About the Groundwater Learning Exchange Sponsors

IAEA Water Resources Program

Isotope Hydrology Section (IHS) is responsible for the design and implementation of all the IAEA activities of the Agency's Water Resources Programme.

The IHS currently has a team of eleven professional staff , and four general support staff members.

The Isotope Hydrology Laboratory (IHL) , with the staff of ten and administratively part of the Division of Agency's Laboratories Seibersdorf (NAAL), is technically attached to the IHS to jointly implement the programme on water resources.

In the regular budget programme, a variety of technical activities including Coordinated Research Projects (CRPs) , publications , data analysis and technical meetings are undertaken every year for the different project activities.

In the Technical Cooperation (TC) programme, technical support is provided to nearly 80 projects in developing Member States in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe regions. Such technical support comprises of analytical services, field investigations and data evaluation, workshops and training courses, scientific visits & fellowships, equipment and materials, among others. To avoid duplication of efforts and to develop partnerships with other UN and international organizations, joint programmes are also implemented by the Section. For example, Joint International Isotopes in Hydrology Programme ( JIIHP ) with the UNESCO. Annual summaries of the programme achievements are available online in the Agency's annual report.

The IHS publishes a regular newsletter on the Section's activities, namely, Water & Environment News on six-month intervals, where detailed information on programme activities can be found.

For more information please contact Andrew Garner or visit http://www.iaea.org/water

USGS International Water Resources Branch

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) is the leading earth-science organization in the United States.  Its mission, since it creation in 1879, has been to investigate, analyze, and disseminate earth-science information needed to solve geological and environmental problems and to identify and assess resources.  The organization employs nearly 10,000 scientists and support people at almost 200 locations in order to carry out its mission.  USGS has worked internationally in more than 100 countries, in cooperation with national governments, international organizations, industry and the academic community.

The complex environment in which we live and work demands an understanding of many interrelated natural systems.  USGS environmental science is focused on understanding the physical, chemical, and biological processes at work in those natural systems and how those processes are affected by human activities.  The USGS seeks to provide understanding and scientific information needed to recognize and mitigate adverse impacts and to sustain the health of the environment.  USGS efforts include long-term data collection, monitoring, analysis, and predictive modeling.  USGS environmental science has been crucial to the issues such as unlocking the keys to toxic substances and water-borne pathogens in the quest for safe drinking water supplies; understanding physical processes that govern contaminants in the environment and determining the impacts of these contaminants on living resources; assessing the status and trends in water quality to develop sound environmental policies; integrating science to understand critical ecosystems; and providing geographic data that can be used to improve decision making.

The USGS provides information about the water resources and coastal and marine systems through objective scientific information.  By using knowledge of the fundamental processes that create, modify, and maintain coastal and marine systems, program researchers develop models of these systems that are then used by scientists, planners, and managers to predict future change, such as the effects of rates of withdrawals of surface water and groundwater, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic activity, tsunamis, El Niño, or sea level rise.  USGS scientists study water resources and coastal issues at both local and regional scales.  For decades, the USGS has been a world leader in providing remotely sensed data and demonstrating its scientific applications.  The USGS provides scientific information to describe and interpret the earth’s landscape by mapping the terrain, monitoring changes over time, and analyzing how and why these changes have occurred.  The knowledge gained through these activities is used to model the processes of change and to predict future changes.  The USGS acquires, processes, archives, and distributes Landsat and other satellite and airborne remotely sensed data products to users worldwide.

For more information please contact Ingrid Verstraeten or visit http://www.usgs.gov

International Waters: Learning Exchange and Resource Network, a UNDP-GEF project

IW:LEARN aims to strengthen International Waters Management (IWM) by facilitating structured learning and information sharing among stakeholders. In pursuit of this global objective, IW:LEARN improves GEF IW projects’ information base, replication efficiency, transparency, stakeholder ownership and sustainability of benefits through: A. INFORMATION SHARING: Facilitating access to information about transboundary water resources, B. LEARNING: Structured learning among GEF IW projects and cooperating partners, C. DIALOG: Organizing biennial International Waters Conferences, D. INNOVATION: Testing innovative approaches to strengthen IW implementation, E. PARTNERSHIP: Fostering partnerships to sustain IW:LEARN benefits.

The IW:LEARN stakeholder exchange (www.iwlearn.net/exchange) activity brings together project managers, scientists and technical experts, non-governmental organization leaders, and policy makers for exchanges of project experiences and lessons learned during multi-week “learning missions.” The exchanges enable participating institutions to share experience and learn from each other in practical ways through collaborative face-to-face interactions over two to six week periods. To date, a number of projects and their partners (e.g., BCLME, GCLME, HCLME, PEMSEA, PERSGA, IUCN (Mekong and Tanganyika), Globallast, DeltAmerica? (IWRN)) have already requested notification and consideration for exchanges in 2004. Even though the pilot phase necessarily had a short notification period, tight application deadlines, and limited publicity, the interest was widespread and vigorous.

For more information please contact Janot Mendler de Suarez or Mish Hamid or visit http://www.iwlearn.net/abt_iwlearn.