Aquastat FAO's Global Information System on Water and Agriculture

SUMMARY

AQUASTAT is the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) global information system on water resources and agricultural water management. It collects, analyzes, and provides free access to over 180 variables and indicators by country and year from 1960. AQUASTAT plays an important role in monitoring of the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 6 that sets out to "ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all". Additionally, AQUASTAT's new dissemination system allows users to download up to 100,000 data points and the data is made available yearly.

The data team uses AQUASTAT for a number of series including SeriesDesalinatedWater, SeriesLandCultivatedArea, and SeriesLandIrWaterLogged to name a few. To pull data, please follow the instructions below.

GENERAL STEPS TO PULL DATA FROM AQUASTAT

Step 1.) Navigate to the home page of AQUASTAT FAO's Global Information System on Water and Agriculture,

Step 2.) Near the top of the page, click on the tab labeled "Database"

AQUASTAT's Homepage

Step 3.) On the left hand side of the page, click on the tab labeled "Country Statistics"

AQUASTAT's Database Homepage

Step 4.) On the left hand side of the page, click on the tab labeled "Database", under "Country Statistics"

THIS WILL OPEN A PAGE ON ANOTHER TAB

AQUASTAT's Country Statistics Page

AQUASTAT Homepage

Step 5.) Under the "Areas" section on the left side, select (World) to select all countries. You can also select different regions.

Select (World)

Step 6.) Under the "Year" section on the left, select each year to see it represented in the data.

Select Years

Step 7.) To find your specific variable, click which "Variable Group" it is in, then the "Variable Subgroup", and finally your "Variable". You can also start typing your variable name in the "Select Variables" space and it will display that variable and similar ones.

The Variable Group of your Series

Step 8.) Download the data by clicking "Share/Download". You will then be given download options. Click "Excel". An Excel file will download. Now you can format the data to upload it into IFs. To import data into IFs, please follow the instructions found in the Importing Data (general instructions) page.

Select "Download"

SPECIFIC VARIABLE EXAMPLE: SeriesIrrigatedCropIntensity

Step 9.) On the left hand side, under "Year", select desired years of data. This example will use years 2000-2020. "Irrigation and drainage development"

Select Years

Step 10.) Start typing "Irrigated cropping intensity" into the "Select Variable" box. "Irrigated cropping intensity" will be under variable group "Irrigation and drainage development" and variable subgroup "Irrigated crop area and cropping intensity". Select the variable and a blue check mark will appear.

Select the Variable

Step 11.) To select all countries, make sure "World" is selected under "Area".

Select "World"

Step 11.) Data will now populate the page on the right side.

Data populates page

Step 12.) Select "Share/Download" and then select "Excel".

Click "Download"

Step 13.) An Excel sheet will download. Now you can format the data to upload it into IFs. To import data into IFs, please follow the instructions found in the Importing Data (general instructions) page