Demonstration of the Gateway to Land and Water Information on the Internet
The demonstration is based on the Gateway Internet site:
http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/AGRICULT/AGL/swlwpnr/swlwpnr.htm
The overall purpose of the Gateway is to help the world community to know the state and trends of land, water and plant nutrition management at national, regional and global scales, with a view to promoting sustainable land management and agricultural practices.
Gateway is a dynamic Internet-based network. It relies on the active participation of professionals and institutions from all over the world concerned with collecting reliable information on land, water and plant nutrition for improved natural resources management and prepared to share it with the global community.
This network essentially consists of land and water "reports". The reports are compiled at different levels of detail (see below) and are linked together as part of a global system of information on the Internet. The Gateway acts as a clearinghouse and facilitator, providing a convenient entry point for land and water information.
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The Global prospect summarizes the state of land and water resources and agricultural land use trends and challenges in a global perspective. The structure consists of a well-ordered collection of worldwide Internet links.
Twelve Regional reports are envisaged, of which the Near East and North Africa regional report is one. Each regional report discusses regionally relevant land and water issues, and in particular hot spots, bright spots and challenges identifiable in that region. A regional report also serves as an entry point for the Country Reports, reports prepared by the countries within that region.
The National Reports are the principal part of the Gateway. They are prepared by respective country representatives and their collaborators.
Subnational Reports are of district-level land and water resources. They are generally prepared by district-level bodies in close collaboration with the national institution.
The Gateway has two functions:
The Near East and North Africa Region is one of the twelve regions identified according to FAO's regional representation.
1 An access point to global, regional and national reports compiled by FAO and participating institutions worldwide. This applies to the sections:
Common process:
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2 An entry point to the worldwide web of information on land, water and plant nutrition and related subjects. This applies to the sections:
Common process:
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Ten countries in the Region were represented at the Workshop; Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey.
It is expected that the information gathered to compile country reports would directly contribute to the content of the Regional report. In the reports, hot spots that are characteristic to the region, such as land degradation due to salinization and urbanization and water scarcity, should be emphasized as well as examples of effective responses to manage such problems (bright spots).
The following are extracts from the Gateway guideline.
Provide synthetic information in the form of short text, maps, tables, charts and photographic images and reliable meta-data (title, year, data provider, data origin, etc.), references as complete as possible and well-sorted related Internet links. Clarify technical terms with definitions. Also, provide notes on methodology of information gathering. When the FAO approach cannot be used, provide information gathered by other methodologies with an indication of that methodology.
Pay attention that the information is comprehensible, colours easily distinguished and legends legible. The information has to be reasonably up-to-date. This requires both constant updating in content and an indication of "when last updated".
The report should encourage visitors to surf through with ease and should stimulate their curiosity. Try making it look interesting!
The content of the report is manifested in the form of a checklist of items. It is arranged according to the following eight categories or sections.
Each section comprises several subsections. The Checklist can be partially modified to suit specific needs and relevance of each country or region.
This document was prepared for the participants of the Near East and North Africa regional workshop to facilitate the compilation of the Gateway Country Report.
More specific information on how to compile the report is provided in the Guidelines: Gateway Home page > Report > Guidelines.
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