-------------------------------------------------- G D R C M o s a i c www.gdrc.org February 2005 -------------------------------------------------- GDRC crossed an important milestone this month – its average online visitors per day crossed the 3,000 mark, with a one-day high of 4,423 visitors on 16 February. Thank you for your continued support and encouragement! -------------------------------------------------- THIS MONTH'S SPOTLIGHT: Water Resources Management from GDRC's Programme on Urban Environmental Management "It is only when the taps run dry, or when drought looms ahead, that water conservation becomes a necessity. But action is needed NOW ... " The Third World Water Forum, which was held in the Kansai region of Japan in 2003, seems like a long time ago, almost forgotten. But the issue of proper water resource management is as much a priority now as it was then, when the WWF3 delegates met. We need to go beyond just water supply, and focus on demand management and conservation of water. Simulating citizens' conservation is essential for preserving our water. Looked at from an individual's point of view, a water conservation programme will require programmes implemented by a range of entities - governmental and non-governmental - working in partnership. Better awareness and information sharing, research monitoring, political will and technology choices are some of the key ingredients of a working strategy. This strategy should also extend to wastewater, and its effective treatment before it is brought back into the water cycle. Its not that we do not have water, but it is how we use and manage it - in the short and long terms - that is important. GDRC compiled a series of resources on the issue of water resources management, and has made it available online at: http://www.gdrc.org/uem/water/ As with all sections of GDRC, contributions, comments and suggestions are always welcome from users and subscribers! Please contact GDRC's Coordinator at - mosaic@gdrc.org -------------------------------------------------- FOCUS ON GDRC: LEARNING LESSONS Info design strategy 'Designing' information is a recurring theme in many past Mosaic newsletters - as it is a key lesson learnt in the development of GDRC's programmes, and particularly its web pages. The programme on Information Design was itself inspired by lessons learnt when developing GDRC's programmes in the late 1990s. What is the main message we want to share? Which medium we want to use? What resource are we to use? Who are the main end-users? How can information be presented for this purpose? And how can good information design facilitate this? Good information design calls for the collation, packaging and display of information in such a way as to communicate and meet the needs of the user, for intended purposes. It uses effective design principles to understand the essence and meaning of the information. Information design, in fact, takes graphic design principles and applies and integrates it with text. -------------------------------------------------- MONTHLY STATISTICS FOR GDRC'S WEBSITE Total hits encountered - 845,785 Total files downloaded - 683,990 Total pages viewed - 261,922 Total web visitors - 97,055 Total KBytes - 6,522,521 Pages per day - Avg. 9,354; Max. 4,438 Visits per day - Avg. 3,466; Max. 4,438 -------------------------------------------------- WHAT'S NEW AT GDRC'S WEBSITE? Highlists from new items added to GDRC's programme pages: - All GDRC: GDRC becomes a member of the Global Alliance for Disaster Reduction (GADR) - Environmental Decision-Making: One-pagers - Skills for Environmental Decision Making - Urban Environmental Management: Sustainable transportation - Links to best practices and success stories in sustainable mobility -------------------------------------------------- ABOUT GDRC MOSAIC The "GDRC Mosaic" is a monthly email newsletter that provides information bites, and summarizes programme activities of GDRC, including new items added to the website. This issue of GDRC Mosaic was sent out to about 630 subscribers in 92 countries. To subscribe: http://www.gdrc.org/about/newsletter.html To unsubscribe: unsubscribe-mosaic@gdrc.org Comments, suggestions and contributions: mosaic@gdrc.org -------------------------------------------------- CONTACT ADDRESS: Global Development Research Center 5-13-3-1601, Nakano-cho, Miyakojima-ku, Osaka 534-0027, Japan Tel / Fax: +(81-6) 6925-8005 Email: mosaic@gdrc.org Web: http://www.gdrc.org/ -------------------------------------------------- Copyright (C) 2005-2007, GDRC. All rights reserved.