River basin

"The area of land from which all surface run-off flows through a sequence of streams, rivers and, possibly, lakes into the sea at a single river mouth, estuary or delta." (European Environmental Agency, 2019).

"Both river basins and watersheds are areas of land that drain to a particular water body, such as a lake, stream, river or estuary. In a river basin, all the water drains to a large river. The term watershed is used to describe a smaller area of land that drains to a smaller stream, lake or wetland. There are many smaller watersheds within a river basin"(Milwaukeeriverkeeper, n.d.).

Sources

European Environmental Agency. "Water glossary". Accessed March 2, 2019. Available at: https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/water/glossary

Milwaukeeriverkeeper. n.d. What’s a River Basin? What’s a Watershed? https://milwaukeeriverkeeper.org/whats-a-river-basin-whats-a-watershed/, last accessed 6 October 2021

Overview:

Rivers are a major source of freshwater. They support aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, provide transportation, generate hydropower, and when treated, provide drinking and agricultural water. Estimating and monitoring water budgets within a river basin is required for sustainable management of water resources and flooding within watersheds. This webinar series will focus on the use of NASA Earth observations and Earth system-modelled data for estimating water budgets in river basins.

ARSET - River basin delineation based on NASA digital elevation data

Overview:

River basins (known as watersheds in North America) are areas of land that drain precipitation, surface water, and underlying groundwater into a river and its tributaries, eventually reaching a common outlet such as a lake, reservoir, river, or estuary. The drainage pattern is from smaller sub-basin to larger sub-basin, and from higher elevation to lower elevation. Land surface processes, precipitation, storm water, and wastewater runoff within basins have substantial impact on quantity and quality of the water draining into tributaries.

5th Worlds Large Rivers Conference

The central theme of the World’s Large Rivers Conference 2023 is

"Rivers in a Changing World".

The pressures and impacts on the World’s Large Rivers have increased greatly in recent years. Large rivers are particularly exposed to problems of multiple uses, often with conflicting aims. At the global scale, there is no comprehensive assessment of the current status of the World’s Large Rivers, the conflicting demands on such rivers, and likely future anthropogenic impacts, as well as the potential for restoration and the associated problems.

30th Danube Conference 2023

Danube Conferences traditionally are the common connections of the hydrological regional cooperation. These meetings commenced in Budapest in 1961. Since 1975, cooperation has been conducted within the framework of the International Hydrological Programme (IHP) of UNESCO.

The 40th IAHR World Congress in Vienna, Austria 2023

The 40th IAHR World Congress in Vienna, Austria, from August 21st to 25th, 2023.

The main theme of the 40th IAHR World Congress will be “Rivers – Connecting Mountains and Coasts” focusing attention on the importance of considering the integral water cycle to address present and future challenges.

Webinar: Advancing Transboundary Water Cooperation through commitments for the UN 2023 Water Conference

On Monday, 27 February 2023 at 14:00-15:30 CET / 08:00-09:30 EST / 20:00-21:30 ICT, governments, organisations and other stakeholders are invited to a webinar, organised by the Transboundary Water Cooperation Coalition: Advancing Transboundary Water Cooperation through commitments for the UN 2023 Water Conference

International Symposium on Outfall Systems (ISOS 2023)

The International Symposium on Underwater Pipelines System (ISOS) 2023 is hosted by
the IAHR/IWA Underwater Pipeline Systems Joint Committee under the auspices of the
International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR) and
the International Water Association (IWA), the Federal Council of Sanitation Services
Entities (COFES) and Argentine Water and Sanitation (AySA).

15th International Symposium on River Sedimentation (ISRS)

The International Symposium on River Sedimentation (ISRS) is a triennial event initiated in 1980 by the Chinese Hydraulic Engineering Society (CHES) with the support of UNESCO. The objective of ISRS is to provide a forum for scientist, engineers, researchers and decision makers to exchange ideas, research results, advanced techniques, and to share their experiences and information on sediment study and management. The International Research and Training Center on Erosion and Sedimentation (IRTCES) in Beijing is the permanent secretariat of ISRS.

