REGIONAL COOPERATIVE E-NETWORKS: THE EXPERIENCE OF INWEB IN SHARING TRANSBOUNDARY WATER RESOURCES INFORMATION AND DATA

摘要

The world today is undergoing a historic transformation with the explosion of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), which have drastically changed ways of international cooperation through the development of intra- and inter- electronic networks. The use of new WEB-based technologies for regional networking and distance cooperation presents an opportunity to face challenges in a new way. The case of international water resources management is of particular interest, because it combines physical, technical, environmental, economical and political issues on regional, national, international and multicultural scales, and because it requires a multi-disciplinary approach at every level. The International Network of Water-Environment Centres for the Balkans (INWEB) is presented in this paper as an example of regional electronic virtual cooperation network. After a brief description of the aims and objectives, the main structure of the network is given, followed by its main aims and objectives together with details of alpha-numeric and scientific databases it has developed on the Internet, the latter being in the form of an integrated Geographic Information System (GIS).