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Carbon (C) storage in biomass (biological material) is a key link in the global carbon cycle, and consequently for climate change mitigation. Biomass binds carbon from the atmosphere (CO2) as it grows. Forests in particular are an important Carbon sink that help reduce the greenhouse effect. This map represents above- and below-ground terrestrial carbon storage (tonnes (t) of C per hectare (ha)) per country for circa 2010. Above-ground biomass (stem, bark, branches, twigs...) and below-ground biomass (stump, roots...) were extracted from available biomass carbon datasets, summed together and multiplied by 0.5 to convert to carbon.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 13: Climate Action
Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Forests Soil Ecosystem Services
Source: EC-JRC
The CO2 fixed by photosynthesis is one of the most important components of the carbon cycle. Forests play a key role in this process. They represent large and persistent carbon sinks. Tree carbon stocks are important to quantify terrestrial carbon storage and carbon sinks, and to estimate potential emissions from land cover changes (deforestation, reforestation, afforestation) and from biotic (pests, diseases) and abiotic (forest fires, windstorms) disturbances. Spatially explicit data and assessments of forest biomass and carbon are thus paramount to design and implement effective sustainable forest management options and forest related policies. The above-ground carbon index presented in this dataset is expressed in Mg (megagrams or tonnes) of carbon per km2 . It corresponds to the carbon fraction of the oven-dry weight of the woody parts (stem, bark, branches and twigs) of all living trees, excluding stump and roots, as estimated by the GlobBiomass project (globbiomass.org) with 2010 as the reference year.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 13: Climate Action
Climate Change Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Forests Soil Ecosystem Services
Source: GlobBiomass
Vegetation fires have become a major concern in Africa because of their negative impacts on the environment and on human welfare. Uncontrolled (and un-prescribed) wildfires cause forest and vegetation degradation and related biodiversity loss, resulting in immediate and long-term impacts on the livelihoods of local communities and upstream impacts on national and regional economies. Fires in the tropical environment are a major contributor to tropical forest degradation and, if too frequent, can lead to savannisation of these areas. Vegetation fires are also a significant source of trace gases and aerosols in the atmosphere and contribute to the anticipated climate change, particularly with emissions of CO2. This layer shows the deviation of dekadal fire occurrences from the long-term average of the same 10-day period. A positive anomaly means more fire events than average for the last full 10-day period (red). A negative anomaly means less fire events than average for the last full 10-day period (green).
GOAL 13: Climate action
Other SDGs
Climate Change Climate Services Greenhouse Gas Emissions Disaster Risk Natural Disasters Natural Resources Forests
Source: EC-JRC
The land surface forms were identified using the method developed by the Missouri Resource Assessment Partnership (MoRAP). The MoRAP method is an automated land surface form classification based on Hammond's (1964a, 1964b) classification. MoRAP made modifications to Hammond's classification, which allowed finer-resolution elevation data to be used as input data and analyses to be made using 1 km2 moving window (True, 2002; True et al., 2000). While Hammond's methodology was based on three variables, slope, local relief, and profile type, MoRAP's methodology uses only slope and local relief (True, 2002). Slope is classified as gently sloping or not gently sloping using a threshold value of 8%. Local relief, the difference between the maximum and minimum elevation in a 1km2 neighborhood for analysis, is classified into five classes (0-15m, 16-30m, 31-90m, 91-150m, and >150m). Slope classes and relief classes were subsequently combined to produce eight land surface form classes (flat plains, smooth plains, irregular plains, escarpments, low hills, hills, breaks/foothills, and low mountains). In the implementation for the contiguous United States, Sayre et al. (2009) further refined the MoRAP methodology to identify a new land surface form class, "high mountains/deep canyons", by using an additional local relief class (>400 m). This method was implemented for Africa using a void-filled 90m SRTM elevation dataset which was created from the 30m SRTM elevation data provided by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. In the preliminary output, which had nine land surface form classes (flat plains, smooth plains, irregular plains, escarpments, low hills, hills, breaks/foothills, and low mountains, and high mountains/deep canyons), artifacts were identified over flat desert areas affecting the classification between the two lowest relief classes, "flat plains" and "smooth plains." Since this problem was especially pronounced in areas where the input SRTM elevation data originally had data-voids, the problem could have been caused by anomalies or artifacts in the input data, which resulted from the void-filling processes. Instead of further investigating causes of the problem, the two land surface form classes were combined. In addition, the "low hills" class which had a very low occurrence was combined with the "hills" class. As a result, seven land surface form classes were identified in the final dataset (smooth plains, irregular plains, escarpments, hills, breaks/foothills, low mountains, and high mountains/deep canyons).
GOAL 13: Climate action
Other SDGs
Source: USGS
The African Development Corridors published by Thorn, J.P.R., Bignoli, D.J., Mwangi, B. et al. The African Development Corridors Database: a new tool to assess the impacts of infrastructure investments. Sci Data 9, 679 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01771-y have been buffered according to the level of intervention (Major road: 15 km, Passenger and freight railway: 10 km, Railway: 5 km, Pipeline: 2,5km). Data obtained was intersected with the country boundaries and with protected areas (WDPA, February 2023 version) obtaining the percentage of PA coverage of corridors in each country.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality, GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Rural Development Territorial Development Urban Development Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Protected Areas & Ecological Networks
Source: UNEP-WCMC
The large-scale expansion of built infrastructure is profoundly reshaping the geographies of Africa, generating lock-in patterns of development for future generations. Understanding the impact of these massive investments can allow development opportunities to be maximised and therefore be critical for attaining the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Africa Union Agenda 2063. However, until now information on the types, scope, and timing of investments, how they have evolved, and their spatial-temporal impact was dispersed amongst various agencies. We developed the first comprehensive database of 79 ongoing and planned investment corridors across Africa, synthesizing data from multiple sources covering 184 projects on railways, wet and dry ports, pipelines, airports, techno-cities, and industrial parks. The georeferenced interlinked tabular and spatial database includes 22 attributes with sources provided for each observation. We expect this database will improve coordination, efficiency, monitoring, oversight, strategic planning, transparency, vulnerability risk, and impact assessments, among other uses for inter alia investment banks, governments, impact assessment practitioners, communities, conservationists, economists, and regional economic bodies.
