Workshop Held for Guayubin Subbasin (NW Dominican Republic) Water Resource Governance Model

September 15, 2023

For about five years, ICIWaRM has been collaborating with other institutions on the project “Pilot Guayubin Subbasin Water Resource Governance Model” in the northwestern Dominican Republic. Partner institutions include the Yaque de Norte River Commission (CRYN), the National Water Resources Institute (INDRHI), USAID-Dominican Republic, and a public-private institution, Plan Sierra.

As with many basins, the Guayubin faces increasing demands for water for industry, human consumption, and food. Thus, effective water resources planning, management and governance are increasingly necessary and urgent. Achieving a balance in the use of the resource, while minimizing water stress and preventing water crises from worsening, can be supported by water management computer programs. Such programs help visualize future management scenarios with different variables for this purpose. They can support decision makers in executing timely and efficient management plans, ensuring that investments of time and money are well spent.

In the case of the Guayubin, the need is to connect the hydrological model with a Shared Vision Planning (SVP) model. Shared Vision Planning (SVP) is a collaborative approach to formulating water management solutions that combines three important elements: 1) traditional water resources planning, 2) structured public participation, and 3) collaborative computer modeling.  

To make the process effective, the model builders need to produce outputs that are useful to model users and validators. Through consultations, the project participants decided to use a hydrological model developed by the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) that is well documented, well supported, and broadly used, called HydroBID.

ICIWaRM, the IDB and Plan Sierra organized a three-day workshop in Santo Domingo on August 29-31 for the technical support team to familiarize them with the HydroBID program. It is anticipated that the IDB and its model contractor will be engaged in the modeling in 2024 along with the other collaborating institutions.