Seasonal water scarcity conditions for European sub units for the four quarters of 2022, as measured by water exploitation index plus (WEI+)

NOTE : The seasonal water exploitation index plus (WEI+) provides a measure of total water consumption as a percentage of the renewable freshwater resources available for the European river basins at subunit level. Each season is defined as a calendar quarter on the map: Q1 (January-March), Q2 (April-June), Q3 (July-September), and Q4 (October-December).

WEI+ results for EU Member States, Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland are presented at the subunit level, while for Italy, they are shown at the river basin level. For Türkiye and the Western Balkan cooperating countries, results are provided at the country level due to the lack of spatial data on river basins and subunits.

The EEA calculates the Water Exploitation Index for European river basins using a consistent approach for Renewable Water Resources (RWR). Due to limited data availability at the European level, the EEA applies significant gap filling, which may also result in differences from national estimates. In particular, Italy has noted that, due to the approach used by EEA for RWR, the pan-European index does not accurately reflect the detailed water stress conditions in its river basins.