The
RIVERDigest
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The Monthly Magazine of River Affairs, Governance & Stewardship


Published by the International Institute of River Affairs (IIRA)
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A single publication for a subject that never stops at a border: the rivers that carry water, power, food and conflict across the map.

River Digest is the monthly magazine of the International Institute of River Affairs (IIRA), an autonomous institute under the SAIARD Trust. We report on the governance, science and stewardship of the world's river systems — from transboundary water treaties to community-led restoration on a single tributary.

Our newsroom works with hydrologists, policy makers, river-basin authorities and local reporters on every inhabited continent, so that a dam debate in the Mekong basin and a drought in the Colorado basin are covered with the same rigor, in the same place.

01

Knowledge

Explainers and data on river science, hydrology and basin governance.

02

Dialogue

Interviews with river-basin authorities, engineers and community leaders.

03

Action

Field reporting on restoration, treaties and infrastructure underway now.

04

Impact

Tracking outcomes — for water security, ecosystems and river communities.

120+
countries covered
46
major river basins tracked monthly
18yrs
of continuous publication
1
shared record of river affairs, for everyone downstream

This month, across the world's watersheds.

A working record of governance decisions, restoration work and warnings from river basins on every continent.

Loading world map…
North America — Policy South America — Research Central Europe — Ecology Southern Africa — Engineering South Asia — Culture Southeast Asia — Governance Oceania — Restoration

Important stories, pulled from the stack.

The top card is this month's most urgent read — click the deck or use the arrows to work through the rest.

Governance · Lead Story

Mekong basin nations agree on a new dry-season water-sharing schedule

A six-country commission has adopted a revised release schedule for upstream dams, aiming to stabilise downstream flows during the region's lengthening dry season.

Southeast AsiaLead Story
Policy

Colorado River basin states extend interim shortage-sharing rules

Negotiators agree on a short extension while long-term operating guidelines for the basin's reservoirs remain under discussion.

North AmericaPolicy
Ecology

Danube wetland reconnection passes its fifth year of monitoring

Floodplain reconnected to the river in a joint Austrian–Slovak project shows measurable gains in fish spawning grounds and flood buffering.

Central EuropeEcology
Engineering

Zambezi basin authority opens tender for a flood early-warning network

The initiative would link gauging stations across four countries into a single alert system ahead of the next wet season.

Southern AfricaEngineering
Research

New sediment study links Amazon tributary health to deforestation

Researchers tie rising turbidity in several tributaries directly to land clearance in their upper catchments.

South AmericaResearch

Six desks, one deck — every card here has cleared the same editorial bar for basin-wide significance this month.

Explore the Global River Atlas.

A running index of major basins, updated as governance and conditions change.

2,525 km The Ganges
South Asia

The Ganges

Sustains roughly one in twelve people on earth across its densely populated basin.

6,650 km The Nile
Africa

The Nile

Eleven riparian states share the basin under the evolving Nile Basin Initiative framework.

6,300 km The Amazon
South America

The Amazon

Discharges more freshwater than the next seven largest rivers in the world combined.

4,350 km The Mekong
Southeast Asia

The Mekong

Flows through six countries; upstream dam operation remains its central governance question.

2,860 km The Danube
Europe

The Danube

The most internationalised river basin on earth, crossing ten sovereign states.

2,320 km The Colorado
North America

The Colorado

Supplies seven US states and two Mexican states, all now operating under shortage rules.

2,574 km The Zambezi
Southern Africa

The Zambezi

Home to Victoria Falls and a growing network of shared hydropower agreements.

5,410 km The Yangtze
East Asia

The Yangtze

China's principal inland waterway and a focus of ongoing biodiversity recovery efforts.

Every issue, since the first.

Read the current edition or browse back through past coverage of river affairs.

Cities on the Riverbank magazine cover
Issue 02

Cities on the Riverbank

Urban flood defence and river-facing planning, city by city.

The Dam Question magazine cover
Issue 03

The Dam Question

Weighing hydropower against fish passage and sediment flow.

Drought Downstream magazine cover
Issue 04

Drought Downstream

Who bears the cost when a basin's driest year arrives.

Hear it, between the pages.

River Digest Podcast logo

The River Digest Podcast

New episodes on governance, stewardship and life along the world's watersheds.

01
Who Owns a River?
Transboundary law with three basin negotiators
38 min
02
The Delta is Sinking
Sediment, subsidence and what comes next
41 min
03
Drought, Downstream
Field notes from a basin's driest year
29 min
04
Stewardship, Slowly
What restoration looks like a decade in
33 min
05
The Ice Upstream
Glacial melt and the rivers that depend on it
36 min

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