No Team
[Archived] Current Water Risk
Global indicators of current water quantity, quality, and regulatory and reputational risks by catchment
Caution: These global indicators are best suited for comparative analyses across large geographies to identify regions or assets deserving of closer attention, and are not appropriate for catchment or site-specific analyses. At the composite index level, the selection of aggregation methods is an inherently subjective process that creates value by simplifying complex phenomena. Validation of the composite index of water risk is a challenge because of the difficulty of collecting risk-event data. Other possible water-related risks also escape the index. The complex and qualitative nature of regulatory and reputational drivers of risk complicates researchers’ ability to create useful metrics. Barriers, such as inconsistent availability of data, as well as governments’ unwillingness or lack of capacity to collect and share water data, hamper the construction of consistent global water information. Water infrastructure is likewise undermeasured, as there are no published global data sets of major water transfer projects, infrastructural losses, or reservoir evaporation. Similarly, methods for evaluating freshwater ecosystem services such as flood attenuation and pollution control at the global scale remain underdeveloped.