Water Exploitation Index plus (WEI+) at European country scale, 2023

This metadata covers the vector dataset of the Water Exploitation Index Plus (WEI+) for European countries for the years 2000 to 2023, broken down into four quarters each year. Q1: Jan., Feb., Mar. Q2: Apr., May, Jun. Q3: Jul., Aug., Sep. Q4: Oc., Nov., Dec. The Water Exploitation Index plus (WEI+) aims to illustrate pressure on renewable water resources of a defined territory (countries) in a given period (e.g. seasonal, annual) as a consequence of water use for human activities. Values above 20 % indicate that water resources are under stress, and above 40 % indicate severe stress and a clearly unsustainable use of freshwater resources (Raskin et al., 1997). The WEI+ has been estimated as the quarterly average per river basin district, for the years 2000-2023. Two files are provided for download: - Spatial data in SHP format. - WEI+ data in Excel format, covering four quarters per year from 2000 to 2023. The datasets can be linked via a spatial join using SHP.countryCod and Excel.countryCode, ensuring the data is filtered by year and quarter.