This data set contains water use information for Canadian and Alaskan communities as well as general water-use estimates provided by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) for the whole of the United States. These data are utilized in the Arctic Rapid Integrated Monitoring System (ArcticRIMS) project to improve the development of the water stress model. This water stress model shows the effects of water resources, humans and climate change in the Arctic.

Recent studies suggest that climate change will have a significant impact on arctic hydrology. However, it is currently unknown which regions of the pan-Arctic are most vulnerable to future changes. In order to begin to address the future change to freshwater availability on a pan-arctic scale, a system of arctic typologies were used to enable the integration of biophysical data with socio-cultural data produced regionally, such as demographics and water values. Those mature data sets were used to study the strategic transformations of the high latitude water cycle. The overall objective of this research is to use a wide array of existing data sets in a synthesis effort to describe the vital role of freshwater in the lives of people in the pan-Arctic, how it has changed in the recent past, and how it is likely to change in the future.