Delft 4 November 1999 Dear Futurework-forum colleagues, Greetings from Delft. Since 'Hydroinformatics' is defined as the application of information technology in the widest sense to problems of the aquatic environment, it includes social and cultural dimensions at the heart of its paradigm. 'Hydroinformatics' endeavours to promote a cross-disciplinary field of study applicable in every part of the world. Combining technological, human-sociological and more general environmental interests, including an ethical perspective, the Hydroinformatics Asia-Pacific Forum has been evolved out of these founding concepts. The Water, Research and Training Centre (WRTC) is a non-governmental, non-profit, educational foundation, as well as a knowledge centre. It was originally formed for the Burmese peoples by promoting and improving their access to research and training opportunities and education in the water and rural sector in Burma and abroad. The WRTC's international centre is in Delft, the Netherlands, and its Asian-Pacific hub is in Bangkok, Thailand. The web site, http://wrtcburma.org, already provides information about current activities, but it has so far been mostly concerned with Burmese water-related issues, gender issues and the regional consultation process for Vision 21 in the water supply, sanitation and hygiene sectors. It has become increasingly clear, however, that the subjects that are discussed have a wider interest within the Asian-Pacific region. Similarly, many events occurring within the region are of concern within the global as well as local contexts, such as the Burmese context. Accordingly, the WRTC is now taking the initiative of setting up a 'Hydroinformatics Asia-Pacific Forum' for discussing water-related issues that are of a general interest in the region. Initially this will be based on an email mailing list online serviced by the WRTC on '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'. The description of the egroups.com is attached for your technical support. The forum will later be moved into a private forum/chat room on the WRTC web site. Among the subjects that may be of interest are those relating to the relevance of papers published in the 'Journal of Hydroinformatics' to problems in the Asian and Pacific Region. May I invite you, in my capacity as a governor of the WRTC, to contribute and participate in this forum. Cordially, Prof. dr. M.B. Abbott Emeritus Professor, Hydroinformatics IHE, Delft, the Netherlands Tel. +31-15-2151812 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ eGroup Description: This list is intended to introduce and promote Hydroinformatics in our Asian-Pacific region in order to help improve the existing knowledge flows. From there we could help improve the quality of life for all people living in the region. The interplay between the world of the waters and our own intercessions in this world is dictated entirely by flows of information. We accordingly give this interplay a special name: we call it 'hydroinformatics', as a joining together of our view upon the hydrosphere of our planet - the world of the waters - and our information flows. Hydroinformatics actually extends further than measuring and computing, as it must take cognisance of legal aspects of water use, and even more general social aspects again, but still it treats all these in terms of information flows. 'Hydroinformatics' is then the principal way that water engineers now go about their work in the world of the waters. Email mailing list address is: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] List owner [EMAIL PROTECTED] WRTC P.O. Box 118 2600 AC Delft The Netherlands http://wrtcburma.org Tel. +31-15-2151814 Fax +31-15-214 39 22 E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] ===========================================END TEXT.