With many countries facing increasing water scarcity, there is an urgent need to describe water resources in a standard context, using clear terminology and in a framework that is internationally recognized and accepted. In many parts of the world, however, operational water resource assessment and reporting systems are in their infancy. Addressing this gap, WA+ is designed with the following characteristics: based on open source data of consistent, uniform quality; uses standard and verifiable data acquisition methodologies; reports in formats and standard terms which are understandable for managers and policy makers across different sectors; is affordable for developing countries.
In contrast to other national level approaches Water accounting+ is not reliant on national level statistics and characterizes the water resources situation for locations where hydrological monitoring networks are scarce. Developed by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in partnership with IHE-Delft, the approach uses global hydrological models and public domain remote sensing datasets to analyse the water flows, fluxes, stocks, consumption, and services from complex river basins.
View the site at www.wateraccounting.org
