A Digital Global Map of Irrigated Areas - An update for Latin America and Europe (Report N. 4)

A Digital Global Map of Irrigated Areas - An update for Latin America and Europe (Report N. 4)

Editor

FAO ;

Descripción

This report describes an update of the Digital Global Map of Irrigated Areas for Latin America and Europe. The map depicts the percentage of each 0.5˚ by 0.5˚ cell that was equipped for irrigation in 1995. The first version of the map has been updated and improved for Latin America (including the Caribbean) and Europe, based on 1) new information from FAO's AQUASTAT and FAOSTAT, 20 national data on irrigation in sub-national units, 3) geographic information on the location and extent of irrigated areas and 4) the European land cover map CORINE. The total irrigated area per country has changed considerably in many countries, especially in Latin America where the information acquired by FAO for the new AQUASTAT report is now included. In total, irrigated areas has increased by 0.4% in Latin America as compared to the first version of the map, while it has decreased by 4.5% in Europe. Compared to the first version of the map, the spatial resolution of the input data is much higher, and the new maps show a more disperse irrigation. This documentation also describes the data sources and the generation process of the new maps for Latin America and Europe, and discusses the map quality. Publication details: Kassel World Water Series 4, Center for Environmental Systems Research, University of Kassel, Germany, 14 pp + Appendix.