Executive Summary - Measuring Progress: Water-related Ecosystems and the SDGs

This executive summary presents progress in tracking 92 environment-related Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators, with global data availability improving from 34% in 2018 to 59% in 2022, driven by increased national reporting, capacity development by custodian agencies, and the use of new sources such as Earth Observation, citizen science, and big data. Using the driver-pressure-state-impact-response (DPSIR) framework, the report applies multivariate statistical analysis to water-related ecosystems (freshwater and marine) at global, national (Colombia and Mongolia), and basin (Poyang, China) levels, revealing interlinkages between ecosystem health and factors such as urbanisation, conservation, water use, and pollution. Some relationships confirm existing knowledge, while others are newly identified and warrant further investigation. The findings underscore critical gaps in data—particularly on water quality, volume, and ecosystem health—and the need for more disaggregated, ecologically relevant indicators, such as catchment-based measures.