With water resource variability rapidly growing and demands on water resources increasing, using digital tools and innovative, inclusive institutional approaches to address both challenges is becoming ever-more urgent. A recent workshop under the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (Research Area on Variability, Risks and Competing Uses), showcased research outputs in two activity clusters - Managing Resource Variability and Risks for Resilience and Managing Competing Uses and Trade-offs - that can help increase water security for poor rural users while also improving food security and rural livelihoods.

1. Data Exchange in Transboundary Waters
WLE FP4 Managing Resource Variability, Risk & Competing Uses Meeting
Learnings for Research on System Transformation
December 3, 2020
Patience Mukuyu (IWMI)

2. Project Rationale
• Need for cooperative management
of shared waters is widely
recognized
• 1997 UN Watercourse
Convention
• 1992 UNECE Water Convention,
• SDGs
• Data & information exchange a
fundamental of cooperative water
management
Contributes to
optimal management
of trade-offs
Provides a basis for
benefit sharing
Variability
management and
resilience
Supports equitable
and sustainable
water use
A way of building
trust between
riparian countries
and long term
commitment

3. What is the level of data exchange in shared waters?
• Anecdotal evidence suggests that the quantity and
quality of data exchanged is insufficient for effective
management
• Nonetheless, no systematic investigation undertaken
• SDGs measure exchange, but there was ‘low bar’
• Variability in exchange according to diverse
parameters was unexplored
• Factors driving and constraining exchange
• Understanding current levels of change, and factors
that promote it, is key to improving conditions

4. Project Scope & Partners
➢ Facilitate a thorough and systematic analysis of the range and frequency of
data sharing in transboundary waters, which can inform and enhance SDG
reporting;
➢ Identify, evaluate and support the use of models of data and information
exchange in shared waters that hold the greatest potential for achieving
meaningful and sustainable use
Partners:
• IUCN-implements transboundary water projects
• Northumbria University-manages SDG indicator 6.5.2 reporting
• UNECE-developed revised Guidelines for Data Exchange in Transboundary
Waters
• IHE Delft / Blue Peace Index

5. Research in Year 1
How much data exchange in shared basins?
Data category Parameters
Hydrological
(hydrometric)
River discharges, river water levels, river flood peak discharges, river base flows,
river sediment load, river water quality, lake/reservoir water levels, lake/reservoir
volumes, lake/reservoir water temperature, lake/reservoir surface evaporation,
volume of water imported/exported to/from basin
Hydro morphological
alterations
Dams, weirs
Future planned
measures with
transboundary impacts
Infrastructure development
Groundwater Groundwater levels and pressure, quality, aquifer yields and quality, estimate
annual groundwater recharge, aquifer thickness, permeability and storage capacity
Meteorological (and
climatic)
Sunshine/radiation hours, wind speed, air temperature, humidity, evaporation,
precipitation, precipitation intensity
Ecological
(environmental)
Minimum flow requirements, critical flow periods and demands, protected areas
and water demands, protected areas and water demands, required water quality
standards
Water Quality Electrical conductivity, suspended sediment, nutrients, temperature, pH, oxygen
Water Pollutants Concentrations of arsenic, bacteria, nitrogen, phosphorus, viruses, fertilizers,
pesticides, algae, industrial waste, heavy metals
Water abstraction Abstraction quantity (surface/groundwater), abstraction quality, return flow
quality and quantity

6. Research Year 1
River flow data data
Groundwater abstraction data

7. Uptake
• Findings highlighted in the UNECE Water
Convention background document on the
Outlook for developing monitoring cooperation
and exchange of data and information across
borders
• Utilized by the Blue Peace Index
• Contributed to a MOOC led by IHE Delft and
University Geneva on Water Cooperation and
Diplomacy
• Published in the journal Water International
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02
508060.2020.1850026

8. Ongoing and Future Work
• Examining the degree to
which needs drive exchange
• Implementing data exchange
needs assessment
• Will use this work to
formulate a plan for data
exchange in Omo-Turkana
Basin
Photo credit: Mahesh Adams, IWMI