Global water threat due to organic loading

All data are provided in 30' latitude-longitude (i.e., 0.5° degree) gridded format in the Geographic projection. A full description of the data development is provided in the Supplementary Information available on the Nature website. Protecting the world’s freshwater resources requires diagnosing threats over a broad range of scales, from global to local. Here we present the first worldwide synthesis to jointly consider human and biodiversity perspectives on water security using a spatial framework that quantifies multiple stressors and accounts for downstream impacts. We find that nearly 80% of the world’s population is exposed to high levels of threat to water security. Massive investment in water technology...

Tags: organic loading, river threat, water stress