Africa Platform

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 the removal of groundwater reserves to meet agricultural, industrial and domestic demands. This layer displays the areas of concern for water use related issues derived from the convergence of global evidence of human-environment interactions that can have consequences on land degradation. It highlights areas where the total water withdrawal (by the agriculture, industrial and domestic sectors) exceeds 40% of the total available annual renewable water supply.

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

2010
Frequency of update

Not Updated
Geographic coverage

Global
Spatial Resolution

1km
Technical background

Water stress, as a measure for chronic human induced stress rather than drought stress, was selected as one of the 14 global change issues (GCIs) relevant to the global convergence of evidence for land degradation (see "Convergence of global change issues" dataset). 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). Areas of concern for water use are characterised by a total water withdrawal superior to 40% of the total available annual renewable water supply.
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

Health, Climate Change, Climate Services, Disaster Risk, Resource Scarcity, Desertification, Natural Resources, Water & Freshwater

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