Glossary of shared water resources

This glossary was prepared by the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), in cooperation with the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) of Germany. It is a response to a request from the sixth session of the Committee of Water Resources at ESCWA, which called for a clearly explained vocabulary for use in describing internationally-shared surface and groundwater. Adopting a unified English-Arabic common terminology is thus expected to harmonize understanding of the technical, socio-economic, environmental, institutional and legal issues related to the joint management of shared water resources. This glossary is intended to be used by specialists, including decision makers and negotiators from different Western Asian and Arab countries.