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Global Water Risk and Resilience Report 2026

The State of the World’s Water System. The first annual edition of the global water report. It fixes the 2026 reference state of the world’s water system, and the model, voice and positions, against which the 2027 water edition and every national water chapter will be read.

Read the executive summaryDownload PDF · A4 · 801 KB · 98 pagesUS Letter, data and citation filesCite this report
编辑
Saeed Valadbaygi
办事处
GCRI Systems Evidence
正式出版方
GCRI for the Nexus Consortium
证据截止
30 September 2026
状态
Draft in stewardship review; not yet released
报告GS-01

全球部门风险与韧性

Global Water 2026

The State of the World’s Water System

2026 基准版NR-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINEGCRI for the Nexus Consortium
发现12each with its status and source
来源47numbered, editor first
Chapters and annexes11plus the executive summary
指标18in the data appendix, with CSV and JSON

01 · Status

Status and boundaries.

This edition governs nothing and confers no certification. It records where the global evidence stood at the 2026 baseline. Every value resolves to its source or to its stated method; where neither exists, the edition says so instead of filling the gap.

Publication ID
NR-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-v1.0.0
Series alias
NR-SEC-GS-01-2026-BL
Identifier status
Series alias and evidence cut are provisional until the owner confirms them. No UNI is minted.
Family · class
Global Sector Report GS-01 Water · Baseline Edition (inaugural annual)
Lifecycle state
◌ DRAFT, review copy before stewardship review
Publication date
October 2026
证据截止
30 September 2026 · cut DC-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2026-B0
可复现性
sourced values cited; analytical values reproducible from stated parameters
Access class
PUBLIC-SAFE DERIVATIVE
审核
five passes scheduled before release (in Annex C)
Designed for
strategic planning · water-risk screening · portfolio discussion · research · basin dialogue · public communication
不适用于
government assessment · official warning · rating · certification · investment advice · underwriting · procurement · operational authorisation
登记册
record NR-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE · current-version pointer at release
更正
registry correction pathway · history in Annex C
人工智能使用
disclosed in Annex C
Next edition
NR-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2027-v1.0.0 · 2027 annual
许可协议
text CC BY 4.0 · data on the terms of each source
Desk identifier
NR-GCRI-GS-01-2026-BASELINE-v1.0.0
Collection
NR-COL-2026-BASELINE

02 · Key messages

What the edition finds.

Five of the questions the edition answers, each with its status. The executive summary has all of them, with their sources.

  1. 2.2 billion people lacked safely managed drinking water and 3.5 billion safely managed sanitation in 2022.

    Who lacks safe water?报告值

  2. Roughly half of the world’s people face severe scarcity for part of each year.

    How widespread is scarcity?报告值

  3. 2023 was the driest year for rivers in 33 years; glaciers lost more than 600 Gt.

    Is the water cycle changing?报告值

  4. It supplies about half of domestic water, and declines have accelerated in many aquifers.

    What about groundwater?报告值

  5. Agriculture uses about 70% of withdrawals; drought cuts yields and raises prices.

    How does water drive food risk?报告值

All key messages and the headline finding

03 · Contents

Eight chapters and three annexes.

  1. ·

    Executive summary

    The edition on a few pages: the abstract, the key messages, the headline finding and what each steward reads in it.

  2. 1

    Chapter 1. Water is where the systems meet

    Part I describes 系统 and their couplings.

  3. 2

    Chapter 2. Key findings

    Twelve findings carry the water baseline.

  4. 3

    Chapter 3. Systems and sectors at baseline

  5. 4

    Chapter 4. Risks and capability

    Four water risk objects open the portfolio.

  6. 5

    Chapter 5. Multi-basin drought under heat

    A conditional statement under stated assumptions, never a prediction.

  7. 6

    Chapter 6. Readings from the other desks

    The water baseline is read through each steward’s lens, then once as a whole.

  8. 7

    Chapter 7. The 2027 agenda

    Eight bounded questions open the 2027 water agenda.

  9. 8

    Chapter 8. Systems in depth

    One section per system: its state at evidence close, its exposures and what the operational series will watch.

  10. A

    Annex A. Methodology

    How the edition was made: methods, the model card, the evidence cut and its age, the acceptance record and the glossary.

  11. B

    Annex B. Data appendix

    The indicator set with its sources, the source registers, the licences of every kind of material and the formats of the edition.

  12. C

    Annex C. References and record

    Every source the edition rests on, the publication record, the corrections log and the open record.

List of figures (4)
  1. S.1People without services, 2022 (billion)
  2. 1.1How far is the world from universal water, sanitation and hygiene? People without services, 2022 (billion)
  3. 1.2Couplings across the six sectors
  4. 2.1People without services, 2022 (billion)
List of tables (43)
  1. 1.1Coupling matrix: from the row system to the column system
  2. 1.2Pairs of systems where both directions are rated strong
  3. 3.1Each domain read in words, not scored
  4. 3.2Sectors: baseline evidence and the exposure to watch
  5. 4.1Capabilities on the ladder of evidence: listed, exists, demonstrated, tested
  6. 6.12027 water readiness pack
  7. 6.2Standards and regulatory watch
  8. 6.3Peer-reviewed science and assessments
  9. 6.4Institutional flagships
  10. 6.5UN statistics and monitoring
  11. 6.6Energy, nature, finance and loss data
  12. 7.1Objects proposed for the first operational quarter
  13. 7.2Universe 2027, evidence pack for the water candidate mission
  14. 7.3Handoffs and routing
  15. 7.4Routing rules by publication class
  16. 7.5Feeds watched from 2027
  17. 7.6Signals at baseline
  18. 8.1State at baseline
  19. 8.2State at baseline
  20. 8.3State at baseline
  21. 8.4State at baseline
  22. 8.5State at baseline
  23. A.1方法
  24. A.2Coupling strength scale (matrix and model card)
  25. A.3Status grammar
  26. A.4From the baseline cut to the federation cut
  27. A.5Evidence age and coverage
  28. A.6Coverage by system at baseline
  29. A.7Quality dimensions at baseline
  30. A.8Publication acceptance record
  31. A.9The status every value carries
  32. A.10Series terms
  33. A.11Abbreviations used in this edition
  34. A.12Technical annex
  35. B.1Global baseline indicator set
  36. B.2Global baseline indicator set
  37. B.3Global source register
  38. B.4Regional reading, water across ten clusters
  39. B.5How countries appear in the water edition
  40. B.6National Baseline Editions in the 2026 programme
  41. B.7Licences of each kind of material
  42. B.8This edition in every format
  43. C.1Release path for this version

04 · GCRI reading

How GCRI reads this edition.

The evidence supports reading water as the coupling layer of the WEFH+B system. Access remains unfinished, scarcity is seasonal for half of humanity, and the cycle is shifting: drier rivers, faster glacier loss and declining aquifers. Evidence is strongest for access and hydrology, and weakest for groundwater and quality.

WAT-001 · WAT-004 · WAT-005 · SYS-012

Chapter 6, lenses and readings

05 · Publication record

Version, dates and contributors.

The identity of this edition as its title pages record it. A review copy has no DOI; the DOI is issued at deposit.

Publication ID
NR-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-v1.0.0
版本
1.0.0, review copy
Edition date
证据截止
状态
Draft under stewardship review; not yet released
编辑
Saeed Valadbaygi
正式出版方
全球风险与创新中心（Global Centre for Risk and Innovation，GCRI）
Licence of the text
CC BY 4.0
DOI
Issued at deposit, on release
Previous edition
none, first edition of the series
Next edition
NR-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2027-v1.0.0

Contributors

角色贡献By
ConceptualisationSeries architecture and the water sector modelS. Valadbaygi (ed.)
方法论Baseline method, dependency scoring and status grammar报告 editorial team, GCRI
Investigation · data curationSource review of water assessments, UN statistics and the peer-reviewed literatureReports editorial team, GCRI
Writing, original draftAll chapters; AI-assisted drafting, disclosed belowEditor · editorial team
Writing, review and editingFive review passes before releaseSteward reviewers (scheduled)
VisualisationPages, figures and tables in the Nexus design standardReports editorial team, GCRI
监管Edition governance, registry record and depositS. Valadbaygi (ed.)

