Data and Statistics

The Global Knowledge Platform on Sustainable Water and Energy Solutions will play the important role of collecting and classifying relevant data and statistics about effective integrated approaches to water and energy promoting, at the same time, the development of balanced sets of data, statistics and indicators relevant to future sustainable water and energy solutions.

General Data Issues

There are many issues related to data that need to be taken into consideration in the development of sustainable water and energy solutions. Considerable and reliable data including historical trends, disaggregated data and projections on production and consumption are available from the energy sector. In general, the same level of data is not available from the water sector representing a challenge for decision makers while assessing synergies and trade-offs that may result from the implementation of integrated water and energy projects. The lack of relevant water data is particularly important in relation to water withdrawals and consumption by energy systems and with respect to the energy intensity of water treatment and distribution systems.

The lack of shared, transparent data and information across sectors creates difficulty in analysis and planning as well as in infrastructure design for water and energy. In many countries there are few mechanisms and incentives across agencies for data sharing, which makes joint and integrated planning even more challenging. Another challenge is that many organizations and businesses are obliged to treat their data as confidential. Hence, some of the available data may not be accessible, even for legitimate research purposes.

A lot of data needed to access and develop sustainable energy and water solutions is related to social, economic and environmental projections into the future. Although there are many modelling and simulation techniques that try to develop integrated projections and alternative future scenarios, in many cases the basic information, data and indicators to run these models are not available, especially in developing countries. Developed countries have a marked advantage over developing countries because, in general, they have robust institutions that collect, interpret and manage aggregated and disaggregated data that are indispensable for the effective use of modelling tools and for assessing future scenarios and potential integrated water and energy solutions.