VWRI: A Composite Framework for Assessing Village-Level Water Resilience
The Village Water Resilience Index (VWRI) is a composite, indicator-based framework for assessing how resilient a village's water system is — covering groundwater and surface-water conditions, supply infrastructure, drinking-water quality, exposure to climate variability, and the socio-economic capacity of the community to cope with water stress.
The framework evaluates village-level water resilience across five pillars (“Realms”) built from 34 field-measurable indicators: Hydrological, Infrastructure, Water Quality, Climate, and Socio-economic. Each indicator is scored on a 5-tier scale (Very Low to Very High), aggregated into a Realm Score, and combined into a single Composite VWRI using fixed Realm weights.
A balanced multi-dimensional assessment drawing on 34 indicators with fixed realm weights summing to 1.00.
Groundwater condition, recharge, source density and availability of water at the village level.
Coverage, storage, reliability and physical condition of water-supply infrastructure.
Chemical and biological safety of drinking water and its stability across seasons.
Rainfall variability, drought exposure, warming trend and mitigation of water-related emissions.
Household income, dependency on shared water resources, migration and community governance.
Realm Scores (RS) and the final Composite VWRI are classified across five distinct resilience tiers:
| Realm Score Range (RS) / Composite VWRI | Water Resilience Level |
|---|---|
| $\text{RS} \le 1.5$ | Very Low resilience |
| $1.5 < \text{RS} \le 2.5$ | Low resilience |
| $2.5 < \text{RS} \le 3.5$ | Moderate resilience |
| $3.5 < \text{RS} \le 4.5$ | High resilience |
| $\text{RS} > 4.5$ | Very High resilience |
An interactive online calculator implementing this framework is available to calculate all Realm and Composite scores.
Launch VWRI Calculator