GLOWS | Andean Amazon Rivers | Caribbean Coastal Scenarios

The Global Water for Sustainability (GLOWS) Program

The GLOWS program is a 5-year cooperative agreement between 5 partner organizations (led by FIU) and the U. S. Agency for International Development (USAID). GLOWS promotes the integrated management of water resources and aquatic ecosystems to simultaneously meet human needs and ensure long-term sustainability. Working at a basin, watershed or aquifer scale, the GLOWS approach strives to maximize the economic and social benefits derived from water resources while sustaining freshwater ecosystems. The consortium provides expertise across the policy, governance, institutional, educational, and technical dimensions of integrated water resources management (IWRM), combining advanced analytical techniques, innovative mechanisms for sustainable resource management and biodiversity conservation, community-based programs in poverty alleviation and improved sanitation and potable water supply, and global networking of local NGOs to achieve IWRM objectives. With field offices in most USAID countries, the consortium possesses the infrastructure and skilled staff to plan and implement projects efficiently wherever USAID operates. The program includes three key elements:

Strengthening Cooperative Governance for, Citizen Participation in and Strategic Planning of IWRM by

• Providing technical assistance in approaches to ensuring citizen participation, community involvement, intergovernmental cooperation and collaborative approaches to decision making regarding IWRM.
• Technical assistance to and training for governmental officials and administrators, relevant NGOs, and impacted community members in effective development, planning, management and administration of complex IWRM activities.

Supporting innovative and sustainable technical interventionsby

• Promoting best practices in water demand management and pollution prevention,
• Fostering sustainable fisheries, aquaculture and aquatic ecosystem protection,
• Working with communities to provide sustainable water and sanitation services

Fostering global learning and local capacity building in IWRM by

• Information sharing and dissemination of lessons with USAID Missions and other peers in the field
• Recruiting and training talented citizens of USAID Mission countries, in order to cultivate local and regional leadership and capacity to implement world-class IWRM activities
  

Partners

The GLOWS consortiuim is led by FIU, with Dr. Michael McClain as Director and Dr. Allan Rosenbaum as Monitoring and Evaluation Expert. The additional members of the consortium include:

CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. Women are at the heart of CARE's community-based efforts to improve basic education, prevent the spread of HIV, increase access to clean water and sanitation, expand economic opportunity and protect natural resources. http://www.care.org

Winrock International is a nonprofit organization that works with people in more than 65 countries to increase economic opportunity, sustain natural resources, and protect the environment. By linking local individuals and communities with new ideas and technology, Winrock is increasing long-term productivity, equity, and responsible resource management to benefit the poor and disadvantaged of the world. http://www.winrock.org/

World Wildlife Fund (WWF). WWF is the world's largest and most experienced international conservation organization, with a Global Freshwater program working to promote policy reforms, best practices, conservation of wetlands and other critical ecosystems, and poverty reduction of dependent communities. For more information visit http://www.panda.org and http://www.worldwildlife.org

World Vision U.S. A Christian relief and development organization, World Vision works in nearly 100 countries to provide assistance in a variety of development sectors including emergency relief, safe water supplies and improved sanitation, food security, agriculture, and economic development. For more information visit http://www.worldvision.org

Andean Amazon River Studies

I have worked in the Amazon for more than a decade, initially in Brazil and more recently in Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Bolivia. Over the past 5 years I have directed the Andean Amazon. Rivers Analysis and Management (AARAM) Project, a multinational research initiative to develop the detailed scientific understanding of Andean riverine ecosystems that is fundamental to the successful implementation of regional and international programs for integrated water resources management. AARAM research focused on meso-scale (>25,000 km2) pilot catchments in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia. This fascinating region contains Earth's most biodiverse ecosystems as well as several of its most spectacular rivers. It is also the site of many of its most bitter struggles between development and conservation interests. AARAM was a very large and multifaceted project funded by the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI). River studies continue in Peru and Ecuador.

On a smaller scale, I am leading a research effort funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to understand the role of riparian forests of the Peruvian Amazon in regulating fluxes of nitrogen through the landscape. Riparian forests are those lying along the margins of streams, rivers, and lakes. In their unique position at the dynamic interface of upland and aquatic ecosystems, riparian forests possess many ecologically distinct characteristics, including enhanced species diversity, special life-history strategies, and wide ranging successional patterns. For several years now, riparian forests have been portrayed as control points for regulating the flow of nutrients, especially nitrogen, through landscapes. This perception is based on a cadre of influential studies demonstrating the special capacity of riparian forests to sequester nitrogen and convert biologically available nitrogen to an inert form. However, enthusiasm over the perceived controlling influence of riparian forest on large-scale nitrogen cycling is based primarily on isolated small-scale studies, which lack the complimentary data that are necessary for scaling-up to regions.

This effort is based out of our Field Research Station in the town of Oxapampa, Peru, and it includes collaborations with investigators and students from the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina (Peru), the University of Texas Marine Science Institute, and the University of Washington.

Caribbean Coastal Scenarios

No region of the Americas depends on healthy coastal ecosystems more than the island nations of the Caribbean . Coastal waters and coastlines are important sources of food, biodiversity, and income from tourism, but these resources are threatened directly by over-exploitation and indirectly by marine and inland sources of pollution. Expanding urbanization, land use conversion, and climate variability are altering historical fluxes of fresh water, sediment, nutrients and other contaminants to coastlines, and the impacts in some places are profound. Increased sediment fluxes smother reefs and increased nutrient fluxes have caused widespread coastal eutrophication in the region.

With support from the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) and in collaboration with Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ) Core Project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere (IGBP) Programme, the UNESCO International Hydrology Programme (IHP), and the White Water to Blue Water Initiative we are initiating a multinational research effort to quantify the impacts of land-based activities on coastal resources. The primary objective of the effort is to develop computer models for each island that can be used to evaluate the impacts on coastal resources under different scenarios of development and climate change. Specific objectives are to:

• accurately simulate seasonal and inter-annual fluxes of fresh water, sediments, and dissolved loads to coastal zones as a function of climate and catchment characteristics.
• accurately simulate the distribution of river and groundwater fluxes in coastal environments.
• estimate the impact of inland fluxes on coastal resources.

To accomplish these objectives we will collaborate with agencies and organizations on the islands to:

• determine spatial and temporal variability in climate across the region,
• determine geographic and demographic characteristics of catchments (topography, land cover, geology, soils, land management techniques, population, roads and infrastructure, urban systems, etc.), and
• consider present and future trends in the nature and distribution of dynamic characteristics (e.g. land cover, management techniques, population, infrastructure, urban systems.).

Working in collaboration with national and international organizations, project results will be used to:

• evaluate the risk to coastal ecosystems and vulnerability of humans to projected changes,
• quantify impacts along coastlines using ecological economic indicators, and
• explore sustainable and desirable scenarios for the future.

Schedule : The planning phase of the project is underway and we will submit a full proposal to IAI in March 2005. If the final project is approved it will operate over 5 years.

Participating Institutions:

Florida International University, Miami – USA
Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo – Dominican Republic
Universidad de la Habana – Cuba
University of Miami - USA
University of the West Indies Mona Campus – Jamaica
Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología y Medio Ambiente, Cuba
Instituto Nacional de Recursos Hidráulicos, Cuba
Ministro del Medio Ambiente y los Recursos Naturales, DR
Instituto Nacional de Recursos Hidraulicos, DR
National Environment and Planning Agency, Jamaica
The Nature Conservancy