AQUASTAT - FAO's Global Information System on Water and Agriculture

    Federated Water Monitoring System and Key Water Indicator Portal

    The Federated Water Monitoring System (FWMS) and Key Water Indicator Portal (KWIP), implemented by AQUASTAT on behalf of UN-Water, aims to improve the clarity of water statistics:

    • Through specific technical conversations with other water data reporting agencies, in order to actually improve the quality of data. This is accomplished by resolving inter-agency methodological differences, and by improving the understanding of nationally reported statistics.
    • By implementing information technology that always displays the most updated data available on the UN-Water website, in a format that is accessible to non-technical users. This portal also lists different statistics by other agencies, even where differences arise. An explanation is provided documenting why these differences might exist.
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    The KWIP is a portal through which data can be represented in graphs, charts, and tables. Selected indicators are displayed, although more indicators or variables can be added in the future. The main purpose of the KWIP is to provide information in a simple format in order to maximize its widespread use. For more advanced users that would like to know about inter-agency harmonization efforts, additional data reported by several agencies is available only one click away.

    This portal is backed by the FWMS, a federated custodian database containing data from the different organizations generating data relevant to the UN-Water indicators. Inter-agency harmonization can be managed via a complex mapping of variables, and can port data to the various widgets displayed on the KWIP dynamically. This means that as soon as the database is furnished with new information, the KWIP will automatically update.

    This FWMS&KWIP improves UN Water's "Body of Knowledge", and provides a more consistent and transparent front to statistics.