GOAL 09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Other SDGs
GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality, GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, GOAL 15: Life on Land, GOAL 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal
Source: UNEP-WCMC
HydroBASINS represents a series of vectorized polygon layers that depict sub-basin boundaries at a global scale. The goal of this product is to provide a seamless global coverage of consistently sized and hierarchically nested sub-basins at different scales (from tens to millions of square kilometers), supported by a coding scheme that allows for analysis of catchment topology such as up- and downstream connectivity. HydroBASINS has been extracted from the gridded HydroSHEDS core layers at 15 arc-second resolution. Depiction of nested sub-basin delineations An important characteristic of any sub-basin delineation is the sub-basin breakdown, i.e. the decision of when and how to subdivide a larger basin into multiple tributary basins. At its highest level of sub-basin breakdown, HydroBASINS divides a basin into two sub-basins at every location where two river branches meet which each have an individual upstream area of at least 100 km². A second critical feature of sub-basin delineations is the way the sub-basins are grouped or coded to allow for the creation of nested sub-basins at different scales, or to navigate within the sub-basin network from up- to downstream. To support these functionalities and topological concepts, the ‘Pfafstetter’ coding system has been implemented in the HydroBASINS product offering 12 hierarchically nested sub-basin breakdowns globally.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Source: hydrosheds
Climate - in terms of temperature, precipitation and continentality - is a primary determinant in the distribution of vegetation. Salvador Rivas-Martinez and Salvador Rivas-Saenz (2004) developed a global bioclimatic classification system that quantifies key bioclimatic indices reflective of vegetation distributions. These indices can be used to model thermotypes (i.e. hot-cold gradients) and ombrotypes (i.e. wet-dry gradients). Their model was translated into GIS spatial algorithms during modeling of the US ES bioclimate data (Warner et. al. 2008). These spatial models were used (with minor adaptations) with Worldclim climatological data (Hijmans et. al. 2005) to model/map thermotypes and ombrotypes. These two maps were then combined into an isobioclimate map with a total of 157 composite classes. The African isobioclimate data was developed as a primary input dataset for an African Ecological Footprint mapping project undertaken by the U.S. Geological Survey and The Nature Conservancy. The project used a biophysical stratification approach - combining isobioclimate, surficial lithology, land surface forms, landcover, topographic moisture potential, and biogeographic ecological divisions - to generate ecological footprints. The composition and distribution of these unique footprints of the physical and biological landscape was then reviewed by regional vegetation and landscape ecology experts and attributed (labeled) to an intermediate scale African ecosystem class.
GOAL 13: Climate action
Other SDGs
Climate Change Climate Services Food and Agriculture Agroecology Water-Energy-Food Ecosystem
Source: USGS
HydroRIVERS represents a vectorized line network of all global rivers that have a catchment area of at least 10 km² or an average river flow of at least 0.1 m³/sec, or both. HydroRIVERS has been extracted from the gridded HydroSHEDS core layers at 15 arc-second resolution. The global coverage of HydroRIVERS encompasses 8.5 million individual river reaches with an average length of 4.2 km, representing a total of 35.9 million km of rivers globally. HydroRIVERS only includes a limited amount of (mostly geometric) attribute information, such as the river reach length, the distance from upstream headwaters and ocean outlet, the river order, and an estimate of long-term average discharge. Every river reach is also co-registered to the sub-basin of the HydroBASINS database in which it resides (via a shared ID).
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Source: hydrosheds
The Topographic Position dataset identifies two classes: uplands and lowlands/depressions. This is a derivative product of the Compound Topographic Index (CTI) which is a topographically derived measure of slope for a raster cell and the contributing area from "upstream" raster cells, and thus expresses potential for water flow to a point. Uplands and lowlands/depressions areas were mapped by determining a range of CTI values for uplands and for lowlands/depressions and then recoding the CTI dataset using two codes representing these ranges. The calculation of the CTI required two input data, flow accumulation and slope data. Flow accumulation was calculated from the 3 arc-second Drainage Direction dataset available from the HydroSHEDS database (Lehner et al., 2008; World Wildlife Fund, 2008). Slopes were calculated from the 90m SRTM elevation data created by void-filling and re-sampling the 30m SRTM elevation data provided by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Using these input datasets, the CTI calculation was done in a Python script (Worstell, 2008). The threshold value which defined CTI ranges for uplands and lowlands/depressions was decided using an additional dataset, the SRTM River-Surface Water Bodies dataset (Jenness et al., 2006), which mapped inland water body boundaries. Lake water body boundaries were overlain with the CTI data. CTI values which occurred over the boundaries were extracted, and the frequency distribution of these extracted values was calculated. The mean value in this distribution was used as the threshold. The CTI dataset was recoded into to two classes to produce the Topographic Position dataset.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Source: USGS
Air condition indicates whether the air quality is fit for human use and ecosystems. This indicator is based on PM2.5 concentrations. PM 2.5 is the annual global surface concentration (micrograms per cubic meter) of all composition ground-level fine particulate matter of 2.5 micrometers or smaller. Exposure to high average concentrations of PM2.5 over time has been a reliable predictor of heightened mortality. It was measured by Hammer et.al. (2022) combining Aerosol Optical Depth retrievals from multiple satellite algorithms.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 2: Zero Hunger
Source: WWF
Many African countries, especially in the Sub-Saharan region, highly depend on hydropower, which is one of the energy sources most affected by droughts. At the same time, hydropower has a huge impact on water consumption (mainly through evaporation from reservoir surfaces) in comparison with other fuel types despite having higher densities of plants and installed capacities. Hydropower accounts for 15% of Africa’s energy production. This map shows the location and annual energy production (GWh/year) of hydropower plants with an installed capacity above 5MW in Africa for year 2016.
GOAL 09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Other SDGs
GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
Water & Freshwater Energy Energy Production Clean & Renewable Energy
Source: EC-JRC
Evaporation from hydropower reservoirs represents a key component of the reservoir water budget. Depending on the different climate regimes on the continent, the rate of evaporation from open water changes with region-specific temperature, wind speed, relative humidity and solar radiation. This map shows the annual mean evaporation rate (mm/year) at the centroid of African reservoirs subject to hydropower production, for the year 2016.
GOAL 07: Affordable and clean energy
Other SDGs
GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Natural Resources Water & Freshwater Energy Energy Production Clean & Renewable Energy
Source: EC-JRC
Dam-induced impoundment of water in hydropower reservoirs usually causes enlarged water surfaces compared to the waterbody extent prior to dam construction (with the exception of reservoirs constrained by geomorphologic features, i.e. canyons). The annual gross water loss from reservoirs is determined by the reservoir surface area, annual evaporation and a shared use allocation factor in the case of multi-purpose reservoirs. Consequently, an enlarged reservoir surface area leads to increased water losses, depending on location’s climate regime and shared uses of reservoir water. This map shows the yearly gross water loss (mcm/year) from hydropower reservoirs in Africa, as of 2016. Water losses from waterbody surfaces prior to dam construction are not considered in the estimates.
GOAL 07: Affordable and clean energy
Other SDGs
GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Natural Resources Water & Freshwater Energy Energy Production Clean & Renewable Energy
Source: EC-JRC
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 fuel types combined. In the same period, hydropower accounted for 15% of Africa’s total energy production. The ratio of annual water loss (from a hydropower reservoir) versus energy production (of the associated hydropower plant) describes somehow the water efficiency of a hydropower site. The ratio varies from region to region and depend on the reservoir’s surface area and evaporation rate, and on the produced energy of the associated hydropower plant. A better performance (lower ratios, i.e. ratios below 1) in terms of reduced water losses through evaporation per produced energy unit can be achieved at hydropower sites characterized by decreased reservoir surfaces and increased energy production. In contrast, unfavourable, higher ratios occur with water losses higher than the associated hydropower energy production rates. This map shows the location and ratio water loss / energy production (mcm/GWh) of hydropower plants in Africa for year 2016.
