Skip to main content

Natural Resources

Displaying 76 - 90 of 163
Tropical Moist Forests - Degradation year map
Tropical moist forests have a huge environmental value. They play an important role in biodiversity conservation, terrestrial carbon cycle, hydrological regimes, indigenous population subsistence and ...
Select for mapping Read more
Oil Palm Plantations
Oil seed crops, especially oil palm, are among the most rapidly expanding agricultural land uses, and their expansion is known to cause significant environmental damage. Accordingly, these crops often...
Select for mapping Read more
Total annual gross water loss vs total annual energy production of hydropower pl
In 2016, a total of 42 billion cubic meters of water was lost through evaporation in hydropower reservoirs in Africa. A huge amount compared to the 1.2 billion cubic meters lost from all the other fue...
Select for mapping Read more
Total surface area of hydropower reservoirs
Higher energy demands in Africa has led to a wide expansion of the number of hydropower sites, mainly between the 1960s and 980s. The construction of dams causes impoundments of rivers and reservoirs ...
Select for mapping Read more
Coral bleaching Hotspots
Healthy coral reefs provide a home for millions of aquatic species. They protect coastal homes from storms and support commercial and subsistence fisheries as well as jobs and businesses through touri...
Select for mapping Read more
Daily Coral Bleaching Heat Stress Alert Area
Healthy coral reefs provide a home for millions of aquatic species and numerous ecosystemic services. Yet they are severely threatened. When stressed, corals expel the symbiotic algae living in their ...
Select for mapping Read more
Flood hazard (100-year return period)
River floods are recognized as one of the major causes of economic damages and loss of human lives worldwide. Quantifying flood hazard is an essential component of resilience planning, prevention meas...
Select for mapping Read more
Fires (areas of concern)
Fire is a natural part of all ecosystems. Wildfires have been burning vegetation and shaping landscapes far longer than people have been on Earth. However, changes in fire frequency and timing can res...
Select for mapping Read more
Climate-Vegetation trends (areas of concern)
Changes in vegetation biomass are critical in assessing land degradation. Climate variations, alone or in combination with human-induced land use and land change, can affect biomass productivity and m...
Select for mapping Read more
Water stress (areas of concern)
Water is a critical natural resource for both natural ecosystems and human subsistence. Some of the most immediate pressures on land that lead to degradation include diversion of surface waters and th...
Select for mapping Read more
Decreasing land productivity (areas of concern)
Humans need increasingly more biomass for food, fodder, fibre and energy. Meeting these demands changes global ecosystems. Tracking changes in total biomass production or land productivity is an essen...
Select for mapping Read more
Tree loss (areas of concern)
Forests are the most biologically diverse land ecosystems and are critical for sustaining local and global livelihoods. Deforestation can be considered a type of land degradation when forest ecosystem...
Select for mapping Read more
Topographic Moisture Potential
The Africa Topographic Moisture Potential layer classifies the landscape of Africa as either upland or lowland (and other depressions) area. It was produced as part of the USGS’s Africa Ecosystems Map...
Select for mapping Read more
Surficial Lithology
The Africa Surficial Lithology layer maps the geology of Africa into 20 classes based on the bedrock type and the distribution of unconsolidated surface material. It shows the distribution of the key ...
Select for mapping Read more
Terrestrial Ecosystems of Africa
Organisms and non-living elements of the environment such as climate, soil, and water are connected through the movement of nutrients and energy in ecosystems. Ecosystems represent specific areas wher...
Select for mapping Read more