What is Water Alternatives Photo Library?

Water Alternatives has launched a collaborative photo library of high-quality, water-related images.

Photos are selected according to their originality, how they illustrate a particular aspect of water, and their technical quality. We highlight those showing artefacts, infrastructure, actors/stakeholders, domestic animals, waterscapes and unusual sights/places in freshwater environments. (We are not looking for artistic views, such as sunsets over lakes, but images that relate to water-based issues.)

Images are stored, displayed and made available on our dedicated Flickr website.

Your photos may be used by friends and colleagues in teaching and presentations, on websites, or to illustrate papers, books, etc. Share your best pictures with others rather than leaving them to languish on a hard disk or, worse, get lost!

How is my authorship recognized?

You like your scientific articles to be cited? As with our research papers, photos are available to all under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

The photographer’s name is both 1) entered by us in the metadata (EXIF file) of the photo itself; 2) specified in the comment box below each photo in Flickr (Photo credit: xxx). Anyone using your photos will credit you.

How can I contribute my photos to WaA's photo library?

Make your own selection first and use the ‘Send your photos’ menu on the left to send/upload them in one click. There is no limit to the number of pictures you can submit. If you don't have time to make a selection, sending a large batch is not a problem. We will then make our own selection and send you a print screen of the thumbnails with suggested photo titles for you to check (e.g. ‘Greenhouse in Biskra, Algeria’; ‘Farmer pumping from a drain, near Tanta, Egypt’, etc.).

Where appropriate a short comment describing the content and context of the image will be useful. You may even add a URL to one of your publications that is relevant or linked to the photo.

How can I use photos from WaA's photo library?

You are free to use images from the library for non-commercial use (websites, Powerpoint presentations, articles, etc.), as long as you make reference to the author. (The author’s name is indicated below each photo.) While most photos are under the Creative Commons Licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ many can also be used for commercial purposes or are even in the public domain. Check the rights attributes below each photo. If in doubt, please contact us.

Will my photos automatically be included in WaA's photo selection?

The editors make their own selection of photos to store in the library, with the aim of ensuring very high quality. This is a curated photo library. As the collection grows and improves in quality, some pictures may be removed to improve the overall quality of the collection.

Our collection is organized into 20 categories covering all aspects of water.

How can I search for specific photos in the library?

Photos are classified into 20 categories, with some belonging to several categories (e.g. ‘Indigenous technology’ and ‘Lifting surface water’). You may also search by country, author or any keyword by using the search function. The search field at the top of the window is used to search the entire Flickr site. To search our library only 1) first display photos in 'Gallery' mode, 2) click on the lens below the header, and then 3) enter your search word in the top search field, as shown below.

Flickr search700


For any question or suggestion please send a message to photos@water-alternatives.org

Enjoy browsing our water photo library! 


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