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The full methodology is available here. In SDG 6.6.1, there is a two leveled approach: (1) global monitoring and (2) national monitoring and each level has a series of SDG sub-indicators. For all segments of the methodology, an attempt to monitor at both levels has been made. Currently, global monitoring data products exist (or is nearly ready) for: surface water extent, mangrove extent, wetland extend and water quality (using chlorophyll-a and turbidity as a proxy). All data is on the SDG661.app, but has not yet been incorporated in the WESR.
For questions on any of the below contact Stuart Crane, Killian Christ and Jillian Campbell.
Linkages:
FDES (Framework for the development of Environment Statistics) topic 2.6 on freshwater resources. (Contact Reena Shah from UNSD on the FDES.)
SEEA (System of Economic Environmental Accounts) framework for water accounts and ecosystem accounts. (Contact Alessandra Alferi from UNSD on the SEEA.)
Aichi Target 8: By 2020, pollution, including from excess nutrients, has been brought to levels that are not detrimental to ecosystem function and biodiversity.
Water quality is also related to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. The Ramsar Convention is co-custodian of this indicator and directly supplies the national data that they collect to the UN SDG portal; however, due to the fact that Ramsar encourages countries to use national definitions there are some issues with comparability.
There is a high interest in SDG 6.6.1 from the Earth Observation community and it is included as an objective under the following:
the African Data Cube, UNEP has been working with the Data4SDG team to promote the use of globally comparable methods in the African Data Cube (contact: Data4SDGs: Victor Ohuruogu; Davis Adieno)
the Data4Now project ( implemented by SDSN TReNDS, UNSD and the GPSDD Data4SDGs group) this includes both in-country capacity building and an interest in creating water vulnerability maps and statistics through using population data to estimate the number of people near a declining water body, more than 1km from a water body and whose nearest water body is of poor quality. A short draft of the methodological approach is here - this note is still under development. (Contact: UNEP: Stuart Crane and Jillian Campbell; DHI: Gareth James Lloyd ; Data4SDGs: Olga Cowings; Victor Ohuruogu; Davis Adieno; SDSN TReNDS: Thomas Orrell
the EO4SDGs effort, UNEP has a partnership with NASA and EO4SDGs related to building national capacity to use EO4SDGs and to promote the approach under SDG 6.6.1. This has been focused on higher resolution analysis of turbidity and tropic state. (Contact: UNEP: Stuart Crane and Jillian Campbell; NASA/EO4SDGs: Argyro Kavvada)
the UN SDG Working Group on Geospatial Information (WGGI), due to the link between UNEP's work on SDG 6.6.1 and the priorities of the WGGI, UNEP is a member of this group. Contact: Mark Iliffe
UN Global Platform on Big Data for Official Statistics (with the UK Office of National Statistics (ONS) Data Science Campus). UNEP is a member of the Working Group on Big Data for Official Statistics and is working with the ONS team to develop a pilot for SDG 6.6.1 which looks to provide a higher-resolution, higher-frequency version of SDG 6.6.1 using 3m resolution data - this would be particularly useful for assessing drought impacts in drought prone areas. Contact: ONS: Alistair Edwardes; UNSD: Ronald Jansen; UNEP: Jillian Campbell
Due to the strong interest in this indicator and the importance of the indicator for climate change and development, the need for coordination and collaboration around this indicator is strong.
Level 1: Globally modeled data products based on Earth Observations
Level 1: Globally modeled data products based on Earth Observations
The data is on the SDG661.app, see here for more information on how this data has been compiled through a UNEP, Google, EU Joint Research center partnership. All data products have been aggregated at the district, country, basin and sub-basin level using the FAO Global Administrative Unit Layer and the WWF Hydroshed basins layer. This approach to filling the SDG data gap won a Group on Earth Observation award in 2019.
The data is on the SDG661.app, see here for more information on how this data has been compiled through a UNEP, Google, EU Joint Research center partnership. All data products have been aggregated at the district, country, basin and sub-basin level using the FAO Global Administrative Unit Layer and the WWF Hydroshed basins layer. This approach to filling the SDG data gap won a Group on Earth Observation award in 2019.
