Assessments of water resources and their management

11. What are the Source Protection Explorer and the Protecting Water Atlas?

With rapid rates of habitat loss, the threat of climate change, and dwindling public resources, there is an increasing need to inform decisions with sound science. Investing in watershed health is a sustainable way to enhance water security.

The Source Protection Explorer¹⁸ of the World Bank enables users to explore cities that can meet specified pollution reduction targets using conservation actions and the area and cost required to reach these targets. Innovative investments can help address water depletion. Among them, the Water Scarcity Explorer enables users to look at how, where and when water has been used and explore potential strategies to alleviate scarcity within a given basin.

The Protecting Water Atlas, where users can explore data and analyses that underpin The Nature Conservancy's global-scale reports. This mapping site is part of a family of spatial decision tools.

The Nature Conservancy, along with global, regional and local partners, have in particular developed a powerful spatial decision support tool and suite of web apps, called the Natural Solutions Toolkit¹⁹ , that puts scientific information in the hands of public agencies, communities and key stakeholders. This toolkit includes spatial decision tools and web applications to catalyze water conservation.

With a common goal of highlighting the value of nature in reducing risk and enhancing resilience in cities, counties, provinces, states, and across nations, the Toolkit provides effective communications in science and technology across environments.