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About AINA

• Management & Administration
• Planning for Growth: building on the past for a sustainable future
• The AINA map of inland waterways in Great Britain

AINA was formed in 1996 with strong encouragement from government to provide, for the first time ever, a single voice on waterway management issues. The broad purpose of AINA is to facilitate the management and development of the inland waterways as an economic, environmental, recreational and social resource.

AINA’s key strategic objectives are to:

• represent the collective views of navigation authorities to government, regulators, other policy makers, funders and stakeholders;
• develop, share and promote good practice for the operation, management and development of inland waterways for navigation and associated purposes.

The key criterion for membership is formal (legal) responsibility for the management of an inland waterways which is open to navigation and therefore considered to be operational.  Please contact the AINA office if you are interested in becoming a member of AINA.

AINA defines 'inland waterways' as including all navigable channels, navigable rivers and lakes, and all associated land and assets such as towpaths and amenity areas - in other words any land which has an impact on, or relationship with the waterway.  Some areas may be in public ownership, have public access, or be privately owned but have the potential to be part of the navigation impact zone.

AINA has produced a document:  Planning for growth: building on the past for a sustainable future (which can be downloaded from the above link) which provides a succinct description of who AINA is and what it does, along with an illustration of our achievements to date and strategic intentions for the next few years.