Project / Mission / Initiative / Community Portal

Healthy Rivers for All Initiative

A man jumping into a river - heading that reads as follows: Healthy Rivers For All

This website includes tools and resources for developing basin report cards. It includes reports that incorporate satellite imagery to measure environmental indicators and change over time.

With the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES), we are developing, packaging, and sharing a process that helps stakeholders create science-based report cards in their own basins with the right buy-in on-the-ground and credibility globally, so they can better manage resources for the protection of fresh water they depend upon.

American University of Central Asia

Founded in 1993, AUCA develops future leaders for the democratic transformation of Central Asia. American University of Central Asia is an international, multi-disciplinary learning community in the American liberal arts tradition. AUCA is the first university in Central Asia to offer US accredited degrees in liberal arts programs through a partnership with Bard College in the United States. In addition to Bard, AUCA maintains partnerships with a number of universities and organizations worldwide.

Orunbaev

Sagynbek Orunbaev

Associate Professor American University of Central Asia

Dr. Sagynbek Orunbaev is an Associate Professor in the Applied Geology and Environmental Sustainability and Climate Science departments at the American University of Central Asia. He earned his Ph.D.

Fleischmann

Ayan Santos Fleischmann

Lead, Research Group in Geospatial Analysis of the Amazonian Environment and Territory, at the Mamirauá Institute for Sustainable Development

Ayan is a hydrologist with particular interest in wetlands, mainly in South America (especially the Amazon region) and in Africa. He researches within the context of human impacts on water resources. Ayan holds a PhD degree from Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in Water Resources Engineering, and is Lead of a research team on Geospatial Analysis of the Amazonian Environment and Territoryat at the Mamirauá Institute for Sustainable Development and at UFRGS. He also leads the conexoesamazonicas.org initiative for science communication about the Amazon River basin.

Software/Tool/(Web-)App

Bhuvan Ganga App

Bhuvan Ganga App is ISRO’s mobile application developed to enable public to collect and report information on various pollution sources that affects the water quality of river Ganga. This mobile app will provide a platform for crowd sourcing to monitor pollution in river Ganga and enable decision makers at National Mission for Cleaning Ganga (NMCG) under Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, Government of India to prioritize interventions.

Bhuvan Ganga Geoportal

Bhuvan Ganga Geoportal provides platforms to manage, access, visualize, share and analyze geo spatial data, non-spatial data products and services towards spatial mashups to support NMCG objectives of environmental and ecological improvement within the Ganga River basin.

Freshwater Ecosystem Explorer

The Freshwater Ecosystem Explorer is an open access geo-spatial data platform, providing accurate, high-resolution, geospatial depicting the extent to which different types of freshwater ecosystems change over time, within every country in the world.

Related Content

Capacity Building and Training Material

ARSET - Using Earth observations to monitor water budgets for river basin management

ARSET - Using Earth observations to monitor water budgets for river basin management II

Overview:

ARSET - River basin delineation based on NASA digital elevation data

Overview:

Event

5th Worlds Large Rivers Conference

"Rivers in a Changing World".

30th Danube Conference 2023

The 40th IAHR World Congress in Vienna, Austria 2023

The 40th IAHR World Congress in Vienna, Austria, from August 21st to 25th, 2023.

Webinar: Advancing Transboundary Water Cooperation through commitments for the UN 2023 Water Conference

International Symposium on Outfall Systems (ISOS 2023)

15th International Symposium on River Sedimentation (ISRS)

Project / Mission / Initiative / Community Portal

Healthy Rivers for All Initiative

Stakeholder

American University of Central Asia

Person

Sagynbek Orunbaev

Ayan Santos Fleischmann

Software/Tool/(Web-)App

Bhuvan Ganga App

Bhuvan Ganga Geoportal

Freshwater Ecosystem Explorer