GOAL 07: Affordable and clean energy
Other SDGs
GOAL 6: Clean Water and Sanitation, GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Natural Resources Water & Freshwater Energy Energy Production Clean & Renewable Energy
Source: EC-JRC
African countries have an evident potential for solar energy. Knowing what amount of solar radiation reaches the earth's surface is of particular interest for solar photovoltaic (PV) installations. It can be represented by the average annual potential energy production (or yield): the total amount of electricity (kWh) produced in one year by a 1 kWp PV system at optimal angle, expressed in kWh/kWp.
GOAL 07: Affordable and clean energy
Other SDGs
Energy Energy Production Energy Access Clean & Renewable Energy
Source: EC-JRC
Increasing water scarcity and water quality issues are serious constraints, especially for Northern Africa. A comprehensive assessment of spatial and temporal precipitation frequency is the initial step for defining public policies relating to water resources management and environmental monitoring. In the agricultural sector, a detailed knowledge of precipitation patterns is necessary to identify the most appropriate crop varieties for the region and to effectively manage climate related uncertainties. Precipitation frequency is also a central source of information for hazard mitigation and management. This layer represents the average variability of precipitation (L-CV) around the annual mean value for the period 1981-2017. The larger the L-CV, the more variable the annual precipitation is from year to year.
GOAL 13: Climate action
Other SDGs
GOAL 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
Source: EC-JRC
Higher energy demands in Africa has led to a wide expansion of the number of hydropower sites, mainly between the 1960s and 1980s. The construction of dams causes impoundments of rivers and reservoirs in the regions of dam influence, with higher evaporation and water temperatures due to increased water surfaces. This map shows the he surface area (sqkm) of African reservoirs subject to hydropower production for the year 2016. It includes reservoirs of associated hydropower plants with installed capacities above 5MW. Apart from this, only reservoirs with a detected dam-caused impoundment of water surface are considered.
GOAL 07: Affordable and clean energy
Other SDGs
GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Water & Freshwater Energy Energy Production Clean & Renewable Energy
Source: EC-JRC
Dam-induced impoundment of water in hydropower reservoirs usually causes enlarged water surfaces compared to the waterbody extent prior to dam construction (with the exception of reservoirs constrained by geomorphologic features, i.e. canyons). The annual gross water loss from reservoirs is determined by the reservoir surface area, annual evaporation and a shared use allocation factor in the case of multi-purpose reservoirs. Consequently, an enlarged reservoir surface area leads to a significant increase of water losses, depending on location’s climate regime and shared uses of reservoir water. This map shows the location and yearly gross water loss (mcm/year) from hydropower reservoirs in Africa, as of 2016. Water losses from waterbody surfaces prior to dam construction are not considered in the estimates.
GOAL 07: Affordable and clean energy
Other SDGs
GOAL 6: Clean Water and Sanitation, GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Water & Freshwater Energy Energy Production Clean & Renewable Energy
Source: EC-JRC
The Fraction of Photosynthetically Active Radiation Absorbed (FAPAR) is used to track the overall primary productivity associated with atmospheric CO2 fixation. FAPAR anomalies relative to the average between 2003 and 2010 show large surface variations, in terms of values and coverage, of vegetation productivity conditions over Africa. Temperature and precipitation deficits are the main drivers for the negative anomalies. Each location with a negative anomaly (FAPAR value lower than the long-term mean for that location – shades of red) indicates relative vegetation stress during that 10-day interval. Each location with a positive anomaly (FAPAR value higher than long-term mean for that location – shades of green) indicates relative favourable vegetation growth conditions during that 10-day interval. FAPAR values and their anomalies provide useful information for water and agricultural management purposes.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 13: Climate Action
Real Time Climate Change Natural Resources Forests Food and Agriculture
Source: EC-JRC
Evapotranspiration and carbon fluxes between the biosphere and the atmosphere are routinely expressed in terms of the Leaf Area Index (LAI) of the canopy. Monitoring the change of LAI is essential for assessing the evolution of the vegetation over Africa. LAI anomalies relative to the average values between 2003 and 2010 show apparent variations of vegetation cover over Africa. Increase of temperature and precipitation deficits are the main drivers for the negative anomalies. Human or animals may also locally impact the state of leaves. This record shows the anomalies of LAI every 10-days reflecting its large variations over Africa.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 13: Climate Action
Real Time Climate Change Natural Resources Forests Food and Agriculture
Source: EC-JRC
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.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Security Disaster Risk Natural Disasters Resource Scarcity Land Degradation Desertification Natural Resources Water & Freshwater Soil Food and Agriculture Food Security
Source: EC-JRC
Most conflicts initially start out as very local phenomena. Monitoring political violence events at local-level can help anticipate the escalation of conflicts within states, recognise signs of crisis development and determine likely conflict trajectories. The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) collects reported information on internal political conflict disaggregated by date, location and actors to facilitate local and scale-dependant research on war patterns and processes. This layer shows all political violence and protest events recorded by ACLED in Africa for the period 2019-2022.
GOAL 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions
Other SDGs
Security Peace Conflicts, Violence, Criminal networks Maritime Security Sustainable Growth & Jobs Gender & Inequality Politics War & Peace People Life Expectancy
Source: Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED)
Increasing water scarcity and water quality issues are serious constraints, especially for Northern Africa. A comprehensive assessment of spatial and temporal precipitation frequency is the initial step for defining public policies relating to water resources management and environmental monitoring. In the agricultural sector, a detailed knowledge of precipitation patterns is necessary to identify the most appropriate crop varieties for the region and to effectively manage climate related uncertainties. Precipitation frequency is also a central source of information for hazard mitigation and management. This layer shows the average annual precipitation (mm/year) for the period 1981-2017 across the continent.
GOAL 06: Clean water and sanitation
Other SDGs
Source: EC-JRC
Modern energy services are crucial to human well-being and to a country’s economic development; and yet 1.2 billion people are without access to electricity. It is recognized that the central grid is unlikely to reach many remote areas in the near future: many of these communities will have low electricity consumption, making the costs of extending the grid unaffordable. Given the evident potential of solar energy for African countries, using stand-alone and mini-grid photovoltaic (PV) systems could be an alternative approach to meet the objective of universal electrification. This layer presents the ratio between the optimized battery size (kWh) and PV array size (kWp) for PV mini-grid using Li-ion batteries to store electricity (instead of the traditional lead-acid batteries) based on a high energy consumption pattern (most energy used during day-time). A higher ratio means that the battery size needed to satisfy the same electricity demand produced by the PV system is larger. Used in combination with other sources, these data can help governments, local authorities and non-governmental organisations to investigate the suitability of PV mini-grids for electrification of regions where access to electricity is lacking.
GOAL 07: Affordable and clean energy
Other SDGs
Source: EC-JRC
Modern energy services are crucial to human well-being and to a country’s economic development; and yet 1.2 billion people are without access to electricity. It is recognized that the central grid is unlikely to reach many remote areas in the near future: many of these communities will have low electricity consumption, making the costs of extending the grid unaffordable. Given the evident potential of solar energy for African countries, using stand-alone and mini-grid photovoltaic (PV) systems could be an alternative approach to meet the objective of universal electrification. This layer presents the ratio between the optimized battery size (kWh) and PV array size (kWp) for PV mini-grid using Li-ion batteries to store electricity (instead of the traditional lead-acid batteries) based on a low energy consumption pattern (most energy used during night-time). A higher ratio means that the battery size needed to satisfy the same electricity demand produced by the PV system is larger. Used in combination with other sources, these data can help governments, local authorities and non-governmental organisations to investigate the suitability of PV mini-grids for electrification of regions where access to electricity is lacking.
