Tuul River Basin Report Card 2019
Ulaanbataar, Mongolia. On 22 March 2019, the Tuul River Basin Report Card was released in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, with over 300 people attending the release event. Begun in 2017, this project was a partnership between IAN, the Tuul River Basin Authority, WWF-Mongolia, WWF-USA and Asian Development Bank. The IAN team involved in this truly memorable project included Simon Costanzo, Bill Dennison, and Dylan Taillie. Outcomes from the project include specific recommendations on improving water management within the basin, infrastructure upgrades and air pollution control measures.
Lower Kafue River Basin Report Card
Our partners at World Wildlife Fund Zambia released the Lower Kafue River Basin Report Card. Overall, the basin received a score of C (49).
Lower Kafue River Basin Report Card released
September 25 was World Rivers Day. Our partners at World Wildlife Fund Zambia combined that celebration with the release of the Lower Kafue River Basin Report Card. The Kafue River runs north to south through Zambia and has a watershed of over 60,000 square miles. Overall, the basin received a score of C (49), combining indicators in five categories: water quality & quantity, human health & nutrition, landscapes & ecology, management & governance, and economy. This report card was developed in partnership with WWF Zambia, the Water Resources Management Authority, and other local partners. You can view the full report card document here.
The Office of the Great Barrier Reef institutional assessment was published
Bill Dennison and Simon Costanzo conducted an institutional assessment for the Office of the Great Barrier Reef. In this assessment, five goals were established: cohesive staff, credible science, resilient organization, relevance to stakeholders, and effective outreach. Each goal had its own set of indicators. Scores were generated for the Wet Tropics Waterways, Dry Tropics Partnership for Healthy Waters, Healthy Rivers to Reef Partnership, Fitzroy Partnership for River Health, and Gladstone Healthy Harbour Partnership, as well as an overall report card for the partnership as a whole.
Tuul River Report Card
We worked with our partners at WWF to produce the first-ever Tuul River Report Card in Mongolia. The river received a grade of C for 2019.
USGS Eco-drought reports
This newsletter summarizes the findings of a three-year synthesis on the current status of drought research across the United States, part of a larger-scale information dissemination project in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey.
Bhitarkanika Conservation Area Report Card now available
The first-ever report card for the Bhitarkanika Conservation Area in Odisha, India is now available! The National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), jointly with the Odisha Forestry Sector Development Project (OFSDP-II) and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, brought together over 40 local and regional experts and stakeholders in February 2019. Together the group chose ecosystem health indicators, thresholds and a reporting framework for Bhitarkanika Conservation Area.
Bhitarkanika Report Card captures current conditions within the conservation area, including the Eco Sensitive Zone, Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary, Bhitarkanika National Park, Critically Vulnerable Coastal Area and the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary. Overall, Bhitarkanika is in good condition. Indicator scores were “excellent” in Maipura and Gahirmatha and “good” in Bhitarkanika, Dhamra, Brahmani and Mahanadi.