Aqueduct Country and River Basin Rankings: A Weighted Aggregation of Spatially Distinct Hydrological Indicators

This research paper by the World Resources Institute describes a methodology for ranking 180 countries and 200 major river basins based on their exposure to water-related risks, using weighted aggregations of localized data from the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas.

• The paper provides water-risk rankings for 180 countries, the 100 largest river basins by area, and the 100 most populous river basins globally, focusing on five specific measures of water supply and demand.
• The rankings are based on five physical water quantity risk indicators: baseline water stress (withdrawal to renewable supply ratio), inter-annual variability, seasonal variability, flood occurrence (recorded from 1985 to 2011), and drought severity (calculated from 1901 to 2008).
• The rankings focus exclusively on objective natural factors driving water-quantity risks and explicitly exclude subjective elements such as water governance, conservation efforts, or investment.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Aqueduct Country and River Basin Rankings: A Weighted Aggregation of Spatially Distinct Hydrological Indicators. https://www.wri.org/research/aqueduct-country-and-river-basin-rankings

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Aqueduct Country and River Basin Rankings: A Weighted Aggregation of Spatially Distinct Hydrological Indicators. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/aqueduct-country-and-river-basin-rankings.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Aqueduct Country and River Basin Rankings: A Weighted Aggregation of Spatially Distinct Hydrological Indicators |url=https://www.wri.org/research/aqueduct-country-and-river-basin-rankings |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendaqueduct, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Aqueduct Country and River Basin Rankings: A Weighted Aggregation of Spatially Distinct Hydrological Indicators}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/aqueduct-country-and-river-basin-rankings}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }