GCRI · Water Nexus
Source and data register
Where Water Nexus gets its data: each source with its licence, lineage, resolution, quality checks and known gaps.
The workspace for source and data register.
Evidence register
Water · Source and data register · Example interface, not a record
Indicators
unit · cadence · label
| Reservoir storage | of capacity | daily | OBSERVED | SP-0170 |
| SPI-3 | index | monthly | DERIVED | SP-9224 |
| Groundwater level | m below ground | weekly | OBSERVED | SP-2129 |
| E. coli compliance | samples | weekly | OBSERVED | SP-7482 |
| Environmental flow | m³/s | daily | MODELLED | SP-5030 |
Source passport
- Source
- Gauge network telemetry
- Licence
- open · attribution
- Steward
- Irrigation board
- Coverage
- 82 pct of places
- Known limits
- sparse in uplands
Coverage by place
Water Nexus · Evidence register. Evidence register: example names and illustrative values, not a record.
Each source carries five facts.
Origin
Who produces the data and how.
Access terms
Licence, restrictions and permitted uses.
Quality
Coverage, resolution, update frequency and known errors.
Provenance
How the data reached the platform and what was changed.
Gaps
What is missing and how the gap is handled.
Every source the topic dossiers cite, with its terms.
| Source | What it gives | Terms | Used in |
|---|---|---|---|
| CHIRPS and ERA5 | Rainfall and atmospheric forcing | Public domain; free and open | Catchment hydrology, Shared river basins |
| Global Runoff Data Centre | Daily river discharge from national gauge networks | Free for research and public tasks under the data policy | Drought and flood, Catchment hydrology |
| GRACE and GRACE-FO | Monthly terrestrial water storage anomalies from satellite gravimetry | Public domain | Drought and flood, Groundwater and aquifers |
| JRC Global Surface Water | Surface-water occurrence, change and seasonality from Landsat, 1984 onwards | Free and open, attribution | Drought and flood, Shared river basins |
| WHO and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme | Household access to safely managed water and sanitation | Free and open, attribution | Water utilities, Drinking water and sanitation |
| CHIRPS rainfall | Daily and monthly gridded rainfall since 1981, gauge-blended satellite estimates | Public domain | Drought and flood |
| Copernicus DEM and SRTM | Elevation for delineation and slope | Free and open, attribution | Catchment hydrology |
| Copernicus land cover and ESA WorldCover | Land cover for runoff parameters | Free and open, attribution | Catchment hydrology |
| Demographic and Health Surveys and MICS | Household-level water and sanitation data | Terms per survey programme | Drinking water and sanitation |
| ERA5 and CHIRPS | Temperature and rainfall forcing | Free and open; public domain | Water energy interdependence |
| ERA5 reanalysis (Copernicus) | Hourly atmospheric and land variables, global, 1940 to present | Free and open, attribution | Drought and flood |
| FAO AQUASTAT and FAOSTAT | Water withdrawal by sector, irrigated area, production | Free and open, attribution | Water food ecosystem links |
| GLDAS | Modelled soil moisture and groundwater components | Public domain | Groundwater and aquifers |
| Global Power Plant Database (WRI) | Plant locations, fuel and capacity | Free and open, attribution | Water energy interdependence |
| Global Runoff Data Centre and national gauges | River flow at intakes and dams | Data policy; by agreement | Water energy interdependence |
| Global Surface Water and Ramsar site data | Wetland extent and designation | Free and open; terms per site | Water food ecosystem links |
| Grid and hydropower operators | Generation, inflow, reserve margin and curtailment records | By agreement | Water energy interdependence |
| Grid operator interruption data | Outage duration and frequency by feeder | By agreement | Water utilities |
| Humanitarian cluster assessments | Crisis-period provision and gaps | Terms per cluster | Drinking water and sanitation |
| HydroSHEDS and HydroBASINS | Catchment boundaries and river networks derived from elevation | Free, attribution and terms | Catchment hydrology |
| IBNET (World Bank) | Benchmarking indicators for utilities worldwide | Terms per database | Water utilities |
| MODIS and Sentinel-2 | Cropland, irrigation and wetland mapping | Public domain; free and open | Water food ecosystem links |
| MODIS evapotranspiration | Satellite evapotranspiration at five hundred metres | Public domain | Catchment hydrology |
| National agriculture and fisheries statistics | Production, catch and district water accounts | Public records, terms per agency | Water food ecosystem links |
| National groundwater monitoring networks | Well levels, abstraction licences, quality sampling | By agreement with each agency | Groundwater and aquifers |
| National hydrological services | Gauge records, reservoir rule curves, warnings | By agreement with each service | Drought and flood |
| National regulators | Tariff, performance and compliance reports | Public records, terms per regulator | Water utilities |
| National water quality surveillance | Sampling results by supply and source | By agreement with each agency | Drinking water and sanitation |
| River basin organisations | Agreed gauge records, notifications, joint assessments | Terms per organisation | Shared river basins |
| Satellite altimetry (Copernicus, NASA) | River and reservoir levels where gauges are absent or unshared | Free and open, attribution | Shared river basins |
| Sentinel-1 interferometry | Ground deformation and subsidence | Free and open, attribution | Groundwater and aquifers |
| Sentinel-1 radar | All-weather flood extent mapping at ten-metre resolution | Free and open, attribution | Drought and flood |
| Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database (Oregon State University) | Treaties and events in shared basins | Terms per database | Shared river basins |
| Utility operational records | SCADA, laboratory and billing data | By agreement with each utility | Water utilities |
| Water Point Data Exchange | Rural water point functionality records | Open, attribution | Drinking water and sanitation |
| Water utility metering | Energy per cubic metre by works | By agreement | Water energy interdependence |
| WHYMAP and national hydrogeological maps | Aquifer extent and type | Terms per map holder | Groundwater and aquifers |
| WRI Aqueduct | Baseline water stress and related indicators by basin | Free and open, attribution | Water food ecosystem links |
Where the water data record is thin.
- Gauge networks have contracted in many regions since the late twentieth century, and many records are not shared internationally.
- Abstraction data (who takes how much, when) are rarely metered or published, so water balances close with an unexplained residual.
- Groundwater levels are monitored densely in a few aquifers and hardly at all in many that supply cities.
- Water quality data are patchy in time and space, and laboratory methods differ between countries.
Where a gap is filled with a model or a satellite product, the page says so and carries the label. Data offered by national services enter through Registry with their terms recorded.
How the register grows.
Sources are added to the register as they are reviewed. A source is listed only once its terms permit the use described.
Where this page’s references lead.
The bodies and documents this page is read against. Status and editions change; each link goes to the issuing body.
Questions and answers.
Can I suggest a data source?
Contribute evidence from this page.
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