Florinsky, Igor 
need to cooperate. It is anticipated that all these institutions should rely their information of land 
surface processes in the basin on information resulting from space programs. 
Conclusions 
International space programs are very expensive and a result of lots of hard work. The resulting 
satellite data are easily available through electronic data active archives on the internet. But these 
exciting innovations are hardly used for integrated water resources management in river basins, 
neither nationally nor internationally. There is something structurally wrong in disseminating the data 
and water resources managers are not aware of its existence. Remote sensing scientists are typically 
organized in their own disciplinary community, which is only little confronted with water conflicts. 
Remote sensing scientists are satisfied by solving remote sensing from a physical perspective. They 
are not encouraged to work with end-users, and are perhaps not interested to do so. It is suggested that 
water professionals make colleagues aware of the new possibilities. Organizations such as 
International Association of Hydrological Sciences could do that for developed countries and the 
International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage for developing countries. 
The looming water crisis in international river basins can be partially alleviated by creating trust and 
faith through the use of objective data relevant to water resources management. International 
databases such as the ones nowadays emerging in relation to the EOS program can contribute to that. 
Political neutral organizations or consultants could process the raw data into factual land surface 
information. The emerging trends in space technology, geographical information systems and their 
applications, coupled with developments in numerical hydrological modeling should be oriented 
towards maximizing benefits of all stakeholders. 
Acknowledgements 
The vision portrayed in this paper relies to a large extent on the World Water Vision and the National 
Sovereignty and International Water Courses prepared for the 2"! World Water Forum held in March 
2000 in The Hague. 
References 
Alexandridris, T., S. Asif, and S. Ali, 1999. Water performance indicators using satellite imagery for 
the Fordwah Eastern Sadiqia South irrigation and drainage project, Report no. R-87, International 
Water Management Institute, Lahore, Pakistan: 16 pp. 
Anonymous, 1999, IFRC (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies), World 
Disasters Report, Geneva, Switzerland 
Anonymous, 2000a. Water issues for 2025, a research perspective, the contribution of the 
International Water Management Institute to the World Water Vision for Food and Rural 
Development, IWMI, Colombo, Sri Lanka: 26 pp. 
Anonymous 2000b. National sovereignty and international watercourses, World Water Vision, Green 
Cross International ,Geneva, Switzerland: 143 pp. 
Bastiaanssen, W.G.M., 1999. The use of remote sensing to improve irrigation water managment in 
developing countries, in (eds.) Nieuwenhuis et al., Operational remote sensing for sustainable 
development, Balkema, Rotterdam, ISBN 90 5809 029 9: 3-17 
Bastiaanssen, W.G.M., Y. Chemin, M.D. Ahmad and S. Ali, 1999. Patterns of crop evapotranspiration 
in the Indus Basin recognized from the NOAA-AVHRR satellite, (eds.) Musy et al., Proc. 2nd ICID 
regional conference on environment and water, 1-4 september 1999, ETH, Lausanne, Swiss: 15 pp. 
  
  
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXIII, Part B7. Amsterdam 2000. 449