The Nature Conservancy and IBM will launch a free Web site this fall called Rivers for Tomorrow, where watershed managers can map, analyze and share detailed information about the health of local freshwater river basins to inform clean up programs.
The online application will provide easy access to data and computer models to help watershed managers assess how land use affects water quality. Issues such as water availability, soil loss, carbon production, and crop yields can be explored and analyzed to help understand how to mount clean up efforts. Users will be able to run a variety of "what-if" scenarios and create hypothetical models to shed light on the potential or continued consequences of development and policies in and around a watershed. The Web site depicts scenarios that have been pre-computed based on current and historical information, so planners and others can get right to work.
Typically, tools and information -- especially satellite information and analytical tools -- have been hard for the average watershed manager to obtain. Rivers for Tomorrow will address this challenge by making the information readily available. It will even provide software so managers can take spending issues into consideration when formulating their plans.
The initial pilot project for Rivers for Tomorrow is being conducted in the Paraguay and Parana River basins in Brazil, although the tools on the Rivers for Tomorrow Web site will eventually be useable by any watershed manager around the world.
Rivers for Tomorrow was developed by The Nature Conservancy in close consultation with scientists at University of Wisconsin's Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE), University of Southern Mississippi, and several Brazilian universities including, the University of Sao Paulo, the Federal University of Mato Grosso and the University of Brasilia.
Please check the complete press release at: http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32423.wss#release