VWBA 2.0WaterActive · v2.0

Volumetric Water Benefit Accounting

The de-facto methodology standard for replenishment and volumetric water claims, with a companion Water Quality Benefit Accounting framework.

Registry
WRI
Sector
Water replenishment
Credit
VWB · m³
Issued as
org.hypercerts.claim.activity

The issued hypercert is a batch of VWB credits recorded at once, comparable to a registry issuance batch. It carries weighted contributors, a work scope and a rights record, so any app in the ATProto Collective Funding Ecosystem can read it natively.

ScopesWaterVolumetricReplenishment
Aligns toAWS Standard

Overview

Volumetric Water Benefit Accounting 2.0 is a guidance document from the World Resources Institute and partners for quantifying the volumetric water benefits of water stewardship activities. It provides a six step, principle based approach for identifying activities such as watershed restoration, improved irrigation, and supply protection, and for quantifying, tracking, and communicating the resulting benefits. A water benefit is expressed as a volume of water, for example cubic metres or gallons, provided to or protected within a catchment over a defined period. The guidance is voluntary and covers both direct and enabled volumetric water benefits.

Sources: methodology document · World Resources Institute

01 · Roles

Standard Registry

role · registry

Owns the policy, approves participants, anchors each issuance to its evidence.

Project Proponent

role · proponent

Registers the project and submits monitoring reports.

Validation & Verification Body

role · vvb

Independently validates the design and verifies monitored data.

02 · Policy graph

10 nodes

The workflow as an explicit directed graph. In Graph each column is one role, so you can see who acts at each step; every node names the org.broadlistening.policy.block.* def it resolves to plus its input and output record. Data flow switches to a lineage view that makes explicit what data each node needs and makes, with dependency arcs tracing every record back to the node that produced it. Hover to trace, click to inspect; revise edges (dashed) send work back.

Hover to trace · click to inspect

Standard Registry
Project Proponent
Validation & Verification Body
Issue hypercert

Issue water credits

Standard Registry

A hypercert batching the water credits issued for the period, anchored to the bundle.

Lexicon
org.broadlistening.policy.block.issue
Input
org.hypercerts.collection + the computed total
Output
org.hypercerts.claim.activity

Node kinds in this graph

  • Role selectorg.broadlistening.policy.block.roleSelect
  • Request documentorg.broadlistening.policy.block.requestDocument
  • Revieworg.broadlistening.policy.block.review
  • Persistorg.broadlistening.policy.block.persist
  • Computeorg.broadlistening.policy.block.compute
  • Aggregateorg.broadlistening.policy.block.aggregate
  • Issue hypercertorg.broadlistening.policy.block.issue
  • Provenanceorg.broadlistening.policy.block.provenance

control-flow event

revise (sends back)

03 · Generated lexicon records

The records this methodology compiles to, ready to write to a PDS. The first tabs are the new policy engine records; the ★ claim.activity tab and those after it are reused ATProto Collective Funding Ecosystem records (org.hypercerts.*): the issued hypercert batch, its rights, an example verification attachment and a retirement receipt.

org.broadlistening.policy.methodology/wri-vwba

{
  "$type": "org.broadlistening.policy.methodology",
  "code": "VWBA 2.0",
  "name": "Volumetric Water Benefit Accounting",
  "registry": "World Resources Institute (WRI)",
  "sector": "Water replenishment",
  "creditType": "water",
  "status": "active",
  "version": "2.0",
  "scopes": [
    "Water",
    "Volumetric",
    "Replenishment"
  ],
  "aligns": [
    "AWS Standard"
  ],
  "roles": [
    {
      "id": "registry",
      "name": "Standard Registry",
      "permission": "Owns the policy, approves participants, anchors each issuance to its evidence."
    },
    {
      "id": "proponent",
      "name": "Project Proponent",
      "permission": "Registers the project and submits monitoring reports."
    },
    {
      "id": "vvb",
      "name": "Validation & Verification Body",
      "permission": "Independently validates the design and verifies monitored data."
    }
  ],
  "schemas": [
    "at://did:plc:bl0adl1sten1ngp0l1cyreg/org.broadlistening.policy.schema/wri-vwba-water-intervention",
    "at://did:plc:bl0adl1sten1ngp0l1cyreg/org.broadlistening.policy.schema/wri-vwba-water-monitoring"
  ],
  "graph": "at://did:plc:bl0adl1sten1ngp0l1cyreg/org.broadlistening.policy.graph/wri-vwba",
  "issuesAs": "org.hypercerts.claim.activity",
  "workScope": "at://did:plc:bl0adl1sten1ngp0l1cyreg/org.hypercerts.workscope.cel/wri-vwba-scope",
  "rights": "at://did:plc:bl0adl1sten1ngp0l1cyreg/org.hypercerts.claim.rights/wri-vwba-rights",
  "createdAt": "2025-01-01T00:00:00.000Z"
}

04 · Schemas

Water Intervention

schema · water-intervention

The catchment, activity and baseline for a water benefit.

FieldTypeReqDescription
catchmentstringCatchment / watershed identifier.
activitystringReplenishment, efficiency or quality activity.
methodstringAccounting method, e.g. WRI VWBA 2.0.
baselineM3numberBaseline annual water balance (m³).

Water Benefit Measurement

schema · water-monitoring

Measured volumetric (or quality) water benefit for a period.

FieldTypeReqDescription
projectrefstrongRef to the registered intervention.
periodstringMeasurement period (ISO-8601 interval).
benefitM3numberNet volumetric water benefit (m³).
qualityParamstring·Optional quality parameter (e.g. kg N, kg P) for quality benefits.

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