# Aqueduct 4.0: Updated decision-relevant global water risk indicators

The Balance of Health
Canonical: https://thebalanceofhealth.com/sources/wri-aqueduct-water-risk-atlas-2023
Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

## status

reviewed

## id

src-wri-aqueduct-2023

## slug

wri-aqueduct-water-risk-atlas-2023

## title

Aqueduct 4.0: Updated decision-relevant global water risk indicators

## authors

- Samantha Kuzma
- Marc F. P. Bierkens
- Shivani Lakshman
- Tianyi Luo
- Liz Saccoccia
- Edwin H. Sutanudjaja
- Rens van Beek

## organisation

World Resources Institute

## publication

WRI Technical Note

## year

2023

## url

https://www.wri.org/aqueduct

## sourceType

dataset

## studyType

modelling

## topicIds

- water

## pillarIds

- environment

## geography

Global, by country and river basin

## keyFindings

- Baseline water stress is scored 0–5 by basin and aggregated to countries; a quarter of the world's population lives in extremely high water-stress countries.
- Water footprints are only meaningful for scarcity once weighted by where the water was withdrawn.

## supportsClaimIds



## challengesClaimIds



## limitations

- Country averages hide large differences between basins within a country.
- Scarcity-weighted food footprints depend on assumptions about where each food is grown.

## quality

moderate

## qualityRationale

Widely used reference dataset; weighting of food water use is a modelling step with its own assumptions.

## Original sources