Surface water
Surface water
Global surface water is based on original work done by the EU Joint Research Center and Google in the Global Surface Water Explorer. A baseline of 2000-2004 is used as a proxy for the 'natural' state and changes from the baseline are assessed every year (for both annual extent and using 5-year moving averages.) This includes for:
Permanent water area
Seasonal water area
Reservoir area
Currently, UNEP is working with the EU JRC to disaggregate this data by new water versus lost water, which will provide a better understanding of changes from the natural condition. This data is available in the SDG661.app.
Contact: UNEP: Stuart Crane and Jillian Campbell; EU JRC: Jean-François Pekel; Luca Battistella; Pere Roca Ristol; Google technical focal point: Noel Gorelick.
Water quality (linked to SDG 6.3.2)
Water quality (linked to SDG 6.3.2)
The EU JRC has developed turbidity and tropic state layers at the 300m resolution under the Copernicus Land Service. Due to the lower resolution, this data is not available for all lakes but it is available for more than 4000 lakes. Changes in turbidity (suspended solids) and the trophic state index (Chlorophyl-A) are considered a proxy of water quality. This methodology matches the approach in SDG 14.1.1a. Monthly averages as well as multi-annual per-monthly averages for the periods 2006-2010 and 2017-2019 are available. Data is available per lake and each lake has individual identification information allowing it to be related to other hydrological datasets. A short note on the calculations used for the SDG compilation is available here.
Contact: UNEP: Stuart Crane and Jillian Campbell; EU JRC: Jean-François Pekel; Luca Battistella; Pere Roca Ristol
Mangroves
Mangroves
The Global Mangrove Watch has developed a global mangrove layer at the 30m resolution for 1996, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2015 and 2016 - with the plan to update annually moving forward. The 1996 data is being used as a proxy for the baseline (2000-2004 is the baseline for all indicators under SDG 6.6.1). Similarly to surface water changes against the baseline are assessed every year (for both annual extent and using 5-year moving averages.) Both mangrove extent and biomass are included in the analysis.
UNEP is working with the EU Joint Research Center and Google to incorporate this data into the SDG661.app. A short note on the mangrove SDG calculations is available here.
Contact: Stuart Crane and Jillian Campbell; EU JRC: Jean-François Pekel; Luca Battistella; Pere Roca Ristol; Global Mangrove Watch/JAXA: Ake Rosenqvist
Wetlands
Wetlands
Total wetlands area in square kilometers per country - forming a baseline measurement comprising three years of data (2016-18) - is available for download. Future annual data measurements will allow for a calculation of change against the generated baseline, this will be ready for SDG reporting by 2021. The wetlands area measurements have been developed by DHI-GRAS.
Contact: Stuart Crane and Jillian Campbell; EU JRC: Jean-François Pekel; Luca Battistella; Pere Roca Ristol; DHI: Gareth James Lloyd
Level 2: National monitoring
Level 2: National monitoring
River flow
River flow
River volume and flow cannot currently be estimated at the global level. UNEP uses a questionnaire to collect in situ river flow measurements from major rivers. The SDG 6.3.2 questionnaire to collect in situ data estimates from countries is also used to complement SDG 6.6.1.
Additionally, rivers, small water bodies and small area wetlands are difficult to measure with global monitoring - many are not discoverable at the 30m resolution of the global monitoring products and health is difficult to assess at the global level. Thus UNEP recommends that countries nationally monitor important water-related ecosystems using a combination of earth observation and in situ monitoring which can be complemented with citizen science. Countries may also wish to use higher resolution satellite imagery to assess important areas.
Contact: UNEP: Stuart Crane and Killian Christ
Groundwater
Groundwater
The changes to the quantity of groundwater within aquifers is important information for many countries that rely heavily on groundwater availability. For the purposes of Indicator 6.6.1 monitoring the changes to groundwater levels gives a good indication of changes to the water stored in an aquifer. Furthermore, only significant ground water aquifers, that can be seen as individual freshwater ecosystems will be included in the reporting. The full methodology is available here.
Currently, this type of monitoring can only be done in situ, but there are efforts to use earth observation, specifically the NASA Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite data to better understand the prevalence of ground water globally.
Contact: UNEP: Stuart Crane and Killian Christ
Mechanism for national data collection
Mechanism for national data collection
Data is collected from Governments via a questionnaire that is sent to countries every 3 years. The questionnaire is excel based, but will be migrated to an online option. Countries are requested to supply data via the questionnaire.
Contact: UNEP: Stuart Crane; Killian Christ and Dany Ghafari
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