Handout 1.1 Definition of IRBP
What is Integrated River Basin Planning ?
Key Message – Integrated River Basin Planning is primarily concerned with
the planning the development of a river basin’s shared resources for the
benefit of all of the basin states
Integrated River Basin Planning has many names:
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Integrated Water Resources Planning
Integrated Catchment Planning
Total Catchment Planning
Integrated Ecosystem Planning
Integrated Watershed Planning
All these names refer to very similar ideas. The ideas being that good river
basin planning must:
 Integrate between sectors and between disciplines;
 Recognize that land and water resources are linked and impact upon
each other
 Recognize that “catchments” are the most effective planning unit
because it includes both the land and water resources.
 Recognize that the sustainable development of the people is linked to
the sustainable development of the land and water resources
Sometimes the word management is used instead of planning. Management is
a broader term and refers to both the planning and the implementation of the
plan. These modules focus on planning rather than implementation. But good
planning must provide the building blocks or starting points for good
implementation.
A short of history of integrated water resources planning is given in Reference
1. Pieter van der Zaag, Hubert H.G. Savenije (2000) Towards improved
management of shared river basins: lessons from the Maseru Conference.
What is a catchment and what is a Basin ?
A catchment is the land area on which rainfalls and eventually runs-off into a
river. A Basin is the catchment of a large river includes all of the tributaries
rivers and their catchment areas.
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Handout 1.1 Definition of IRBP
What is a River Basin ?
The
catchment or
watershed
which
contains the
river and its
tributaries
Towns
Dam
Agricultural
land
Highland
areas
Wetlands
Irrigation
Capture fishery
Because Basins are large catchments they often cross national borders, as is the
case for the Mekong River Basin. This makes the Mekong River Basin an
international river basin and, as we shall see, planning for an international river
basin is different than for a national river basin.
The Mekong is one of a group of some of the world’s largest rivers that have
their origins among the snowfields of the Tibetan plateau. Here the Yangtze,
Salween, Irrawaddy, Red and Mekong rivers have their sources at between
4,500 and 5,000 metres above sea level from which they flow southwards
virtually as a parallel group into China and the province of Yunnan (which
interestingly is Chinese for “south of the clouds”). Here this family of great
rivers are separated by only a few hundred kilometres before taking divergent
directions; the Yangtze most spectacularly flows across the entirety of central
China River, the Red River to Vietnam and the Gulf of Tonkin, the Salaween
and Irrawaddy to Myanmar and the Indian Ocean. The Mekong on the other
hand maintains its southerly course for some 4,500 km to the South China Sea,
draining a total catchment of some 795,000 km2 within six countries (MRC
Secretariat 2004 Water Utilization Program Start-Up Project: Overview of the
hydrology of the Mekong Basin, p.1). The Mekong Basin is shown in Figure 1.
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Handout 1.1 Definition of IRBP
Because the Mekong crosses national boundaries, this raises an additional set
of issues. Different governments are responsible for the planning and
management of different parts of the Basin. To effectively plan a Basin which
crosses national borders, the plan must provide benefits to all of the nations in
the Basin. The benefits of nations acting together must be greater than the
benefits of the nations acting in their own self-interest.
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Handout 1.1 Definition of IRBP
Benefits come from the use and development of the resources of the Basin.
Some of the most important resources of the Basin are “shared”, that is, they
travel or flow across national boundaries.
What are the shared resources of the Basin ? The two main resources that
physically travel or flow across national boundaries are:
 Water (surface water and groundwater) and
 Migrating fauna and flora – of which fish are the most economically
significant.
There are other resources which flow or travel across national boundaries such
as air and noise but generally these are not related to water and therefore would
not normally be part of Integrated River Basin Planning.
The people of the Mekong Basin gain many benefits from the shared resources,
such as:
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Capture fisheries
Aquaculture benefits
Irrigation
Harvesting of products from floodplains, wetlands and flooded forests
Energy from Hydropower (hydropower is energy!)
Cultural benefits
Tourism benefits
Urban and industrial benefits
Transport
Control of saline intrusion / flood regulation
The list of benefits is very long and to make the list it is necessary to talk with
people who use the shared resources. This is part of stakeholder engagement
which will be discussed in Module 3.
We will look in more detail at Basin resources and how these resources benefit
the people of the Basin in Module 2.
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