The World Resources Institute (WRI) announced the integration of the WRI Aqueduct Overall Water Risk map with Bloomberg’s interactive mapping platform, BMAP. It is available to the more than 320,000 subscribers of the Bloomberg Professional service. Integrating Aqueduct with Bloomberg’s BMAP tool will give influential decision makers access to a comprehensive, detailed global water-risk information alongside Bloomberg’s proprietary visual commodities data.
“Water is essential for all life. It gives us the energy, food, and economic growth we need. But we face a growing freshwater crisis—impacts from water-related risks have already cost ecosystems, communities, and businesses untold billions,” said Betsy Otto, director of WRI’s Water Initiative. “More and more organizations are recognizing this reality and taking action to reduce their water-related risks.”
Aqueduct provides a current, comprehensive, and high-resolution (15,000 sub-basins) global water risk mapping tool. Aqueduct’s overall water risk map, the layer incorporated into BMAP, heat maps water risk calculated by using indicators that consider how much water may be available in a given location, the general quality of that water, and what potential regulatory and reputational risks are associated with a site. Demand is projected to increase in the coming years and decades for limited, unpredictable and often polluted water resources—especially among businesses—so the need for water risk mapping and mitigation will likely grow.
"Identifying and quantifying water risk is a crucial component of Bloomberg's Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) platform,” said Curtis Ravenel, Bloomberg’s global head of sustainability. “As investors have become more serious about measuring ESG business risk, many companies have responded by increasing disclosure, with water becoming one of the most disclosed ESG metrics. However, understanding water risk goes beyond the numbers and needs geographically specific framing and analysis. Integrating WRI's Aqueduct water risk map onto Bloomberg's BMAP tool is a powerful complement to Bloomberg's data, analytics and research on water and how it impacts the world of business and finance."
For the third consecutive year, the World Economic Forum ranked water among the top three global risks to social stability, businesses, food and energy production, and more. Managing and mitigating those risks is a massive, ongoing process, but with the help of Aqueduct, Bloomberg Professional service users can now better understand water-related risks to their organizations and investments.