GOAL 07: Affordable and clean energy
Other SDGs
Source: EC-JRC
Roots are a long term and stable carbon sink, accounting for about 0.4 of the above ground biomass across biogeographical regions. Well established and developed root systems provide various ecosystem services related to improved soil quality (higher cation exchange capacity and nutrient turnaround) and characteristics (improved soil porosity and aeration). Spatially explicit data and assessments of forest biomass and carbon are paramount to design and implement effective sustainable forest management options and forest related policies. The belowground biomass carbon index (BBCI) presented in this dataset is expressed in Mg (Megagrams or Tonnes) of carbon per km2. It represents an estimation of the carbon stored in the roots of all living trees. Together with the above-ground carbon index (AGCI) and the soil organic content index (SOCI), it provides a complete overview of the total carbon stored in forest areas (trees and soil).
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 13: Climate Action
Climate Change Deforestation Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Forests Soil Ecosystem Services
Source: GlobBiomass
Biodiversity hotspots are the Earth’s most biologically rich—yet heavily threatened—terrestrial regions. These are regions where success in conserving species can have an enormous impact in securing our global biodiversity. To qualify as a biodiversity hotspot, an area must meet two strict criteria: it must contain at least 1,500 species of vascular plants found nowhere else on Earth (known as "endemic" species), and it must have lost at least 70% of its primary native vegetation. 36 regions are identified as hotspots by Conservation International and partners, 9 of which lay (partially or fully) in Africa. This dataset shows their location.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Protected Areas & Ecological Networks
Source: Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF)
The Biodiversity Intactness Index shows the modelled average abundance of originally-present species in a grid cell, as a percentage, relative to their abundance in an intact ecosystem. Originally available for year 2015, the data is now available in a time series covering the period 2000-2015 - here we provide a bi-decade subset of the index.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Forests Protected Areas & Ecological Networks
Source: UNEP-WCMC, University College London, Natural History Museum, Imperial College London, CSIRO Canberra, Luc Hoffmann Institute, University of Copenhagen, University of Sussex
Physical Risk is driven by the ways in which a business depends on nature and can be affected by both natural and human-induced conditions of land- and seascapes. It comprises the risk categories: 1) Provisioning Services, 2) Regulating & Supporting Services - Enabling, 3) Regulating Services - Mitigating, 4) Cultural Services and 5) Pressures on Biodiversity. Therefore, physical risks account for the status of the ecosystem services that companies, or their suppliers, rely on. See the specific risk type layers for more details.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, GOAL 14: Life Below Water, GOAL 2: Zero Hunger, GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy, GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Source: WWF
Biomes are distinct biological communities (collection of plants and animals) that have formed in response to a shared physical climate. They are distinguished by characteristic temperatures and amount of precipitation. This map shows the geographic distribution of the eleven major terrestrial biomes found in Africa (out of 14 worldwide). It shows that the same biome can occur in geographically distinct areas with similar climates. Annual precipitations, fluctuations in precipitation and temperature variation (on a daily and seasonal basis) are important abiotic factors influencing the geographic distribution of a biome and the vegetation type in the biome.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Climate Change Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Forests Food and Agriculture Agroecology
Source: EC-JRC
Biomes are distinct biological communities (collection of plants and animals) that have formed in response to a shared physical climate. The 11 major terrestrial biomes found in Africa (out of 14 worldwide) are partially covered by Protected Areas. This map shows the percentage of areas protected in each of the terrestrial biomes. For example: in 2020, 12,3% of montane grasslands and shrublands in Africa were covered by Protected Areas.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Climate Change Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Protected Areas & Ecological Networks Food and Agriculture
Source: EC-JRC
Some extraordinary changes have occurred across the globe over the past decades regarding human habitation. Globally, between 1975 and 2015 built-up areas increased by approximately 250 %, while population increased by a factor of 1.8. The most considerable changes occurred in Africa where it has nearly quadrupled. The extent of built-up area poses a number of challenges to global sustainable development. As urban clusters expand, productive land and soil is sealed, and natural ecosystems are replaced by land use to support urban centres. This layer highlights the areas of concern for built-up related issues derived from the convergence of global evidence of human-environment interactions that can have land degradation consequences.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Climate Change Sustainable Growth & Jobs Territorial Development Urban Development People
Source: EC-JRC
The Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) project produces global spatial information about the human presence on the planet. It benefits many applications ranging from disaster risk reduction and post-disaster humanitarian relief to regular monitoring of changes in human settlement patterns and extent. This layer displays the built-up area in 1975. The value of each cell represent the proportion of building footprint area within the total size of the cell (1km x 1km).
GOAL 11: Sustainable cities and communities
Other SDGs
Sustainable Growth & Jobs Territorial Development Urban Development People Population Growth
Source: EC-JRC
The Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) project produces global spatial information about the human presence on the planet. It benefits many applications ranging from disaster risk reduction and post-disaster humanitarian relief to regular monitoring of changes in human settlement patterns and extent. This layer displays the built-up area in 1990. The value of each cell represent the proportion of building footprint area within the total size of the cell (1km x 1km).
GOAL 11: Sustainable cities and communities
Other SDGs
Sustainable Growth & Jobs Territorial Development Urban Development People Population Growth
Source: EC-JRC
The Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) project produces global spatial information about the human presence on the planet. It benefits many applications ranging from disaster risk reduction and post-disaster humanitarian relief to regular monitoring of changes in human settlement patterns and extent. This layer displays the built-up area in 2000. The value of each cell represent the proportion of building footprint area within the total size of the cell (1km x 1km).
GOAL 11: Sustainable cities and communities
Other SDGs
Sustainable Growth & Jobs Territorial Development Urban Development People Population Growth
Source: EC-JRC
The Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) project produces global spatial information about the human presence on the planet. It benefits many applications ranging from disaster risk reduction and post-disaster humanitarian relief to regular monitoring of changes in human settlement patterns and extent. This layer displays the built-up area in 1975. The value of each cell represent the proportion of building footprint area within the total size of the cell (1km x 1km).
GOAL 11: Sustainable cities and communities
Other SDGs
GOAL 15: Life on Land
Sustainable Growth & Jobs Territorial Development Urban Development People Population Growth
Source: EC-JRC
The data provided here are the result of a time-series analysis of carbon density change (in Mg/ha) between 2003-2014 spanning tropical America, Africa, and Asia (23.45 N lat.-23.45 S lat.). The original data is provided as two separate rasters representing (1) carbon density net gain and (2) carbon density net loss within each ~463 x 463 metre pixel, with only pixels exhibiting statistical significance at the 95% level being reported. The data here was re-projected from the its original MODIS sinusoidal projection to WGS84.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 13: Climate Action
Source: Woodwell Climate Research Center
Malaria, a life-threatening disease transmitted by mosquitoes, affects millions of people worldwide. Treatment and prevention efforts such as insecticide-treated mosquito nets and rapid diagnostic tests significantly decreased the number of malaria cases in Africa. This layer displays the change in malaria rates (%) from 2000 to 2015 among children in Sub-Saharan Africa.
