Water scarcity is a pressing issue that significantly impacts various aspects of human life and environmental sustainability. Despite the Earth being covered by water across approximately 70% of its surface, a vast majority of this is ocean water, which is saline and not directly consumable or usable for many practical needs of human societies. Freshwater, the lifeblood of our planet and a prerequisite for human health and well-being, constitutes only a small fraction of the total water on Earth.
Despite this, most people don't typically think about water scarcity as an environmental or global issue. We take for granted that water surrounds us and will always be accessible. As global populations burgeon and economic activity intensifies, the need for clean and safe water will accelerate and deplete an incredibly important but still finite resource.
The Global Water Scarcity Tracker aims to provide an interactive and visual representation of the current and predicted water scarcity across the globe. Water scarcity is becoming an increasing global concern due to various reasons like population growth, urbanization, and rising agricultural demands. This tool serves as a comprehensive platform to understand, visualize, predict and track the dynamics of freshwater availability across countries over time using Facebook's Prophet ML forecasting tool.
1. Dynamic Choropleth Map:
An interactive map powered by Folium, showcasing global freshwater availability. The map provides detailed pop-ups for each country, giving insights into various metrics.
2. Country-Specific Analysis:
Users can select any country and visualize its freshwater resource metrics over time. This can provide deep insights into how freshwater availability has evolved for a particular nation.
3. Comparative Visualization:
Users have the option to select multiple countries and view a comparative analysis of their freshwater metrics. This feature helps in understanding relative differences and trends between nations.
4. Predictive Insights:
The application not only presents historical data but also offers predictive insights post-2020 up to 2049, helping users understand future trends and scenarios.
5. User Experience Enhancements:
The application employs a combination of visual aids, such as color-coded graphs, tooltips, and detailed legends, ensuring that the data interpretation is intuitive and user-friendly.
The Water Scarcity Tracker project utilizes data from various reputable sources to provide accurate and comprehensive insights into global water scarcity trends. Our commitment to data integrity and user privacy is paramount. While we combine these data sources using advanced forecasting techniques, including the Prophet model, specific details about the data processing methodologies are proprietary to our project.
This privacy policy is subject to change without notice. We encourage users to frequently check this section for any changes to stay informed about how we are protecting the personal information we collect. Your continued use of the site and its services after any change in this privacy policy will constitute your acceptance of such change.
Feel free to open issues or provide pull requests to improve the app.
This project is a research preview intended for academic and non-commercial use only.