GEMStat

The ICWRGC hosts, operates and maintains the Global Water Quality database and information system GEMStat, within the framework of the Global Environment Monitoring System for Water (GEMS/Water), and in cooperation with the Federal Institute of Hydrology. The GEMS/Water programme was founded as a global network for water quality monitoring under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) in 1978 and involves the World Health Organisation (WHO), the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and UNESCO.

Countries and organisations voluntarily provide water quality data from their own monitoring networks. The water quality data available in GEMStat can be used for status evaluation, policy-making, research purposes or within the scope of education and training initiatives.

At present, the growing database contains more than 4 million entries for rivers, lakes, reservoirs, wetlands and groundwater systems from 75 countries and approximately 4000 stations. Overall, data is available for the time period from 1965 to 2017 and about 250 parameters.

GEMStat is accessible through our new portal:

Here, users can inform themselves in more detail on GEMStat and the GEMS/Water programme as well as obtain background information on data availability, user statistics and the growth of the database. Data products recently developed include among others an interactive data explorer to visualise station, country and catchment statistics, interactive maps on SDG  6.3.2 core parameters, statistical reports on station, country or catchment level and an interactive metadata catalogue to access information on monitoring programmes and stations.