发布前评审

通过范围By状态
1Scientific and technicalGCRI · key T已排期
2Reproducibility of analytical valuesGCRI · key T已排期
3Public meaning and claimsThe Global Risks Forum (GRF) · key M已排期
4Finance-readiness boundaryThe Global Risks Alliance (GRA) · key F已排期
5Basin and regional context, safeguardsRegional consortia · key N已排期

AI assistance was used for drafting, consistency checks and page composition. Every number, citation and status label was checked against its source by the editorial team before freeze. No AI system is recorded as an author or a reviewer, and no AI output is printed as fact without a source.

06 · Downloads

Read it in print, take the data.

Draft, not yet releasedReview copies of a draft in stewardship review. The released edition carries its DOI and replaces them.

  • 打印

    • PDF, A4

      The designed print edition, A4: cover, imprint and licence, how to cite, contents with page numbers, every chapter, figure, table and annex.

      PDF98 pages801 KBTagged, with bookmarks

      SHA-256 d642262d64f74b641881a8f07706cdf8dfb1c6a9b59ba2eaa9543f55c90a5bcc

      下载: PDF, A4

    • PDF, US Letter

      The designed print edition, US Letter: cover, imprint and licence, how to cite, contents with page numbers, every chapter, figure, table and annex.

      PDF104 pages810 KBTagged, with bookmarks

      SHA-256 41da764f80eee19d2979451e476cbba780b97cd60fc71fffc79a6b9b52f87507

      下载: PDF, US Letter

  • Web edition

  • Data bundle

    • Indicators, CSV

      18 indicators with unit, year, status and source

      NR-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-indicators.csv1 KB

      SHA-256 057f83c0a088bf1daf982cc41d798df18451fa35a12befd1514db0bb025805c6

      下载: Indicators, CSV

    • Indicators, JSON

      The same indicators with the edition’s identity and licence

      NR-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-indicators.json2 KB

      SHA-256 7d87520e9eeba65653c7964975336f15a3c52a4e5edfcad6c218b62fcb9b72dc

      下载: Indicators, JSON

    • Findings, CSV

      12 findings with status, evidence-quality level and references

      NR-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-findings.csv2 KB

      SHA-256 1827ad39d1b16a9933f487ffc27589658f3bdf465127304c8f44ee27fc5cfa8d

      下载: Findings, CSV

  • Citation files

    • Citation, BibTeX

      For LaTeX and reference managers

      NR-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE.bib1 KB

      SHA-256 a0f80dd4148e8ed461604d9e2b7ac53c58673cf5404a206958699b1d88f458fe

      下载: Citation, BibTeX

    • Citation, RIS

      For Zotero, EndNote and Mendeley

      NR-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE.ris1 KB

      SHA-256 bf826f2af4ef3395a43f64762a41f3b6c4ecdbd09c14587bd03d0f072ab2bdef

      下载: Citation, RIS

    • Citation, CITATION.cff

      Citation File Format 1.2.0, for GitHub, Zenodo and software catalogues

      NR-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE.cff1 KB

      SHA-256 74116dec0de345d303cb53807eae226ee2bbc5a176c6e3c46906557cb053b718

      下载: Citation, CITATION.cff

Check a file with its SHA-256: shasum -a 256 <file> (macOS, Linux) or Get-FileHash <file> (Windows). Text, tables and figures by Nexus: CC BY 4.0; each source keeps its own licence.

07 · Cite

Cite this report.

