of this survey, this portal is a draft initial attempt to develop this requested interactive portal.
It can be here underlined that such a portal contribute the principles 5, “OECD Principles on Water Governance” endorsed the 4 June 2015 by OECD Ministers:
“Produce, update, and share timely, consistent, comparable and policy-relevant water and water-related data and information, and use it to guide, assess and improve water policy”, particularly in “fostering effective experience sharing among organizations and agencies producing water-related data between data producers and users and across levels of government.”