GOAL 03: Good health and well-being
Other SDGs
Health Public Health Diseases & Pandemic One Health Sustainable Growth & Jobs People Demography
Source: University of Oxford
How do development projects influence the geographic distribution of economic activity within low-income and middle-income countries? Existing research focuses on the effects of Western development projects on inter-personal inequality and inequality across different subnational regions. However, China has become a major financier of economic infrastructure in Africa. This dataset geo-locates Chinese Government-financed projects between 2000 and 2014. It captures 3,485 projects worth $273.6 billion in total official financing. It includes both Chinese aid and non-concessional official financing. Chinese development projects in general, and Chinese transportation projects in particular, appear to reduce economic inequality within and between subnational localities.
GOAL 09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Other SDGs
Economy Sustainable Growth & Jobs Gender & Inequality Politics Rural Development Territorial Development Urban Development
Source: AidData
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 may trigger changes in vegetation type and structure. Depending on their severity and duration, precipitation anomalies can trigger or aggravate existing land pressures. This layer displays the areas of concern for climate-vegetation trends derived from the convergence of global evidence of human-environment interactions that can have consequences on land degradation. It highlights areas with declining plant productivity in response to climate fluctuations (drought conditions in particular).
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Climate Change Climate Services Desertification Deforestation Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Forests
Source: EC-JRC
Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana are the main largest producers of cocoa in the world. However, the cultivation of this crop has led to the loss of vast tracts of forest areas in both countries. Efficient and accurate methods for remotely identifying cocoa farms are essential for the implementation of sustainable cocoa practices and the periodic and effective monitoring of forests. This map, generated using Random Forest image classification, shows the 2019 distribution of cocoa farms in both countries. The estimated area for cocoa is 4.8Mha for Cote d'Ivoire and 2.3Mha for Ghana.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, GOAL 2: Zero Hunger
Food and Agriculture Land Use in Agriculture Food Production
Source: EC-JRC
Fixed broadband subscriptions refers to fixed subscriptions to high-speed access to the public Internet (a TCP/IP connection), at downstream speeds equal to, or greater than, 256 kbit/s. This includes cable modem, DSL, fiber-to-the-home/building, other fixed (wired)-broadband subscriptions, satellite broadband and terrestrial fixed wireless broadband. This total is measured irrespective of the method of payment. It excludes subscriptions that have access to data communications (including the Internet) via mobile-cellular networks. It should include fixed WiMAX and any other fixed wireless technologies. It includes both residential subscriptions and subscriptions for organizations.
GOAL 09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Other SDGs
GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, GOAL 4: Quality Education, GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
Digital Economy Digital Transformation Digital Connectivity & Infrastructures Technology Transfer People
Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database.
Fixed telephone subscriptions refers to the sum of active number of analogue fixed telephone lines, voice-over-IP (VoIP) subscriptions, fixed wireless local loop (WLL) subscriptions, ISDN voice-channel equivalents and fixed public payphones.
GOAL 09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Other SDGs
GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, GOAL 4: Quality Education, GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
Digital Economy Digital Transformation Digital Connectivity & Infrastructures Technology Transfer People
Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database.
Internet users are individuals who have used the Internet (from any location) in the last 3 months. The Internet can be used via a computer, mobile phone, personal digital assistant, games machine, digital TV etc.
GOAL 09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Other SDGs
GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, GOAL 4: Quality Education, GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
Digital Economy Digital Transformation Digital Connectivity & Infrastructures Technology Transfer People
Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database.
Mobile broadband subscriptions are mobile subscriptions that advertise data speeds of 256 kbit/s or greater. The subscription must allow access to the Internet via HTTP and must have been used to make a data connection via Internet Protocol (IP) in the previous three months. Standard SMS and MMS messaging do not count as an active Internet data connection even if they are delivered via IP.
GOAL 09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Other SDGs
GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, GOAL 4: Quality Education, GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
Digital Economy Digital Transformation Digital Connectivity & Infrastructures Technology Transfer People
Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database.
Mobile cellular telephone subscriptions are subscriptions to a public mobile telephone service that provide access to the PSTN using cellular technology. The indicator includes (and is split into) the number of postpaid subscriptions, and the number of active prepaid accounts (i.e. that have been used during the last three months). The indicator applies to all mobile cellular subscriptions that offer voice communications. It excludes subscriptions via data cards or USB modems, subscriptions to public mobile data services, private trunked mobile radio, telepoint, radio paging and telemetry services.
GOAL 09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Other SDGs
GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, GOAL 4: Quality Education, GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
Digital Economy Digital Transformation Digital Connectivity & Infrastructures Technology Transfer People
Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database.
At any given place on Earth, complex human-environment interactions are at play. They include differing rates and magnitudes of drivers (e.g. overgrazing, climate change, agricultural practices) and differing consequences in land degradation (e.g. soil erosion, changes in productivity, loss of biodiversity). The occurrence of multiple global change issues at a location suggests a potential for land degradation, at least in some form. This layer depicts where global change issues relevant to land degradation coincide at a global scale. It helps identifying local or regional areas of concern where land degradation processes may be underway.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Climate Change Land Degradation Desertification Deforestation Natural Resources Ecosystem Services
Source: EC-JRC
Whether you’re monitoring crops, modelling green energy installations or soil sealing, combatting loss of natural resources or just helping countries meet their Sustainable Development Goals, chances are high that you’ll need an accurate and spatially detailed map on land cover and land use. Earth Observation satellites, like those from EU’s flagship programme Copernicus, are key to providing such maps, at a global scale, with free and open access. Land cover maps represent spatial information on different types (classes) of physical coverage of the Earth's surface, e.g. forests, grasslands, croplands, lakes, wetlands. Dynamic land cover maps include transitions of land cover classes over time and hence captures land cover changes. This dataset shows the land cover for the baseline year 2019 with a discrete classification in 23 classes aligned with UN-FAO's Land Cover Classification System.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Sustainable Growth & Jobs Rural Development Territorial Development Urban Development Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Forests Land Use in Agriculture
Source: EC-JRC
Copernicus is the European flagship programme for monitoring the Earth. Data is collected by Earth observation satellites and sensors on the earth’s surface. The Copernicus Land Monitoring Service provides geographical information on land use and land cover at European and global scale. Derived from the Copernicus Hot Spot Land Cover Change Explorer, this layer presents detailed land cover information for specific areas of interest –or hot spots– in Africa. These areas were selected as a priority for mapping because of their importance in biodiversity preservation (Protected Areas, Key Landscapes for Conservation...). Park managers in many countries across Africa rely on this Copernicus product to monitor and understand their parks features and overall health. Mapping habitats, assessing pressure on land, identifying prime locations for species reintroduction or new areas to protect are just a few examples of how these data can be exploited.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Climate Change Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Forests Protected Areas & Ecological Networks
Source: EC-JRC
Park managers in many countries across Africa need to monitor and understand their parks features and overall health. They can rely on the highly detailed land cover information offered by the Copernicus Hot Spot Land Cover Change Explorer for specific areas of interest –or hot spots. These areas were selected for their importance in biodiversity preservation (Protected Areas, Key Landscapes for Conservation...). For each land cover class (Natural vegetation, Wetlands, urbane areas, etc.), this layer shows which portions of the areas changed to another class over the period (2000-2019). For a more detailed analysis, compare the layer with the present landcover or refer to the online Explorer. The allows to monitor land cover and land cover change in high detail and make informed decisions based on spatial data.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Climate Change Natural Resources Forests Protected Areas & Ecological Networks
Source: EC-JRC
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 tourism and recreation. Yet they are severely threatened by pollution, disease, habitat destruction and climate change. When corals are stressed, they expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissues and become white (bleached) and vulnerable. Corals are vulnerable to bleaching when the sea surface temperature (SST) exceeds the temperatures normally experienced in the hottest month of the year. The NOAA Coral Reef Watch daily global 5km Coral Bleaching HotSpot product measures the occurrence and magnitude of instantaneous heat stress, potentially resulting in coral bleaching. It highlights regions where the SST is warmer than the highest monthly mean. HotSpot values of 1°C or more indicate heat stress leading to coral bleaching and are highlighted in yellow to dark red colors.
