Library Guides: Global Resource Systems Research Guide: Water

Water

These resources are offered as a, hopefully, useful subset of the many resources available on the topic. No effort is made to provide an exhaustive listing. Not every point of view will be represented – that is not the intent here.

If you are searching for scholarly journal articles related to this topic, there is additional information in the right-hand box on this page. The journal list is not inclusive. The best way to locate articles is to search one or more of the library's article indexes.

AQUASTAT: The Global Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
“AQUASTAT is FAO’s global water information system, developed by the Land and Water Division. The main mandate of the programme is to collect, analyze and disseminate information on water resources, water uses, and agricultural water management, with an emphasis on countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. This allows interested users to find comprehensive and regularly updated information at global, regional, and national levels.”
European Union Water Data Centre
“The Water Data Centre provides the European entry point for water-related data as part of the Water Information System for Europe (WISE). You can browse the catalogue of European datasets, interactive maps and indicators."
Global Drought Information System
“Drought is an insidious natural hazard with far-reaching impacts that range from economic losses to loss of agriculture and livelihood. Drought can cause or exacerbate water, food, and national security hazards. The GDIS is an international effort to pull together the best non-prescriptive drought information from local providers and provide an ‘apples to apples’ comparison of drought conditions around the world.”
Global Water Forum
“The Global Water Forum is committed to supporting the dissemination of information across all facets of water governance. Quantitative water data is one of the most important types of information. The effectiveness of research on improving water governance is often contingent upon the availability of data. Moreover, the free and accessible dissemination of water data is an important means for non-researchers to inform themselves regarding local and global water issues. This page provides links to various data resources related to water governance.”
International Water Management Institute
“The Global Water Forum is committed to supporting the dissemination of information across all facets of water governance. Quantitative water data is one of the most important types of information. The effectiveness of research on improving water governance is often contingent upon the availability of data. Moreover, the free and accessible dissemination of water data is an important means for non-researchers to inform themselves regarding local and global water issues. This page provides links to various data resources related to water governance.”
NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC)
“SEDAC is one of the Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) in the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. SEDAC focuses on human interactions in the environment. Its mission is to develop and operate applications that support the integration of socioeconomic and Earth science data and to serve as an ‘Information Gateway’ between the Earth and social sciences.”
National Water Quality Monitoring Council
The Water Quality Portal (WQP) is a cooperative service sponsored by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Water Quality Monitoring Council (NWQMC) that integrates publicly available water quality data from the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS) and the EPA STOrage and RETrieval (STORET) Data Warehouse.”
The World’s Water
“Water is one of our most critical resources, but around the world it is under threat. Worldwater.org is dedicated to providing information and resources to help protect and preserve freshwater around the globe. A project of the Pacific Institute, this site is a companion to our biennial book, The World’s Water, and also provides links to a wide range of water resources. Founded in 1987 and based in Oakland, California the Pacific Institute works to create a healthier planet and sustainable communities. We conduct interdisciplinary research and partner with stakeholders to produce solutions that advance environmental protection, economic development, and social equity- in California, nationally, and internationally.”
United Nations Global Environment Monitoring System (GEMS) Water Programme
“The United Nations Global Environment Monitoring System (GEMS) Water Programme is dedicated to providing environmental water quality data and information of the highest integrity, accessibility and interoperability. These data are used in water assessments and capacity building initiatives around the world. GEMStat is designed to share surface and ground water quality data sets collected from the GEMS/Water Global Network, including more than 3,000 stations, close to four million records, and over 100 parameters.”
United Nations Environment Programme – GEMS Water
“GEMS/Water develops and maintains a global freshwater quality information system with a series of national and international partners. The Division of Early Warning and Assessment (DEWA) of the United Nations Environment Programme is in charge of the management of GEMS/Water.”
UN-Water Facts
UN-Water has created a portal to view maps, tables, and charts on indicators, at either country or global level, as well as additional geographic information. This section presents some examples of statistics related to water. It is by no means complete at this point. UN-Water is currently working on the identification of a set of key indicators for the water sector that can be used at a global, regional, and national level.”
Internet of Water: Community Science
The Internet of Water is proud to partner with federal, state, local, tribal, and community science organizations to improve water data integration for sustainable water resources management.
Water Footprint Network Publications
“A big gap has grown between the demand for support in application and implementation and the capacity to supply this support. Besides, there is a need to bring together in a structural way developers of methods and tools and institutions that seek application. In order to coordinate efforts to further develop and disseminate knowledge on water footprint concepts, methods and tools, a number of institutions have taken the initiative to establish a Water Footprint Network. Unique to the network is that it brings together partners from diverse origins: knowledge institutions, non-governmental sector, private sector, governments and UN.”
Worldometers
“Worldometers is run by an international team of developers, researchers, and volunteers with the goal of making world statistics available in a thought-provoking and time relevant format to a wide audience around the world. They have no political, governmental, or corporate affiliation.”

Looking for scholarly articles?

Looking for scholarly articles about water? The most efficient way to find articles on a specific topic is to use an article index. Journals that have articles about this topic include:

Agricultural Water Management
Water International
Water Research
Water Resources Management
Water Science and Technology

CAB Abstracts and Earth Atmospheric & Aquatic Science Database, available from the library, include citations from the above journals. Click on the links below to access these databases.

CAB Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Covers international research and development literature in the fields of Agronomy, Animal health, Forestry, Human health, Human nutrition, and Management and conservation of natural resources.
Earth, Atmospheric & Aquatic Science Collection This link opens in a new window
Contains full text of publications related to aquatic sciences, fisheries, meteorology, geology, astrophysics, and pollution. It includes journal and magazine articles, technical reports, conference proceedings, government publications, and more.