Knowledge sharing is key to sustainable transboundary water management

Summary

At the workshop, LIMCOM shared its ongoing efforts within the Limpopo River Basin to strengthen environmental monitoring using Earth observation tools and integrating data from the Joint Basin Survey (JBS) / Environmental Flows (eFlows) and Transboundary Diagnostics Analysis (TDA), as well as incorporating community-based Citizen Science into the Limpopo Information Management System (LIMIS).

LIMCOM participated in an international workshop held in Maun, Botswana on “Tracking Change in the Cubango-Okavango River Basin (CORB).”

The CORB is a transboundary basin with a network of river systems traversing through Angola, Botswana and Namibia. It comprises of a network of rivers whose headwaters are in the Angolan highlands where the Cuito and Cubango Rivers originate.

The workshop was held on 8-10 July 2025 and attended by various stakeholders including policymakers, scientists, and community stakeholders. Its main aim was to enhance capacity in mapping terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems using the IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology and to identify data gaps for monitoring biodiversity and ecosystem services.

The meeting also launched a Twinning Program between the CORB and Lake Eyre Basins in Australia and emphasized building local scientific capacity.

At the workshop, LIMCOM shared its ongoing efforts within the Limpopo River Basin to strengthen environmental monitoring using Earth observation tools and integrating data from the Joint Basin Survey (JBS) / Environmental Flows (eFlows) and Transboundary Diagnostics Analysis (TDA), as well as incorporating community-based Citizen Science into the Limpopo Information Management System (LIMIS).

The Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission (OKACOM) in partnership with the PLUS Alliance (Arizona State University, King’s College London, University of New South Wales) and the Okavango Research Institute (ORI) organized the workshop.