Waters and Oceans Worldwide (WOW)

Records:2 million
Aggregated databases:20
Period:1970 and earlier to current
Updated:Quarterly
Available format:EBSCOhost

Available on EBSCOhost

About the Database

Waters and Oceans Worldwide (WOW) offers comprehensive information for researchers specialising in all aspects of water research. The database collection has two million records and wide international coverage. Prominent themes covered include water supply, water treatment, water quality, sanitation, health, irrigation, drainage, groundwater and hydrology, habitat and ecology management, environmental impacts, oceanography, marine geology, pollution, coastal and estuarine studies, climatology and climate change, hydroelectric power, dam construction and related civil and water engineering issues, desalination, mining, and much more.

WOW is an electronic information resource which is an aggregation of 20 bibliographic databases from around the world. Major contributing databases include:

  • WATERLIT compiled by NISC in South Africa
  • HydroArchive from GeoSystems in the UK
  • International Water Management Institute (IWMI) database from Sri Lanka
  • Selected Water Resources Abstracts (SWRA) from the US
  • BIDLIB database from the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory in the UK
  • The FBA (Freshwater Biological Association) database from the UK
  • OCEANIS and the library catalogue from the National Oceanography Centre in the UK

And more

WOW includes detailed keyword indexing, article abstracts, direct links to full text, where available. The records and abstracts cover all publications including journal articles, research reports, conference proceedings, grey literature, monographs, theses and dissertations, books, websites and more. Users of Waters and Oceans Worldwide include universities and government departments; water research, engineering and oceanography institutes; municipalities and engineering companies. WOW is indispensable for those institutions involved in water supply, storage and treatment and all aspects of ocean and coastal research and exploitation.