Level of water stress by major river basin calculated on the water consumption (Global)

Level of water stress (SDG 6.4.2) by major river basin (reference year 2018). This map provides a global representation of the level of water stress spatially disaggregated by major river basin. The indicator 6.4.2 is calculated as the ratio between (a) the amount of total freshwater resources withdrawn in the three economic sectors (Agriculture, Service and Industry) and (b) the total renewable freshwater resources after detracting the amount of water needed to support existing environmental services, also indicated as environmental flows. All the variables are expressed in million m3. The purpose of this indicator is to show the degree to which water resources are being exploited to meet the water demand and it measures the pressure on water resources at basin level. High values of water stress mean more water users are competing for limited water supplies. Low water stress indicates minimal potential impact on resource sustainability and on potential competition among users. Major river basins with an indicator's level lower than 25% have no water stress. Those basins with a water stress greater than 75% have a high or critical water stress. The spatial disaggregation of the indicator by river basin allow the identification of hotspots where actions can be prioritized and reveal that the area affected by a high or critical water stress spans across all continents with the only exception of Oceania. The analysis is based on the national water withdrawal data available in AQUASTAT for year 2018. The total renewable freshwater resources have been assessed using the GloBWat model (https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/19/3829/2015/) and the environmental Flows have been estimated applying the percentages available on the GEFIS portal 2021 (http://eflows.iwmi.org/). Further details on the methodology applied can be found at: https://ucl.scienceopen.com/document/read?vid=18caef6a-0b8f-4e0c-a3e6-807e55d075a2. **Data publication:** 2022-03-11 **Contact points:** Resource Contact: [Jippe Hoogeveen](mailto:jippe.hoogeveen@fao.org) Resource Contact: [Michela Marinelli](mailto:michela.marinelli@fao.org) Metadata Contact: [AQUASTAT](mailto:aquastat@fao.org) **Resource constraints:** Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) **Online resources:** Download - Level of Water Stress (SDG 6.4.2) by major river basin (ESRI shapefile)

This map provides a global representation of the dominant economic sector for freshwater withdrawals per major river basins for year 2018. The analysis is based on the national water withdrawal data available in AQUASTAT for year 2018. The dominant sector (SECTOR_DOM) in each river basin is defined as the maximum of the proportion of freshwater water withdrawal for each economic sector respect to the total freshwater withdrawal (TWW) in the basin. Here below the formulas applied: VA_PERC = VA /TWW VS_PERC = VS / TWW VM_PERC = VM/TWW SECTOR_DOM = MAX(VA_PERC, VS_PERC, VM_PERC) Where: VA_PERC = Proportion of the Agriculture freshwater withdrawal over the total freshwater withdrawal (%) VS_PERC = Proportion of the Service freshwater withdrawal over the total freshwater withdrawal (%) VM_PERC = Proportion of Industry freshwater withdrawal over the total freshwater withdrawal (%) TWW = Total freshwater withdrawal (million m3) VA = Freshwater withdrawal for the Agriculture (million m3) VS = Freshwater withdrawal for the Services (million m3) VM = Freshwater withdrawal for the Industry (million m3) **Data publication:** 2022-03-11 **Contact points:** Resource Contact: [Riccardo Biancalani](mailto:riccardo.biancalani@fao.org) Resource Contact: [Michela Marinelli](mailto:michela.marinelli@fao.org) Metadata Contact: [AQUASTAT](mailto:aquastat@fao.org) **Resource constraints:** Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC BY-NC- SA 3.0 IGO) **Online resources:** Download: Dominant sector freshwater withdrawal per major river basin (2018)

This map provides a global representation of proportion of freshwater withdrawal for the Agriculture sector (VA) over the total freshwater withdrawal (TWW) per major river basins for year 2018. The analysis is based on the national water withdrawal data available in AQUASTAT for year 2018. Here below the formula applied: VA _PERC = VA / TWW Where: VA = Freshwater withdrawal for the Agriculture sector (million m3) TWW = Total freshwater withdrawal (million m3) VA_PERC = Proportion of the freshwater withdrawal for the Agriculture over the total freshwater withdrawal (%) **Data publication:** 2022-03-11 **Contact points:** Resource Contact: [Riccardo Biancalani](mailto:riccardo.biancalani@fao.org) Resource Contact: [Michela Marinelli](mailto:michela.marinelli@fao.org) Metadata Contact: [AQUASTAT](mailto:aquastat@fao.org) **Resource constraints:** Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC BY-NC- SA 3.0 IGO) **Online resources:** Download: Proportion of freshwater withdrawal for the Agriculture sector per major river basin (2018)

This map provides a global representation of proportion of freshwater withdrawal for the Service sector (VS) over the total freshwater withdrawal (TWW) per major river basins for year 2018. The analysis is based on the national water withdrawal data available in AQUASTAT for year 2018. Here below the formula applied: VS_PERC = VS / TWW Where: VS = Freshwater withdrawal for the Service sector (million m3) TWW = Total freshwater withdrawal (million m3) VS _PERC = Proportion of the freshwater withdrawal for the Service over the total freshwater withdrawal (%) **Data publication:** 2022-03-11 **Contact points:** Resource Contact: [Riccardo Biancalani](mailto:riccardo.biancalani@fao.org) Resource Contact: [Michela Marinelli](mailto:michela.marinelli@fao.org) Metadata Contact: [AQUASTAT](mailto:aquastat@fao.org) **Resource constraints:** Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC BY-NC- SA 3.0 IGO) **Online resources:** Download: Proportion of freshwater withdrawal for the Service sector per major river basin (2018)

The level of water stress: freshwater withdrawal as a proportion of available freshwater resources is the ratio between total freshwater withdrawn by all major sectors and total renewable freshwater resources, after taking into account environmental water requirements. Main sectors, as defined by ISIC standards, include agriculture; forestry and fishing; manufacturing; electricity industry; and services. This indicator is also known as water withdrawal intensity.

This dataset is the updated version of FAO's Major Hydrological Basins of the World dataset, published earlier in this catalog (https://data.apps.fao.org/catalog//iso/7707086d-af3c-41cc-8aa5-323d8609b2d1) The dataset is included as part of Geo-Spatial Information collected and published in the framework of the AQUASTAT - programme of the Land and Water Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. https://www.fao.org/aquastat/ **Data publication:** 2025-05-02 **Data revision:** 2026-08-31 **Citation:** Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO Land and Water Division. Major hydrological basins of the world, Major hydrological basins v2 (Global - 2026) - AQUASTAT, Latest update: 13/04/2026. Accessed (dd-mm/yy) from: https://data.apps.fao.org/catalog/dataset/d617520f-7ce4-4e54-ac2c-c550cd764a6b **Contact points:** Resource Contact: [AQUASTAT](mailto:aquastat@fao.org) Metadata Contact: [AQUASTAT](mailto:aquastat@fao.org) **Data lineage:** This product incorporates data from the HydroSHEDS database (https://www.hydrosheds.org/) which is © World Wildlife Fund, Inc. (2006-2013) and has been used herein under license. WWF has not evaluated the data as altered and incorporated within the "Major hydrological basins of the world dataset", and therefore gives no warranty regarding its accuracy, completeness, currency or suitability for any particular purpose. Recent data review has resulted in the correction of minor topology errors. **Resource constraints:** This work is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC-BY-4.0) **Online resources:** Download the data from Google Cloud Storage