GOAL 13: Climate action
Other SDGs
GOAL 14: Life Below Water
Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
This dataset is an index that estimates the relative value provided by coral reefs that protect coastlines through reduction of wave height and wave energy. The value as of 2014 is modelled as a function of exposed populations and infrastructure that received some level of protection from coastal and barrier reefs, and is described in relative terms, classified by decile (i.e., grouped into the most valuable ten percent of reefs for protection, the second-most valuable tenth of reefs, etc.). It was calculated at 1 kilometre (km) resolution globally, encompassing all countries and territories containing coral reefs.
GOAL 14: Life below water
Other SDGs
Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Marine Resources Ecosystem Services
Source: The Nature Conservancy (TNC), World Resources Institute (WRI), the University of Washington (UWash), and the University of Cambridge
Despite a high total population, most parts of the African continent are sparsely populated, with almost 60% living in non-urban areas. Diesel generators have long been the traditional solution to decentralized electrification needs. For off-grid applications, they present lower up-front capital costs per kilowatt installed; however, the dramatic increase of fuel costs in recent years and the cost of transport to remote areas greatly diminish the low capital cost advantage of the diesel option. Even in the cases when the initial investments were subsidized, the high yearly fuel cost are born by the users which often results in early termination of its use. The map shows the spatial variance of the electricity costs per kWh delivered by an off-grid diesel generator.
GOAL 07: Affordable and clean energy
Other SDGs
Source: EC-JRC
Modern energy services are crucial to human well-being and to a country’s economic development. Yet 1.2 billion people worldwide live without access to electricity. It is recognized that the central grid is unlikely to reach many remote areas in the near future: many of these communities will have low electricity consumption, making the costs of extending the grid unaffordable. Given the evident potential of solar energy for African countries, using stand-alone and mini-grid photovoltaic (PV) systems could be an alternative approach to meet the objective of universal electrification. This layer compares the costs of electricity produced by solar photovoltaic and diesel systems, the two prevailing off-grid options for rural electrification in Africa. The map shows the difference between solar- and diesel-based electricity production cost (cents USD/kWh) at one square-kilometre resolution. PV minigrid represent the least-cost electrification option in the orange-to-yellow areas, whereas cheaper diesel is depicted in purple. The higher the contrast, the larger the cost difference.
GOAL 07: Affordable and clean energy
Other SDGs
Climate Change Energy Energy Production Clean & Renewable Energy
Source: EC-JRC
Biodiversity and the ecosystem services it supports are not only the foundation for our life on Earth, but also critical to the livelihoods and well-being of people everywhere. Africa’s extraordinary richness in biodiversity and ecosystem services, and wealth of indigenous and local knowledge, comprises a strategic asset for sustainable development in the region. Yet the decline and loss of biodiversity is reducing nature’s contributions to people in Africa, affecting daily lives and hampering the sustainable social and economic targets set by African countries. This map shows the countries' richness in animal and plant species assessed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and documented in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Established in 1964, the IUCN Red List is a critical indicator of the health of the world’s biodiversity that helps inform necessary conservation decisions.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Source: EC-JRC
Africa is very rich in biodiversity and is the last place on Earth with a significant assemblage of large mammals. This natural richness, accumulated over millions of years, coupled with the wealth of indigenous and local knowledge on the continent, is central to the pursuit of sustainable development in the region. Yet the decline and loss of biodiversity is reducing nature’s contributions to people in Africa, affecting daily lives and hampering the sustainable social and economic targets set by African countries. This map shows the number of threatened mammal species by country, assessed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and documented in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Established in 1964, the IUCN Red List is a critical indicator of the health of the world’s biodiversity that helps inform necessary conservation decisions.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Source: EC-JRC
Started in 2015, the Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa (CoM SSA) initiative supports Sub-Saharan cities in their fight against climate change and in their efforts in ensuring access to clean energy. CoM SSA is part of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM) – the largest coalition of cities committed to local climate and energy action. Under the CoM SSA, local authorities make a voluntary political commitment to implement climate and energy actions in their communities. This layer shows the location and year of signature of signatory cities and municipalities of the CoM SSA.
GOAL 07: Affordable and clean energy
Other SDGs
GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, GOAL 13: Climate Action, GOAL 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal
Source: EC-JRC
By detecting areas where agricultural production deficits might occur, it is possible to prevent food security crises and anticipate response planning. To do this, we need accurate and reliable information on agricultural land cover. This layer shows the extent of cropland in Africa. Each pixel represents the fraction of the area covered by cropland (i.e. the percentage of the pixel with crops).
GOAL 02: Zero hunger
Other SDGs
GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, GOAL 2: Zero Hunger
Natural Resources Food and Agriculture Land Use in Agriculture
Source: EC-JRC
Crop conditions monitoring is highly relevant for food security early warning and response planning in food insecure areas of the world. GEOGLAM is the Group on Earth Observations' Global Agricultural Monitoring Initiative. Its main objective is to reinforce the international community's capacity to produce and disseminate relevant, timely and accurate forecasts of agricultural production at national, regional, and global scales by using Earth Observation data. Copernicus4GEOGLAM is one of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Services managed by the EC Joint Research Centre. This project aims at producing baseline information allowing countries in Africa to improve their agricultural monitoring systems. This crop map covers a 98 687 km2 area of Kenya. It shows the situation at the end of the long rain season of 2021. The mapping service is requested by the country and the results are made fully and freely accessible.
GOAL 02: Zero hunger
Other SDGs
Source: EC-JRC
Crop conditions monitoring is highly relevant for food security early warning and response planning in food insecure areas of the world. GEOGLAM is the Group on Earth Observations' Global Agricultural Monitoring Initiative. Its main objective is to reinforce the international community's capacity to produce and disseminate relevant, timely and accurate forecasts of agricultural production at national, regional, and global scales by using Earth Observation data. Copernicus4GEOGLAM is one of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Services managed by the EC Joint Research Centre. This project aims at producing baseline information allowing countries in Africa to improve their agricultural monitoring systems. This crop map covers a 116 190 km2 of Tanzania. It shows the situation at the end of the long rain season of 2021. The mapping service is requested by the country and the results are made fully and freely accessible.
