FRIEND (Flow Regimes from International Experimental and Network Data) is a cross-cutting project included in the scientific agenda of the International Hydrological Programme.  FRIEND was established in 1985, with the following working objectives:

1.   Improving region-scale spatial and temporal understanding of the hydrological regime.

2.   Sharing data from selected observation networks and experimental basins.

3.  Sharing and improving the hydrological analysis tools.

4.  Detecting trends due to climate variability and change.

5.  Detecting the human impact on the hydrological regime.

The FRIEND/AMIGO initiative for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) was created in December, 1999, and resulted from an agreement reached at the IHP National Committees meeting held in Kingston, Jamaica in 1997. The Latin American FRIEND meets the overall objectives of the larger project and focuses on strengthening the scientific cooperation mechanisms existing in the Region, so as to foster water resources understanding and sound management through a work themes group involving researchers, specialists and institutions directly or indirectly connected with water, forming synergies with all of the IHP centers, programmes and working groups in the Region. FRIEND/AMIGO LAC also contributes to the development of national hydrological services capacities for water resources assessment and integrated and sustainable management.

Considering both the general purposes of FRIEND as a global project, and the synergetic strategy of the International Hydrological Programme among the regional centers, projects and working groups active in the Region, the FRIEND/AMIGO LAC project is addressing the following working issues:

1.     Establishment and coordination of regional data bases.

2.     Development of working tools for the analysis of the extreme hydrological phenomena.

3.     Study of climate variability and change.

Close working relations exist within the project’s framework with various national institutions and regional and international science centers. Particularly remarkable, at the regional level, are the working links established with the Central American Regional Committee for Water Resources, the Central American Secretariat for Agriculture, the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology, the Water Center on Arid Zones for Latin America and the Caribbean, and the International Centre for Hydroinformatics. Outside the region, strong cooperation links have been established with the University of Pennsylvania, USA, the French Institute for Development, the Water Laboratory of the Montpellier University, the United Kingdom Institute for Ecology and Hydrology, the World Meteorological Organization and the World Water Assessment Programme. Likewise, national institutions, such as Cuba’s Meteorology Institute, Mexico’s Water Technology Institute, the Autonomous University of Querétaro, Cuba’s National Institute of Hydraulic Resources, the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources of the Dominican Republic, the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources of the Dominican Republic, the Costa Rican Electricity Institute, and Jamaica’s Water Resources Authority, have provided active support to the FRIEND/AMIGO LAC in Mesoamerica and the Caribbean. In South America, the University of Talca, in Chile, the University of Buenos Aires, in Argentina, the National Water Agency in Brazil, the University of Asunción in Paraguay, the Water Resource Divison of the National Directorate for Hydrography in Uruguay, Ecuador’s National Meteorology and Hydrology Institute, and Itaipú Binational welcome the actions of this project.

Strategic Plan