ABSTRACT
Worldwide, water observation networks provide incomplete and incompatible data on water quantity and quality for managing water resources and predicting future needs – and these networks are in jeopardy of further decline. Also, no comprehensive information exists on wastewater generation and treatment and receiving water quality on a regional or global scale.
There is little sharing of hydrologic data, due largely to limited physical access to data, policy and security issues; lack of agreed protocols for sharing; and commercial considerations. This hampers regional and global projects that have to build on shared datasets for scientific and applications-oriented purposes, such as seasonal regional hydrologic outlooks, forecasting, disaster warning and prevention, and integrated water resources management in transboundary basins.
Improving water resources management requires investments in monitoring and more efficient use of existing data, including traditional ground-based observations and newer satellite-based data products. Most countries, developed and developing, need to give greater attention and more resources to monitoring, observations and continual assessments of the status of water resources.
