One map for the world's public water projects
WaterAtlas aggregates openly published water-sector projects, tenders and funding from multiple institutions into a single, searchable model — so information that is scattered across many portals can be explored in one place. It is an open, non-commercial project in an early testing stage.
How it works
Adding a source means writing one mapping into the shared model; nothing downstream changes. The pipeline runs in four stages:
- Step 1
Extract
Each source has a small, isolated adapter that pulls its raw records from a public API or dataset.
- Step 2
Transform
Raw records are mapped into one source-agnostic “canonical project” shape. Provider quirks are resolved here, never leaked downstream.
- Step 3
Load
Canonical records are published to a spatial database (PostGIS), keyed on (source, id) so re-ingestion is idempotent — no duplicates.
- Step 4
Serve
The map, search, analytics and export all read the same served slice, so every view is consistent.
Attribution travels with the data
Every record — on the map, in the API, and in any export — carries its source, a link back to the original, and its license. We don't relabel or claim ownership of the underlying data; WaterAtlas is a lens onto public datasets, and each stays traceable to where it came from. Geometry is stored in standard WGS84 (EPSG:4326) so it interoperates with common GIS tools.
Data sources
Current sources, each used under its own open license. More development banks, UN procurement and national portals are planned.
World Bank
CC BY 4.0Global development projects and financing in the water sector.
Water-sector operations selected from the World Bank projects portfolio by sector and theme codes.
Visit source ↗TED — Tenders Electronic Daily (EU)
CC BY 4.0European public procurement notices for water works, supplies and services.
Notices selected from the EU TED v3 Search API using water-specific CPV codes (© European Union, reused under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU).
Visit source ↗IDB / IADB
CC BY 4.0Water & sanitation operations across Latin America and the Caribbean.
Operations from the Inter-American Development Bank open-data CKAN datastore, filtered by sector with an IDB→ISO country-code remap.
Visit source ↗How often it updates
The ingestion pipeline runs on an automated weekly schedule, re-fetching each source and refreshing the served data. Because records are keyed on a stable identity, re-runs update in place rather than creating duplicates. As a testing-stage project, coverage and cadence may change.
Open by design
The application core is released under the AGPL-3.0 license, and the aggregated data and analytics are free to use. Found an error or a mis-mapped record? Please see the Legal Notice for how to reach us.
WaterAtlas is provided for general information only and may be incomplete or contain errors. Always verify against the original source. Nothing here is professional advice — see the Disclaimer.