What is the Drin Information Management System?
The Drin Information Management System (IMS) is a new comprehensive online platform for data collection and information exchange among Drin Riparians on basin management. Specifically, the IMS will be used as a repository of data collected through the Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis, which provides information on transboundary problems affecting the basin’s water and environment but also as a platform to enable joint data collection, storage and exchange, including GIS functionalities.
The main users of the platform will be Ministries and Institutions from the Drin Riparians responsible for water management and environment (including Hydrometeorological institutes and Water directorates), members of the Drin Core Group, project partners as well as international organizations providing support to the Drin Riparians.
The Drin IMS has a number of advantages. It offers visualization of information, customized reports according to the user’s requirements and all this in a user-friendly online environment with no cost. It is already populated with baseline data that include results from national monitoring programmes, as well as other surveys.
Content of the IMS hands-on training
During the training, participants learned the basic functionalities of the IMS (create entry for sampling site, how to insert related monitoring parameters and how to upload and download related sampling site datasets). Practical exercises familiarized them with the interface and provided hands on experience on the IMS features.
The platform, now in its final stage, is available at dringis.org. Although it is primarily developed to serve institutions from the Drin Riparians (Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo[1], including Greece) when finalized, the invitation to register and use the platform will be extended to academia, NGOs, consultants, as well as the general public.
The development of the IMS is one of the pilot projects developed under the Global Environment Facility (GEF) supported Project “Enabling transboundary cooperation and integrated water resources management in the extended Drin River Basin” (GEF Drin Project). The aim of these pilots is to allow countries to accrue direct experience on approaches, technologies, practices and organizational settings novel to the region and test their cost effectiveness and feasibility in the regional context, as well as their cooperative arrangements.
Click here and here and here to see the training videos of the IMS.
[1] This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.