Free Flow

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nternational

ooperation

ater

ciences

and

esearch

ment techniques resulted in the establishment, in 1964,

of the International Organization for Standardization

Technical Committee on Hydrometry – which has

since published over 70 international standards on

water measurement.

Viewed together, these technical, organizational

and political opportunities to further increase inter-

national cooperation on water data represent the

possibility of a step-change in freshwater information

sharing around the globe. If coupled with initiatives

to improve the underlying hydrological monitoring,

the availability of quantitative observation data to

support water science, management and policy devel-

opment can be greatly enhanced. The United Nations

International Year of Water Cooperation provides a

backdrop against which organizations, individual

nations and the international community must renew

and further support initiatives aimed at turning local

water data into global water information.

information also exist in the commercial sector. A recent report by

the World Business Council for Sustainable Development identified

the development and accessing of shared scientific data as key to

the implementation of catchment-scale water stewardship. Adopting

such an approach could provide significant commercial benefits to

businesses, including mitigation of risks to long-term water security

and opportunities for cost savings and revenue growth.

In tandem with policy development, another vital route towards

improving international cooperation lies in the sharing of knowledge

between hydrologists to build global monitoring capacity, develop

common understanding around data and provide mutual techni-

cal support. A wide range of initiatives are currently underway to

address the technical barriers to data exchange and harmonize data

practices and it is vital that these are supported both now and into

the future. For example, water data experts from around the world,

working under the umbrella of WMO and the Open Geospatial

Consortium, have come together to seek technical solutions to the

challenge of describing and exchanging surface and groundwater

data. Similarly, the need for harmonization of global water measure-

Case study: UNESCO FRIEND-Water European Water Archive

The UNESCO Flow Regimes from International Experimental and Network

Data (FRIEND-Water) programme

is a long-standing international

collaborative study in regional hydrology. One of the most successful

initiatives developed by UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme

(IHP), FRIEND-Water has expanded from seven European countries in

1985 to encompass 162 countries in 2010. It supports a diverse body

of hydrological research around the globe, bringing up a new generation

of scientists working together and sharing data, scientific knowledge and

techniques across political borders.

A central feature of FRIEND-Water activities is scientific cooperation

in relation to sharing hydrological data for research purposes.

Through its eight regional groups, the programme has established

regional databases which have grown over the years and are regularly

updated in order to meet new research challenges. These hydrological

databases are a cornerstone for FRIEND-Water research activities.

The European Water Archive (EWA) represents the central database for the

EURO-FRIEND-Water group and contains river flow records from over 4,000

monitoring stations across 30 countries. It has grown to become one of the

most comprehensive hydrological archives in Europe. Originally hosted by the

Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in the UK, five regional data centres were

established across Europe to assist in the acquisition of data for the FRIEND-

Water project. In 2004, maintenance of the EWA passed to the Global Runoff

Data Centre at the Federal Institute of Hydrology in Germany.

Data archived in the EWA have been supplied on a voluntary basis

and free of charge by hydrometric agencies across Europe. The EWA is

freely available for use by FRIEND-Water group members for research

purposes and now supports international research in fields such as low

flow and drought, large-scale hydrological variations, techniques for

extreme rainfall and flood run-off estimation, and catchment hydrological

and biogeochemical processes.

River flow monitoring stations for which data are included in the UNESCO IHP FRIEND-Water European Water Archive

Image: Global Runoff Data Centre