The MRC's new Information and Knowledge Management Programme is designed to facilitate access to and use of the data, information and decision support tools necessary to promote and co-ordinate sustainable development of water and related resources in the Mekong Basin. As part of its hydrological information it monitors a network of measuring stations along the Mekong which transmit real-time information on water levels for river monitoring and other uses.
The MRC's Information and Knowledge Management Programme has four separate, but interlinked, programme components.
This component promotes and facilitates exchange and sharing of data on Water Resources, Hydrology and Meteorology as well as all other resources required to implement the work of the MRC's programmes.
The Decision Support Framework (DSF) is a state-of-the-art computer based system providing the Mekong River Commission (MRC) with the capability to investigate the environmental and socio-economic impacts of changes in the quantity and the quality of flows in the Lower Mekong river system brought about by changing circumstances within the river basin.
Developed through a participatory process with the four countries of the MRC with funding assistance from the Global Environmental Facility, the DSF provides a powerful analytical basis to understanding the behaviour of the river basin and thus to making appropriate planning decisions on how best to manage its water and related natural resources.
The DSF has been developed with a modular structure that will enable the MRC to continue to add new functionalities and models as needs arise. Similarly, the data in the DSF can be readily updated and added to.
This component will focus on maintaining the technical capacity and systems needed to analyse and interpret the primary data and results of models or scenario simulation and includes modelling of water and related resources and use of analytical tools, such as spatial (GIS/Remote Sensing) and time-series.