IWRM Guidelines at River Basin Level

The Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) Guidelines at River Basin Level (pdf, 6.57 MB) have been written as a contribution to UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme and the World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP). Dr. Eugene Z. Stakhiv, Technical Director of ICIWaRM, serves as a Co-Chair of the Guidelines’ Steering Committee.

These Guidelines provide information to help practitioners implement IWRM at the river basin level in line with their own set of circumstances. In addition to the fundamental concepts of IWRM, they also provide insights into the perspectives of various stakeholders with regard to water issues, keys for success for overcoming problems, and good examples where such keys for success were applied. The Guidelines invite each sector to fruitfully participate and cooperate in IWRM, with a practical road map to contribute to achieving both private and public benefits in a sustainable manner. The principles and concepts of IWRM have been widely recognized, but the implementation of IWRM is not satisfactorily progressing in many basins. The Guidelines describe an approach that begins with implementing currently available measures in the context of existing institutions and resources, and, as capacity grows, evolving towards a fully integrated approach with the provision of multi-sectoral water services.

To get started with IWRM, practitioners and water managers need to identify the full spectrum of stakeholders involved in river basin management issues as well as have a good understanding of the stakeholders’ water-related values and activities. This Guidelines series provides useful guidance on how to achieve this. The Guidelines are meant to be “living” — users are invited to contribute to their improvement with suggestions on methodology and new case studies.

The Guidelines come in two parts: Part 1, which addresses the principles of IWRM at a Basin level, and Part 2, which addresses the issue of practical implementation. Part 2 is further divided in planning (2-1), flood management (2-2), and irrigation topics (2-3). The entire document can be found on the UNESCO website, here (pdf, 2.40 MB).

For more information, please contact Gene Stakhiv.

Recently, ICIWaRM, the Inter-American Development Bank and UNESCO IHP for Latin America and the Caribbean collaborated to produce Spanish translations of these four volumes. For more information on these, contact Guillermo Mendoza.