The Water Information Network System (IHP-WINS)

Launched in January 2017, the Water Information Network System (WINS) is an open access and free participatory platform for sharing, accessing and visualizing water-related information, as well as for connecting water stakeholders. Developed and maintained by the Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP) of UNESCO, WINS is a tool aimed at supporting decision-making, deriving policy recommendations, and building capacity for sound, efficient, and scientific-based water resources management.

As a user-friendly and interactive tool, WINS allows to access to various types of information (maps, reports, graph, etc.) covering the entire water cycle, ranging from groundwater to urban water through gender issues, from local to global scale.

Information provided in the form of maps can be combined directly on the platform in order to create new information, and generate customized maps that can be shared with a large panel of stakeholders such as policy makers, institutions, researchers, or the civil society.

Thus, WINS seeks to promote knowledge sharing and to strengthen free access to information by making it freely available to all. In that sense, the platform hopes to contribute to closing the gap between developed and developing countries in terms of access to knowledge.