Data appendix

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

8 min read0 figures8 tables21 notesNR-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE

Contents
  1. ·Edition home
  2. ·Executive summary
  3. 1Water is where the systems meet
  4. 2Key findings
  5. 3Systems and sectors at baseline
  6. 4Risks and capability
  7. 5Multi-basin drought under heat
  8. 6Lenses and readings
  9. 7The 2027 agenda
  10. 8Systems in depth
  11. AMethodology
  12. BData appendix
    1. B.1 The indicator set
    2. B.2 Global source register
    3. B.3 Regional reading, water across ten clusters
    4. B.4 Basin card, Colorado River
    5. B.5 How countries appear in the water edition
    6. B.6 Licences
    7. B.7 Formats and provenance
  13. CReferences and record
  14. ·Complete edition, for print

B.1The indicator set

Table B.1Global baseline indicator set
IndicatorValueUnitYearStateSource
Without safely managed drinking water2.2billion2022Reported1
Without safely managed sanitation3.5billion2022Reported1
Without basic hygiene2.0billion2022Reported1
Severe scarcity for part of the year≈50% of peoplerecentReported2
Growth in global water use≈1% a yearlast 40 yearsReported3
Agriculture share of withdrawals≈70%recentReported2
Energy share of withdrawals≈10%2014Reported14
Groundwater share of domestic use≈50%recentReported4
Groundwater share of irrigation≈25%recentReported4
Glacier water lost600+Gt2023Reported5
WASH-attributable deaths1.4million2019Reported38
Children in high water scarcity739million2022Reported39
Freshwater wildlife change−85%1970–2020Reported17
Wetland area lost22%since 1970Reported18
Countries sharing transboundary waters153countries2023Reported9
Flood, storm and fire losses166US$ billion2025Reported7
GDP at stake in some regionsup to 6% of GDPby 2050Estimated35
Global mean temperature1.43°C2025Reported6
Indicators, CSVIndicators, JSON

B.2Global source register

The governed source set behind this edition. Each source keeps its authority, coverage, cadence and role; categories describe origin, not truth.

Domains bound by the register

  • WAT
  • ENE
  • FOO
  • HLT
  • BIO
  • CLI
  • FIN
  • TRD
  • MIN
  • AIC
Table B.3Global source register
SourceCategoryCoveragePeriodCadenceRole
JMP 20231UN agenciesglobal2000–2022biennialaccess
UNWWDR 2022–2024234UN programmeglobalvariesannualuse, groundwater
State of Global Water Resources5UN technical bodyglobal2023annualhydrology
SDG 6 synthesis10UN-Waterglobal2023periodicprogress
Transboundary cooperation9UN commissionsglobal2023triennialgovernance
WASH burden38UN agencyglobal2019periodichealth
SOLAW 202115UN agencyglobal2021periodicfood
Living Planet Report17civil societyglobal1970–2020biennialnature
Global Wetland Outlook18treaty secretariatglobal1970–2025periodicnature
NatCatSERVICE7industryglobal2025annuallosses

B.3Regional reading, water across ten clusters

Map plates follow with the regional Baseline Editions, when boundary sources and public-safe resolutions are bound. This page gives the regional reading in table form, and ranks no region.

Table B.4Regional reading, water across ten clusters
RegionPrincipal hazardsSystems most exposedBaseline evidence
North Americadrought in the West; floods; ageing networksagriculture, hydro, citiesColorado shortage34
South Americadrought; glacier loss in the Andeshydropower, cities, agricultureglacier studies21
Europesummer drought; floodshydro, cooling, shipping2022 drought
Eurasiadrying lakes and rivers; irrigationagricultureassessments12
Middle East and North Africachronic scarcity; groundwater depletionwater, food importsscarcity studies22
Africaaccess gaps; drought; floodshealth, food, livelihoodsJMP1
South Asiagroundwater depletion; monsoon floods; glacier-fed riversfood, healthaquifer study20
East Asiadrought and flood extremeshydro, industry, cities2022 drought
ASEANfloods; delta salinisationfood, citiesassessments12
Oceania-Pacificdrought; saltwater intrusion on islandswater supply, agricultureassessments12

B.4Basin card, Colorado River

  • basin
  • transboundary
  • reservoir system
  • irrigation
Systems in view
water, food, energy, cities
Defining events
first-ever shortage declaration for the lower basin in August 202134; record-low reservoirs in 2022
Couplings
WAT → FOO irrigation; WAT → ENE hydropower; WAT → cities
Capability evidence
shortage rules and conservation agreements exercised in real conditions
Gaps
long-term allocation under lower flows; groundwater use
Agenda items
W-01 · W-02

The basin’s allocations were set in wetter decades. Shortage rules now govern a river that delivers less than it was divided to provide.

