EMWIS / SEMIDE Euro-Mediterranean Information System on know-how in the Water sector

Country: International organisation- network or project
Start Date:   1/1/1999         Duration: 144 months         Project Type: Network
Contract Number: 
Organisation Type:  EC Project
Topics: 
Contaminated land-->Soil and groundwater processes-->Soil and groundwater processes overview
Groundwater protection-->Groundwater processes-->Groundwater processes overview
Groundwater protection-->Groundwater protection overview
Groundwater protection-->Monitoring-->Monitoring overview
Groundwater protection-->Planning-->Planning overview
Sediments
Water and sanitation-->Industrial water
Water and sanitation-->Pollution
Water and sanitation-->Wastewater
Water and sanitation-->Water and sanitation
Water and sanitation-->Water and sanitation Overview
Water and sanitation-->Water supply
Water resources and their management -->Costs, benefits and sustainability
Water resources and their management -->Monitoring and mitigation
Water resources and their management -->River basin management
Water resources and their management -->River basins
Water resources and their management -->Stresses, quality and ecological status
Water resources and their management -->Water resources and their management Overview
Project objectives:
Water management requires a large volume of increasingly sophisticated information. However - at both international and national level - access to know-how 
in the water sector remains fragmented, dispersed and heterogeneous. There is therefore a need to rationalise the information and to make it both understandable
and easily available. To tackle this issue, and to strengthen the Euro-Mediterranean dialogue, EMWIS (Euro-Mediterranean Information System on Know-How in the Water Sector)
was initiated during the Marseilles Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference on Water Management (November 1996) - Declaration. On this occasion, the
Euro-Mediterranean Ministers of Water met together and decided to create a system to rationalise the exchange of information and know-how. EMWIS was approved
in Naples by the water directors after a one year feasibility study. Today, it is the only operational tool for cooperation between the 35 Euro-Mediterranean
countries in the water sector. Its task is to make an inventory and gather all available information, providing easy access to everyone. The EMWIS initiative is based on active participation and on the sharing of information and experience acquired by the partner countries at local, regional
and national levels. EMWIS has three main targets • To provide easy access to information, with special emphasis on: Institutions The types of institutions and the people involved. Documentation Existing centres and their organisation; the means and technologies used for processing, accessing, consultation and dissemination, standardisation
and quality certification. Training Existing organisations, programmes, localisation, trainers, methods, training materials, quality certification. Research and development Existing organisations, programmes, people involved, means and technologies, publications, partnerships, funding sources. Data administration Existing organisations and databases, methods used for data gathering and checking, publications. .• To develop the sharing of information • To work together on common products and cooperation programmes.
Project Summary:
EMWIS is an initiative of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. It provides a strategic tool for exchanging information and knowledge in the water sector between 
and within the Euro Mediterranean partnership countries All the countries involved in the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership are concerned: The 27 EU member states The 10 Mediterranean Partner Countries (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey) At the conference of the Euro-Med Water Directors (Rome, Nov. 2005), it was decided to open EMWIS to the Mediterranean countries not signatories of the Barcelona
Declaration, i.e. Balkan countries and Libya.
Achieved Objectives:

            
Product Descriptions:
Access to EMWIS is open to everyone interested in water management issues. The wide availability of Internet makes it the ideal access and exchange tool. Thanks 
to Internet, users can easily find the information they are looking for, and active exchange and discussion is facilitated. The EMWIS website is multilingual – currently available in English, French and Arabic, it is open to other languages. In addition, each partner country manages its own information server, providing access to national information and know-how. All of these servers are connected
via Internet, but the user can search for information using a single access point, i.e. the International Focal Point. Each National Focal Point is responsible
for identifying and guaranteeing quality and access to information sources. The only information sources accessible via the system are those approved by
EMWIS.
Additional Information:
The EMWIS approach is based on partnership. The principle of subsidiarity* regarding the partner countries was adopted from the start of the initiative (Naples, 
Dec. 1997). This means that each partner country benefiting from a subsidy must be committed to providing adequate resources for the development of its national
system and the operation of its National Focal Point. Regional activities (meetings, working groups, defining standards, training, etc.), the International Focal Point and technical assistance to non-EU
countries are financed by contracts between the European Economic Interest Group – EMWIS-TU-EEIG – and the European Commission.
Project Resources:

SEMIDE thesaurus (Euro-Mediterranean Information System on know-how in the Water sector)

Water glossaries - A selection of water glossaries & thesaurus in several languages.

Euro-Mediterranean Information System on the know-how in the Water sector - International portal
Weblink:
http://www.emwis.net
Funding Programme(s): 
Link to Organisations:
Submitted by: EUGRIS Team Professor Paul Bardos  Who does what?  28/10/2007 16:09:00