This edition is a draft in stewardship review. Cite it as a draft; the DOI and the UNI are issued at deposit, and the citation then names them.
Catalogue keyNR-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE

Standards applied to NR-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE

Cite as

S. Valadbaygi (ed.), Global Water Risk and Resilience Report 2026: The State of the World’s Water System. Reports, Baseline Edition 2026. The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI) for the Nexus Consortium, Toronto, 2026. NR-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE. DOI at deposit.

Applied

NS-1 catalogue identity (a UNI is allocated at deposit and resolves to this record), NS-2 citation and attribution, NS-3b dataset metadata, NS-5 figures and maps, NS-12 software and AI disclosure.

监测

Corrections are new versions with a published notice; the earlier version stays resolvable.

An attestation is evidence, not a certificate. Nexus Standards parts are preparatory working drafts (2026).

APA 7
Valadbaygi, S. (Ed.). (2026). Global Water Risk and Resilience Report 2026: The State of the World’s Water System (Baseline Edition 2026, Report No. NR-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE) [Draft under review]. The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI). https://therisk.global/nexus-reports/editions/gs-01/
Chicago
Valadbaygi, Saeed, ed. Global Water Risk and Resilience Report 2026: The State of the World’s Water System. Baseline Edition 2026. Nexus Reports NR-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE. Draft under review. Toronto: The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI), 2026. https://therisk.global/nexus-reports/editions/gs-01/.
BibTeX
@techreport{NR-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE,
  editor      = {Valadbaygi, Saeed},
  title       = {{Global Water Risk and Resilience Report 2026}: The State of the World’s Water System},
  institution = {The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)},
  address     = {Toronto},
  year        = {2026},
  type        = {Nexus Reports, Baseline Edition 2026},
  number      = {NR-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE},
  note        = {Draft under stewardship review; not yet released. DOI assigned at deposit},
  url         = {https://therisk.global/nexus-reports/editions/gs-01/}
}
RIS
TY  - RPRT
ED  - Valadbaygi, Saeed
TI  - Global Water Risk and Resilience Report 2026: The State of the World’s Water System
T3  - Nexus Reports
ET  - Baseline Edition 2026
PY  - 2026
PB  - The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)
CY  - Toronto
SN  - NR-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE
UR  - https://therisk.global/nexus-reports/editions/gs-01/
N1  - Draft under stewardship review; not yet released. DOI assigned at deposit.
LA  - en
ER  -
NR-CIT-1 (house style)
S. Valadbaygi (ed.), Global Water Risk and Resilience Report 2026: The State of the World’s Water System. Nexus Reports, Baseline Edition 2026. The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI) for the Nexus Consortium, Toronto, 2026. NR-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE. DOI at deposit.
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Every quarter closes on a sealed evidence cut. A correction, a source or a method received before the cut is reviewed for that edition.

贡献更正记录
  • NR-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE
  • CC BY 4.0
  • Evidence close 30 September 2026

CC BY 4.0 Free to read. Text and figures: CC BY 4.0. Data: CC0 1.0. Authors keep copyright. Published by GCRI Canada.

部门特征

The sectors behind Global Water.

A reading aid: the sectors the findings run through and how strongly they depend on each other.

选择角点 · 悬停连线6 / 15 项关系

签名

水及其合作伙伴

水为粮食提供灌溉（0.8），为能源提供冷却水和水电（0.6），为生物多样性提供环境流量（0.6）。

W · E · I · F · H · B

部门
4 共 6
关系
6 共 15
耦合
0.43 占总量份额

当前最强的关系

  • 粮食 → 生物多样性 · 土地转换0.6
  • 水 → 能源 · 冷却水与水电0.6
  • 水 → 粮食 · 灌溉0.8
  • 水 → 生物多样性 · 生态流量0.6
典型城市区域的教学数值，不是任何地点的测量值。耦合是所涉关系强度的总和，以全部十五种关系的占比表示。
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