New & Useful Resources

Lakes, their watersheds, and the communities that benefit from them face an array of challenges created mainly by increasing human populations and changes in land use. Most threats, such as nutrient pollution and deforestation come from within the watershed. An increasing number of threats also affect lakes from outside the watershed, such as invasive species, climate change and atmospherically-deposited toxic substances. Since threats to lake health come from both within and outside the watershed, local, state, national and international approaches may be necessary, depending on the unique situation of each and every lake.

This section of the website provides background information, promising strategies and useful resources on specific lake issues. We encourage you to share additional promising strategies that have worked well in your watershed or organization with the LakeNet Secretariat so that they can be shared in turn with our global network.

New and Useful Resources

Protection and valuation of ecosystem services - The fifth issue (Vol. 2 Issue 2) of the IMCAFS Basins and Coasts Newsletter explores the theme of protection and valuation of ecosystem services, with specific focus on Payment for Ecosystem [or Environmental] Services (PES) programs. Over the past decade, PES programs have been applied worldwide as a tool for integrating environmental conservation, poverty reduction, governance and enterprise development. Today the literature on PES is broad, with many examples of PES programs documented in scholarly journals and technical papers. Several lessons have been learned, yet some unanswered questions still remain. What is the appropriate scale (geographic, temporal) at which PES programs should be implemented? How can equity issues be incorporated into PES programs and do they really result in poverty reduction? How effective really are PES programs as a tool for environmental conservation? What are some of the new frontiers for PES programs? The articles in this issue address these themes, while exploring case studies of PES programs from around the world. View or download from http://www.imcafs.org Newsletter. IMCAFS.

2005 International Symposium on Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms - Solar Bee has released a new book, the proceedings of the 2005 International Symposium on Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, nine other government organizations, and experts from around the world participated in the development of the monograph released Springer Press, Inc, Hudnell, H. Kenneth (Ed.).

Freshwater Ecoregions of the World - FEOW (Freshwater Ecoregions of the World) is the first-ever comprehensive map and database describing the world’s freshwater biodiversity. Covering all of the Earth’s 426 freshwater ecoregions, the FEOW map and associated species data are a powerful tool for freshwater conservation. A collaborative effort between WWF and The Nature Conservancy, the project brought together 200 leading freshwater scientists to create this extensive and easily searchable resource.

National Water Information System - The U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Water Information System (NWIS) is a comprehensive and distributed application that supports the acquisition, processing, and long-term storage of water data. NWISWeb serves as the publicly available portal to a geographically seamless set of much of the water data maintained within NWIS (additional background). Website. USGS.

Survey of the Nation's Lakes - EPA is working with states, tribes and others to survey the quality of the nation's lakes, ponds and reservoirs. Project description. US EPA.

Cyanonet - CYANONET is a UNESCO-supported initiative to create an internet-based global source of information and contacts for cyanobacteria (=blue-green algae) and their toxins (cyanotoxins). As you may know the development of cyanobacteria in water resources is a consequence of eutrophication and poses a significant risk to human, animal and environmental health. Globally the base of cyanobacterial specialization is sparse - accordingly CYANONET has identified the need for mutually-beneficial global collaboration in order to promote skills awareness and understanding, and to facilitate the exchange of information and technologies. Website. UNESCO.

WaterWebster - A web portal to news and information about water today. Website. English.

GEMStat - Global Water Quality Data and Statistics - The United Nations Global Environment Monitoring System (GEMS) Water Programme is dedicated to providing environmental water quality data and information of the highest integrity, accessibility and interoperability. These data are used in water assessments and capacity building initiatives around the world. GEMStat is designed to share surface and ground water quality data sets collected from the GEMS/Water Global Network, including over 1,400 stations, two million records, and over 100 parameters. Database. UNEP Global Environmental Monitoring System (GEMS Water).

What You Can Do - The What You Can Do web site is a place to find information and tips to help you take action for a cleaner and healthier environment. Website. Environment Canada. English, French.

Large-Scale Ecosystem Restoration: Lessons for Existing and Emerging Initiatives - Case studies. Northeast Midwest Institute.

UNESCO Water Portal - The UNESCO Water Portal is intended to enhance access to information related to freshwater available on the World Wide Web. The site provides links to the current UNESCO and UNESCO-led programmes on freshwater and will serve as an interactive point for sharing, browsing and searching websites of water-related organizations, government bodies and NGOs, including a range of categories such as water links, water events, learning modules and other on-line resources. Website.

Catalyzing Change: A handbook for developing integrated water resources management (IWRM) and water efficiency strategies - Handbook/Manual. Global Water Partnership.

Global Ballast Water Management Programme - Website.

China Lake Database - Database. Chinese, English.

Global Lakes and Wetlands Database - The global lakes and wetlands database GLWD has been developed in partnership with the Center for Environmental Systems Research, University of Kassel, Germany. It is available for download as three separate ArcView layers (two polygon shapefiles and one grid). The files have been compressed using WinZip (www.winzip.com) and are 46 MB in total size. Database. WWF US.

A New Habitattitude on Aquatic Invasive Species - Website. Sea Grant.

Global Invasive Species Database - Database. IUCN.

Annual Listing of Fish Advisories Issued - Aug 24 - EPA released its 12th annual summary of information on locally-issued fish advisories and safe-eating guidelines. The number of advisories issued continues to rise as states expand their testing programs. Report. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries - Guidelines for the conservation and management of the world's fisheries as adopted by more than 170 members of the FAO in 1995. Guidelines. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Water- More Nutrition per Drop - This report examines water in sustainable food production and consumption patterns, the variation in water productivity, consumption trend implications on water depletion, water requirements for feeding future generations, pathways to improving water productivity and sustainability. Report. Stockholm International Water Institute and International Water Management Institute .

Crop Explorer - Global Reservoir and Lake Elevation Monitoring - The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA-FAS), in co-operation with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the University of Maryland, are routinely monitoring lake and reservoir height variations for approximately 100 lakes located around the world. Website. USDA.

Giving rivers: protected areas and environmental flows in North America - Report. Nature Conservancy. English.

Guidelines on monitoring and assessment of transboundary and international lakes, Part B: Technical Guidelines (2003) - Report. UNECE Working Group on Monitoring & Assessment. English.

Water resources and environment technical notes series - This series of technical notes produced by the Environment Department includes useful papers on the watershed approach, policy implementation, regulation, environmental flow assessment, water quality assessment, wastewater treatment, irrigation, nonpoint pollution, wastewater reuse, management of aquatic plants and more. Guidelines. World Bank.

Running Pure: the importance of forest protection areas to drinking water - Report. World Wildlife Fund, World Bank.

Driven to action: stopping sprawl in your community - Written as an action guide for Canadian citizens, but much of the report and related tools are applicable elsewhere. Report. David Suzuki Foundation.

The essentials of environmental flows - Report. IUCN. English.

The Water Cycle - The water-cycle diagram (150 kilobytes) is now available in more than 30 languages. Text summaries are also available for some languages (with more on the way!). Diagram. USGS. Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, Nepali, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese.

[top]

I want to share information about issues and solutions with LakeNet