International Waters learning Exchange & Resource Network

What are thematic or synthesis reports?

The main source of supporting information for the TDA will be thematic (synthesis) or national reports. These are likely to be drafted by selected consultants or team leaders from the TDA development team with each report using a similar structure.

Thematic reports

Thematic (or synthesis) reports can range from specific reports on transboundary problems (e.g. biodiversity, pollution, flooding, fisheries etc), to reports on broader issues (e.g. the current situation in the water system, climate change etc), to detailed studies on aspects of the TDA (e.g. governance, stakeholders socio-economics, environmental goods and services):

Note: When undertaking an LME Project, the 5 LME Modules (productivity, fish and fisheries, pollution and ecosystem health, socioeconomics, governance) are a good starting point when developing thematic reports. This approach has been successfully used by the Humboldt Current LME project.

Examples of projects that have developed thematic reports are shown Here.

National reports

National reports are essentially country specific TDAs which collate all transboundary data/information relating to a given country into a single document.

Both approaches have been used for TDA development, although thematic reports are generally favoured. Consequently, for the purpose of this manual, a process for developing thematic or synthesis reports is presented in the next section.