WATER

Allocation under lower flows

Large dams lose output as reservoirs fall, coupling drought directly to power supply in a growing region.

ENERGY

Hydropower at low head

Irrigated agriculture is the largest user; cuts to surface water push farms towards groundwater.

FOOD

Irrigation and groundwater

B.5How countries appear in the water edition

Countries enter the water edition through the water chapters of their own national editions, on one card grammar. They are read against peer distributions and thresholds, never ranked.

Table B.5How countries appear in the water edition
Card fieldWhat it showsSource
WEFH+B stateeach core system against peer distribution bandsnational edition
Couplingsthe national dependency matrixnational edition
Risk objectsthe national risk portfolionational edition
Capability rungsthe national capability laddernational edition
Evidence ageoldest and newest source datesnational source register

Editions in the 2026 Baseline programme

26national

countries and unions

10regional

clusters

16global

flagship and sector

14strategic

systems reports

20frontier

technology reports

How to read a country card

  • Each system is shown against the distribution of its peers, with thresholds where they exist
  • Couplings and risk objects come from the country’s own national edition
  • Capability rungs record evidence, not a judgement of institutions
  • Evidence age is printed, so older national data are visible as such
Table B.6National Baseline Editions in the 2026 programme
WaveCountries and unionsState
W0CanadaISSUED
W1United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, European Union, SwitzerlandPLANNED
W2Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Türkiye, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Senegal, Kenya, African Union, India, China, Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, AustraliaPLANNED

B.6Licences

Table B.7Licences of each kind of material
MaterialLicence
TextCC BY 4.0
Dataon the licence of each source; Nexus tables CC BY 4.0
FiguresNexus figures CC BY 4.0; third-party as credited
Mapsboundary source and licence printed on each plate
MetadataCC0 1.0, as Zenodo publishes it
Third-party data, figures and textThe source’s own licence, credited where it is used; never relicensed
Nexus-authored text, tables and figures: CC BY 4.0 (SPDX CC-BY-4.0). Map plates print their boundary source and licence.

B.7Formats and provenance

Table B.8This edition in every format
FormatKindStateWhat it isIdentifier
Web editionHTMLOn this siteDraft in stewardship review; every value resolves to its source.NR-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-v1.0.0
Print editionPDFAt releaseA4 portrait · screen, print and archival PDF, signed with the web edition at release.NR-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-v1.0.0
Indicator dataCSV · JSONOn this site18 indicators with unit, year, status and source; the machine-readable copy ships with the evidence bundle at release.NR-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE data release v1
FiguresSVG · PNGOn this site4 on the web edition: headline figure, figure 1.3, coupling instrument, capability ladder.FIG-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-*
SlidesPDFNot recordedNo slide deck is recorded for this edition.
Evidence briefHTML · PDFNot recordedNo evidence brief is recorded for this edition.
Dataset with DOIDataCiteAt releaseConcept and version DOI are minted at deposit; none is recorded yet.

Provenance

Edition pack
The edition’s content pack (JSON), from which the print and web editions are built
Evidence cut
DC-SECTOR-WATER-GLOBAL-2026-B0, closed 30 September 2026
Reproducibility
sourced values cited; analytical values reproducible from stated parameters
Self-check
14 of 23 at evidence close; a fail on any item blocks release
Review
five passes scheduled before release
Publisher of record
The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI) for the Nexus Consortium
Corrections
Registry correction pathway; upheld corrections are published as notices with a new version

Notes

Numbers are the edition’s reference numbers, so a note reads the same in every chapter. The full list, with every source and its licence, is in Annex C. Annex C, references

