Description
Water Book is a national online platform that centralizes key information on water use, discharge, riverbed management, permits, concessions and protected areas in North Macedonia. Water Book provides public and institutional access to official permit and concession data in a single system to see how water resources are used.
Technology
Water Book is a web-based GIS and database platform that presents the official register of water-related permits and concessions through an interactive map and tabular views. It allows users to filter data by permit type, river basin, watercourse, municipality and time period, and visualizes the selected records as points on a map with a legend showing different use categories such as irrigation of agricultural land, human consumption and livestock feeding, fish farming, industrial and technological needs or drainage. The system stores permit information in structured tables containing fields such as permit holder, license number, cadastral municipality, date of issue, type of facility, purpose of water, approved volume and duration. The tables can be browsed, searched, and filtered directly in the interface and downloaded as files for further analysis.
Target
Water Book primarily targets national and local public authorities responsible for managing water resources, water services, environmental protection and related infrastructure in North Macedonia.
Business model
Water Book operates as a public digital service embedded in the national water management framework and is fully free for users. Water Book is financed through public budgets allocated to water management and digital government services.
Impact
Water Book aims to improve the quality and consistency of data used in water management in North Macedonia. The system is designed to support more timely and evidence-based decisions on water allocation, infrastructure investments, environmental protection, and risk management. Water Book is expected to strengthen coordination among institutions, which can reduce duplication of efforts, increase transparency, and support more coherent implementation of water-related policies and strategies.
Partners
COEXPHAL; European Association for Innovation in Local Development; Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food; INRAE; Research and Development Institute for Information Technologies in Biosystems; Széchenyi István University; University of Almería; University of Hohenheim; University of Ljubljana; Wageningen Research; Zemnieku Saeima
Four Betters
Better production
Better environment
Better life
