这件作品是与Dr. Larry Brilliant, president of the Skoll Global Threats Fund.

This piece also appeared inMcClatchy新闻and the赫芬顿邮报。

We know less about one of world's most pressing challenges today than we did 10 years ago. It's no secret that water - or the lack thereof - will be one of the defining issues of the 21st century. And yet, theUnited Nations World Water Report, in 2009, stated that when it comes to water, "less is known with each passing decade."

The World Economic Forum最近命名the water supply crises as one of the top risks facing the planet - edging out issues like terrorism and systemic financial failure.Water riskspermeate almost every aspect of global society. We got a taste last year with crops干旱灼伤，运输车道threatened和能源植物shut down水位低，海岸线因洪水而破坏。气候变化和人口增长加剧，这种危必威官网是真的吗机将变得更加普遍和昂贵。然而，世界在很大程度上lacks the data我们需要监视，理解和应对这些水挑战。在全球水问题方面，我们正在盲目飞行。

历史向我们展示了信息避免危机的力量。例如，由于数据的急剧增加，公共卫生社区改变了其识别和应对大流行的能力。不到20年前，它平均需要167天to detect and verify a disease outbreak.

Today, it takes less than 20 days largely because of advances in data collection and availability, including leveraging passive data through tools like Google Flu Trends and web scrubbers like the Global Public Health Intelligence Network. The health sector has invested in better information to detect pandemics. It's time for the water sector to invest in better water data to respond to devastating water-related disasters and increasing water risks.

Unfortunately, directly observed data on water is patchy at best, non-existent at worst. TheGlobal Runoff Data Centre是与国际交换所的最接近的东西，以获取有关全球河流中多少水的信息。但是向中心报告的数据收集站数量稳定下降since the 1980s; only大约三分之一of the observing stations report their data to the Centre. Many stations are no longer being maintained, have been eliminated, or are reluctant to publicly share the data. Of particular concern are the region's most at risk - the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa - where publicly available water data is nearly absent.

Even in the United States, the story is not so different. The country is still recovering from impacts of Superstorm Sandy, whichcost over $60 billion，以及正在进行的干旱，可能是美国历史上最昂贵的自然灾害。

Meanwhile, the U.S. Geological Survey reported that between 1980 and 2004, over 2,000 stream gauges to measure river levelswere shut down，损失了全国总网络的四分之一以上。这些仪表有助于预测洪水和干旱，并提供监测水压力变化所需的数据。当前的预算“隔离”可能会迫使USG关闭an additional 375 gauges。

为越来越多的water-insecure future，我们迫切需要桥接此数据差距。

好消息是我们不必从头开始。使用来自卫星和最先进的建模技术的可用数据，可以收集监视和评估全球新兴水风险所需的关键信息。

一个例子是Aqueduct, the global water risk mapping tool recently released by the必威官网手机版，在Skoll全球威胁基金, and multinationals like Goldman Sachs, GE and Shell. Aqueduct offers free and open data, across twelve indicators of water risk, ranging from floods and droughts to access to clean drinking water. It also provides the ability to project changes in water risks in the coming years, according to the effects of climate change, and population and economic growth.

While Aqueduct represents an important resource, it is not enough. There is no substitute for directly observed, locally collected data. Bringing together such information can be a daunting task, but there are several important steps that must be taken to improve water data. We need increased investment in gathering local water data; and more stream gauges need to be installed, rather than shuttering those we already have. We need to meter groundwater, so we know how quickly these water suppliers are being depleted. We need to take advantage of new technologies, such as satellite remote sensing and crowd-sourced data, to fill the gaps. And perhaps most important, we need to change the paradigm from secrecy to transparency by negotiating ways to make existing data held by governments, companies and academic institutions freely available.

2012年，联合国教科文组织的报告compared我们对“在广阔的未知海洋中的知识岛”对水的理解。当我们标志着2013年世界水日时，很明显，这是无法应对我们这一代挑战之一的方法。现在，我们比以往任何时候都更有能力解决我们的缺乏水数据。我们只需要这样做的意愿。