  1. 1WHO and UNICEF (eds.), Progress on Household Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene 2000–2022: Special Focus on Gender. Joint Monitoring Programme, New York and Geneva, 2023.back
  2. 2UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme (ed.), The United Nations World Water Development Report 2024: Water for Prosperity and Peace. UNESCO, Paris, 2024.back
  3. 3UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme (ed.), The United Nations World Water Development Report 2023: Partnerships and Cooperation for Water. UNESCO, Paris, 2023.back
  4. 14International Energy Agency (ed.), Water–Energy Nexus. World Energy Outlook 2016 Special Report. IEA, Paris, 2016.back
  5. 4UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme (ed.), The United Nations World Water Development Report 2022: Groundwater, Making the Invisible Visible. UNESCO, Paris, 2022.back
  6. 5WMO (ed.), State of Global Water Resources 2023. World Meteorological Organization, Geneva, 2024.back
  7. 38WHO (ed.), Burden of Disease Attributable to Unsafe Drinking-water, Sanitation and Hygiene: 2019 Update. WHO, Geneva, 2023.back
  8. 39UNICEF (ed.), The Climate-Changed Child: A Children’s Climate Risk Index Supplement. UNICEF, New York, 2023.back
  9. 17WWF (ed.), Living Planet Report 2024: A System in Peril. WWF, Gland, 2024.back
  10. 18Ramsar Convention Secretariat (ed.), Global Wetland Outlook 2025. Ramsar Convention Secretariat, Gland, 2025.back
  11. 9UNECE and UNESCO (eds.), Progress on Transboundary Water Cooperation: Global Status of SDG Indicator 6.5.2 and Acceleration Needs, 2024. United Nations, Geneva and Paris, 2024.back
  12. 7Munich Re (ed.), Natural disasters in 2025: NatCatSERVICE full-year figures. Munich Re, Munich, January 2026.back
  13. 35World Bank (ed.), High and Dry: Climate Change, Water, and the Economy. World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016.back
  14. 6WMO (ed.), State of the Global Climate 2025, WMO-No. 1391. WMO, Geneva, March 2026.back
  15. 10UN-Water (ed.), Blueprint for Acceleration: Sustainable Development Goal 6 Synthesis Report on Water and Sanitation 2023. United Nations, Geneva, 2023.back
  16. 15FAO (ed.), The State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture 2021: Systems at Breaking Point. FAO, Rome, 2021.back
  17. 34U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (ed.), “Reclamation announces 2022 operating conditions for Lake Powell and Lake Mead.” News release, Washington, DC, August 2021.back
  18. 21R. Hugonnet, R. McNabb, E. Berthier et al., “Accelerated global glacier mass loss in the early twenty-first century,” Nature, vol. 592, pp. 726–731, 2021.back
  19. 12R. Caretta, A. Mukherji et al., “Water,” in H.-O. Pörtner et al. (eds.), Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, pp. 551–712. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2022.back
  20. 22M. M. Mekonnen and A. Y. Hoekstra, “Four billion people facing severe water scarcity,” Science Advances, vol. 2, e1500323, 2016.back
  21. 20S. Jasechko, H. Seybold, D. Perrone et al., “Rapid groundwater decline and some cases of recovery in aquifers globally,” Nature, vol. 625, pp. 715–721, 2024.back

Cite this annex

Valadbaygi, S. (Ed.). (2026). Annex B: Data appendix. In 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).

Every citation form of the whole report, BibTeX and RIS included, is on the edition home. Cite this report

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Sector signature

The sectors behind Global Water.

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

Select corners · hover lines6 / 15 relations

Signature

Water and its partners

Water gives irrigation to food (0.8), cooling water and hydropower to energy (0.6) and environmental flows to biodiversity (0.6).

W · E · I · F · H · B

Sectors
4 of 6
Relations
6 of 15
Coupling
0.43 share of total

Strongest relations in play

  • Food → Biodiversity · land conversion0.6
  • Water → Energy · cooling water and hydropower0.6
  • Water → Food · irrigation0.8
  • Water → Biodiversity · environmental flows0.6
Teaching values for a typical city-region, not measurements for any place. Coupling is the summed strength of the relations in play, as a share of all fifteen.
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