USD 37 billion
is the estimated investment needed per annum for water infrastructure in developing countries to be climate resilient by 2050.
The status quo does not work
Water is critical to human wellbeing, ecosystems, and economic development. But it is chronically undervalued across the world.
The absence of accessible, high resolution data to inform decisions has contributed to acute under-investment in water security. Public and private sector action to date has failed to adequately respond to the scale and urgency of the challenge.
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There is a strong case to be made for incorporating the value of water into decision making frameworks. We think that the current overemphasis on volumetric approaches contributes to chronic underinvestment in water resource management and service provision, in many parts of the world.
Breaking the status quo requires a novel approach to valuing water that accounts for differences in who is using it, where, and how it is being used. Our innovation is in applying this approach within specific basins to support dynamic, contextual value discovery. To operationalise the output, we generate a series of shadow water prices for each basin that we analyse.
End users
Public sector
We provide public agencies with data, insight and capacity that is required to mobilise the investment needed for water security and basin resilience.
Private sector
We empower companies that have an active stewardship agenda with data on water value discovery at scale, using a dynamic, contextual framework.
Our approach
We apply unique and proprietary insights to generate a water valuation framework that provides users from the public, private, and financial services sectors with decision-ready information to support collective action and mobilise investment.
We build partnerships with stakeholders in every basin where we work, and use these relationships to ensure that our insights are informed by both locally available data and context-specific Information.
We’re committed to making key basin data available at no charge to any qualifying stakeholder. This is part of our mission to reduce information asymmetry, foster community inclusion and build trust amongst basin actors.
The team leverages decades of applied work on water in academia, industry, and finance. Our approach is informed by direct involvement with ongoing water research programmes at the University of Oxford, UK.
Our process
Peer-reviewed research: Our process for collecting, validating, synthesising, and analysing data is consistent with the best available science.
Remote sensing: We leverage innovations in geospatial data, computer vision and machine learning for insight at scale.
In situ data: Our Basin Specialists source and validate locally measured data as part of our ground truth activity.
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Contextual information: We use AI to analyse societal, economic, and environmental information from multiple sources.
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Proprietary insights: We apply a contextual framework for value discovery to generate shadow water prices.
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