GOAL 02: Zero hunger
Other SDGs
Source: EC-JRC
Crop conditions monitoring is highly relevant for food security early warning and response planning in food insecure areas of the world. GEOGLAM is the Group on Earth Observations' Global Agricultural Monitoring Initiative. Its main objective is to reinforce the international community's capacity to produce and disseminate relevant, timely and accurate forecasts of agricultural production at national, regional, and global scales by using Earth Observation data. Copernicus4GEOGLAM is one of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Services managed by the EC Joint Research Centre. This project aims at producing baseline information allowing countries in Africa to improve their agricultural monitoring systems. This crop map covers a 89296 km2 of Uganda. It shows the situation at the end of the long rain season of 2021. The mapping service is requested by the country and the results are made fully and freely accessible.
GOAL 02: Zero hunger
Other SDGs
GOAL 15: Life on Land
Source: EC-JRC
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 tissues and become white (bleached) and vulnerable. The NOAA Coral Reef Watch daily global 5km satellite coral Bleaching Alert Area (7-day maximum) is a composite product that summarizes the current Degree Heating Week (a cumulative measurement of both intensity and duration of heat stress) and Coral Bleaching HotSpot (occurrence and magnitude of instantaneous heat stress) values. At a glance, this layer outlines the current locations, coverage, and potential risk level of coral bleaching heat stress.
GOAL 13: Climate action
Other SDGs
GOAL 14: Life Below Water
Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
The Dead Wood Carbon and Litter Carbon pools have been estimated at global level as constant fractions of ESA Biomass CCI Above Ground Biomass (AGB), v.3 (2018) using a lookup table based on global ecological zone, elevation and precipitation regime, as proposed by Harris, N.L., Gibbs, D.A., Baccini, A. et al. Global maps of twenty-first century forest carbon fluxes. Nat. Clim. Chang. 11, 234–240 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-00976-6
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 13: Climate Action
Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Forests Ecosystem Services
Source: EC-JRC
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 essential part of monitoring land transformations that are typically associated with land degradation. Land productivity dynamics (LPD) are used as an indicator of change or stability of the land’s capacity to sustain primary production. This layer displays the areas of concern for land productivity related issues, derived from the convergence of global evidence of human-environment interactions that can have consequences on land degradation.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Economy Climate Change Resource Scarcity Land Degradation Natural Resources Soil Food and Agriculture Yields Food per Person
Source: EC-JRC
The layers present the application of the Degree of Urbanisation stage I methodology recommended by UN Statistical Commission to the global population grid generated by the JRC in the epochs 1975-2030 (5 years timestep). They have been generated by integration of built-up surface extracted from Landsat and Sentinel-2 image data processing (GHS-BUILT-S R2023), and population data derived from the CIESIN GPW v4.11 (GHS-POP R2023). This product is an update of the data released in 2022 based on the updates of the GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP. The Settlement Model is provided at the detailed level (Second Level - L2). First level can be obtained aggregating L2.
GOAL 11: Sustainable cities and communities
Other SDGs
GOAL 15: Life on Land
Sustainable Growth & Jobs Territorial Development Urban Development People Population Growth
Source: EC-JRC
Ecosystem condition indicates whether the natural environment is intact and connected. Poor ecosystem condition can result in businesses having restricted access in the long-term to the quantity and quality of resources and enablers needed for their activities as well as other ecosystem services they rely on. The preservation and restoration of terrestrial, freshwater and marine habitat is a key component in addressing biodiversity risk, and to achieve sustainable development goals. The ecosystem condition indicator has been calculated separately for terrestrial, freshwater and marine areas. Terrestrial: Biodiversity Intactness Index and Functional Connectivity of the Worlds Protected Areas were used. Freshwater: The Water Risk Filter’s (WRF) Fragmentation Status of Rivers has been integrated into the Biodiversity Risk Filter without changes. See the specific risk indicator layers in the WRF methodology for more details. Marine areas: Ocean Health Index’ habitat condition data for six marine ecosystems was considered.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 2: Zero Hunger
Source: WWF
Poverty affects billions of people around the globe. On a daily basis, they face low wages and substandard health, education, and living standards. Because of this, poverty must be understood and approached as a multidimensional issue. The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) acknowledges that poverty has many faces. The second dimension in the MIP is the Education dimension. This includes years of schooling and child school attendance. This map shows the percentage contribution of the education dimension to overall poverty. The lower percentages are shown in darker blues while the higher percentages are shown as brighter, lighter blues.
GOAL 01: No poverty
Other SDGs
GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality, GOAL 4: Quality Education
Economy Training & Capacity Building Sustainable Growth & Jobs Education Gender & Inequality People
Source: University of Oxford
Evapotranspiration and carbon fluxes between the biosphere and the atmosphere are routinely expressed in terms of the Leaf Area Index (LAI) of the canopy. Monitoring the distribution and changes of LAI is therefore important for assessing the state and evolution of the vegetation over Africa. LAI of a plant canopy is a quantitative measure of the amount of live green leaf material present in the canopy per unit ground surface. Specifically, it is defined as the total one-sided area of all leaves in the canopy within a defined region, and is a non-dimensional quantity, although units of m2/m2 are often quoted, as a reminder of its meaning. This concept is largely used in agro-meteorology, but many atmospheric general circulation or biogeochemical models also rely on it to parameterize the vegetation cover, or its interactions with the atmosphere.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 13: Climate Action
Real Time Climate Change Natural Resources Forests Food and Agriculture
Source: EC-JRC
In Sub-Saharan Africa, medium- and low-voltage data are often non-existent, uncompleted, or unavailable. This is a challenge for practitioners working on the electricity access agenda, power sector resilience or climate change adaptation. This layer presents the spatial extent of the existing and planned electricity grid (high, medium, low voltage level) compiled using multiple sources that enumerate elements of the existing transmission and distribution network.
