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New mapping tool: Opening up data along Asia’s rivers
New website to pioneer data sharing in a region beset by misunderstandings and secrecy over water
thethirdpole.net and its partner Internews’ Earth Journalism Network (EJN) today launch data.thethirdpole.net, an open source data and mapping platform for Asia’s major rivers.
data.thethirdpole.net collects data on water from leading organisations monitoring water in Asia, allowing journalists, researchers and campaigners to create maps and graphics to raise public understanding of the massive environmental challenges facing the region.
The Tibetan plateau and the Himalayan region is also known as the “Third Pole†because it contains the world’s largest store of ice outside the polar regions. This is the source of Asia’s major river systems, which provide power and drinking water for over 1.3 billion people – nearly 20% of the world’s population.
Finding available data in the region is not an easy task due to political tensions between countries and national secrecy laws that prohibit the open sharing of important information.
Developed over two years, data.thethirdpole.net provides a simple, searchable catalogue of datasets of over 125 datasets on hydropower, glacier status, groundwater depletion, natural disasters and much more. This website was made possible with the support of the Skoll Global Threats Fund.
For more information, or to arrange an interview, please contact:
Ramesh.Bhushal@thethirdpole.net (Kathmandu) or wshubert@internews.org (US).
Notes to Editors:
thethirdpole.net is an online forum providing information and analysis on the Tibetan plateau and the rivers that originate there. It was launched in 2009 as a project of chinadialogue, in partnership with Internews' Earth Journalism Network and fosters constructive debate on the sustainable management of these vital resources.
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