Africa Platform

Aridity (areas of concern)
Aridity represents the ‘dryness’ of the climate. Dry areas have a higher potential for land degradation. This layer displays the areas of concern for aridity related issues derived from the convergence of global evidence of human-environment interactions that can lead to land degradation. It highlights dryland areas, where the Aridity Index (ratio of precipitation to evapotranspiration) is inferior to 0.65.

Data provider

EC-JRC
Suggested citation

Cherlet, M., Hutchinson, C., Reynolds, J., Hill, J., Sommer, S., von Maltitz, G. (Eds.), World Atlas of Desertification, Publication Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2018.
Related tool or portal

https://wad.jrc.ec.europa.eu/
Licence

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Date or time period of observation

1891-2010
Frequency of update

Not Updated
Geographic coverage

Global
Spatial Resolution

1km
Technical background

Aridity was selected as one of the 14 global change issues (GCIs) relevant to the global convergence of evidence for land degradation. Based on whether its value at a particular spatial location is above or below a certain threshold, each GCI is classified as being either a concern for land degradation (e.g. declining productivity) or not (e.g. stable productivity). Aridity is a measure of ‘dryness’ of the climate expressed as the ratio of precipitation to evapotranspiration; the lower the ratio the drier the climate. Areas of concern for aridity are characterised by an Aridity Index inferior to 0.65 (dryland).
Cautions

Concerns can be validated or dismissed only by evaluating them within their local biophysical, social, economic and political contexts. Local context provides an understanding of causes and consequences of degradation, but also offers guidance for efforts to control or reverse it.
Related SDGs and targets

GOAL 15: Life on land,
Related Topics

Security, Disaster Risk, Natural Disasters, Resource Scarcity, Land Degradation, Desertification, Natural Resources, Water & Freshwater, Soil, Food and Agriculture, Food Security

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