GOAL 07: Affordable and clean energy
Other SDGs
Sustainable Growth & Jobs Rural Development Territorial Development Urban Development Energy Energy Access Rural Electrification
Source: EC-JRC
Displays areas where the geographic range of two or more endemic bird species overlaps. While many bird species are widespread, over 2,500 are endemic and restricted to an area smaller than 5 million hectares (restricted-range species). BirdLife International has mapped every restricted-range species using geo-referenced locality records. Through this process, they identified regions of the world—known as “Endemic Bird Areas” (EBAs)—where the distributions of two or more of these species overlap. Half of all restricted-range species are globally threatened or near-threatened, and the other half remain vulnerable to loss or degradation of habitat. The majority of EBAs are also important for the conservation of restricted-range species from other animal and plant groups. The unique landscapes where these bird species occur, amounting to just 4.5% of the earth's land surface, are high priorities for broad-scale ecosystem conservation. Geographically, EBAs are often islands or mountain ranges, and vary considerably in size, from a few hundred hectares to more than 10,000,000 hectares. EBAs also vary in the number of restricted-range species that they support (from two to 80). EBAs are found around the world, but most (77%) of them are located in the tropics and subtropics.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 14: Life Below Water
Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Protected Areas & Ecological Networks
Source: Birdlife
Africa’s extraordinary richness in biodiversity and ecosystem services comprises a strategic asset for sustainable development. Yet the decline and loss of biodiversity hampers the sustainable social and economic targets set by African countries. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species is the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species. This map shows the richness in amphibian species based on the IUCN ranges (the species geographical distribution). Areas with a high species richness are shown in shades of red: more amphibian species potentially occur in these areas.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Source: IUCN
Africa’s extraordinary richness in biodiversity and ecosystem services comprises a strategic asset for sustainable development. Yet the decline and loss of biodiversity hampers the sustainable social and economic targets set by African countries. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species is the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species. This map shows the richness in bird species based on the IUCN ranges (the species geographical distribution). Areas with a high species richness are shown in shades of red: more bird species potentially occur in these areas.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Source: IUCN
Africa’s extraordinary richness in biodiversity and ecosystem services comprises a strategic asset for sustainable development. Yet the decline and loss of biodiversity hampers the sustainable social and economic targets set by African countries. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species is the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species. This map shows the richness in corals and ray species based on the IUCN ranges (the species geographical distribution). Areas with a high species richness are shown in shades of red: more corals and ray species potentially occur in these areas.
GOAL 14: Life below water
Other SDGs
Source: IUCN
Africa’s extraordinary richness in biodiversity and ecosystem services comprises a strategic asset for sustainable development. Yet the decline and loss of biodiversity hampers the sustainable social and economic targets set by African countries. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species is the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species. This map shows the richness in mammal species based on the IUCN ranges (the species geographical distribution). Areas with a high species richness are shown in shades of red: more mammal species potentially occur in these areas.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 14: Life Below Water
Source: IUCN
Africa’s extraordinary richness in biodiversity and ecosystem services comprises a strategic asset for sustainable development. Yet the decline and loss of biodiversity hampers the sustainable social and economic targets set by African countries. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species is the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species. This map shows the richness in shark and ray species based on the IUCN ranges (the species geographical distribution). Areas with a high species richness are shown in shades of red: more shark and ray species potentially occur in these areas.
GOAL 14: Life below water
Other SDGs
Source: IUCN
The Europe Media Monitor (EMM) News Brief is a summary of news stories from around the world, automatically classified according to thousands of criteria. It is generated automatically every 10 minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This layer displays the latest geo-localised news articles caught by the EMM with the keyword “Africa”, together with the link to the original source. You can also search for other keywords in the legend (topic, country name, etc).
GOAL 17: Partnerships for the goals
Other SDGs
Real Time Health Economy Digital Transformation eServices Security Climate Change Sustainable Growth & Jobs Natural Resources Food and Agriculture Energy
Source: EC-JRC
This indicator assesses the threat of extreme heat during a 5-year return period. Extreme heat has an obvious impact on human health, but it is also relevant to a wide array of economic activities and industries, including the built environment. With climate change, the frequency and the intensity of abnormal weather and extreme temperature patterns have dramatically increased, and the shift to warmer temperatures, driven by climate change, will only exacerbate this phenomenon. For this indicator, GFDRR’s extreme heat hazard has been used. It is classified based on an existing and widely accepted heat-stress indicator, the daily maximum wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT, in °C). A short return period (five years) reflects more frequent extreme heat events.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 2: Zero Hunger
Source: WWF
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 result in degradation if the vegetation is not adapted to the new fire regimes. This can cause long-term damage to land biomass components affecting soil structure, nutrients and water cycling. This layer displays the areas of concern for fires related issues derived from the convergence of global evidence of human-environment interactions that can have consequences on land degradation.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Security Climate Change Disaster Risk Natural Disasters Land Degradation Desertification Deforestation Natural Resources
Source: EC-JRC
The Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) uses satellite observations to detect active fires and thermal anomalies. They deliver this information to decision makers in near real-time (within 3 hours of satellite observation). This dataset includes active fires of the last 24h. Each point represents the centre of a 375 m resolution pixel where a fire was detected. It is updated twice daily. Compared to other coarser resolution (≥1km) satellite fire detection products, it provides improved response for smaller fires, improved mapping of large fire perimeters, and better detection at night, when fire activities usually occur. Consequently, the data are well suited for use in support of fire tracking and management (e.g., near real-time alert systems), as well as other science applications requiring improved fire mapping fidelity.
GOAL 13: Climate action
Other SDGs
GOAL 15: Life on Land
Real Time Climate Change Greenhouse Gas Emissions Natural Disasters
Source: NASA
The Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) uses satellite observations to detect active fires and thermal anomalies. They deliver this information to decision makers in near real-time (within 3 hours of satellite observation). This dataset includes active fires of the last 48h. Each point represents the centre of a 375 m resolution pixel where a fire was detected. It is updated twice daily. Compared to other coarser resolution (≥1km) satellite fire detection products, it provides improved response for smaller fires, improved mapping of large fire perimeters, and better detection at night, when fire activities usually occur. Consequently, the data are well suited for use in support of fire tracking and management (e.g., near real-time alert systems), as well as other science applications requiring improved fire mapping fidelity.
GOAL 13: Climate action
Other SDGs
GOAL 15: Life on Land
Real Time Climate Change Greenhouse Gas Emissions Natural Disasters
Source: NASA
The Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) uses satellite observations to detect active fires and thermal anomalies. They deliver this information to decision makers in near real-time (within 3 hours of satellite observation). This dataset includes active fires of the last 72h. Each point represents the centre of a 375 m resolution pixel where a fire was detected. It is updated twice daily. Compared to other coarser resolution (≥1km) satellite fire detection products, it provides improved response for smaller fires, improved mapping of large fire perimeters, and better detection at night, when fire activities usually occur. Consequently, the data are well suited for use in support of fire tracking and management (e.g., near real-time alert systems), as well as other science applications requiring improved fire mapping fidelity.
GOAL 13: Climate action
Other SDGs
GOAL 15: Life on Land
Real Time Climate Change Greenhouse Gas Emissions Natural Disasters
Source: NASA
This dataset provides fixed broadband performance metrics in zoom level 16 web Mercator tiles (approximately 610.8 meters by 610.8 meters at the equator). Download speed is collected via the Speedtest by Ookla applications for Android and iOS and averaged for each tile. Measurements are filtered to results containing GPS-quality location accuracy. Speedtest data is used today by commercial fixed network operators around the world to inform network buildout, improve global Internet quality, and increase Internet accessibility. This data can be used for rural and urban connectivity development, to help make the internet better, faster, and more accessible for everyone.
GOAL 10: Reduced inequalities
Other SDGs
GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
Digital Connectivity & Infrastructures Rural Development Territorial Development Urban Development
Source: OOKLA
This dataset provides fixed broadband performance metrics in zoom level 16 web Mercator tiles (approximately 610.8 meters by 610.8 meters at the equator). Download speed is collected via the Speedtest by Ookla applications for Android and iOS and averaged for each tile. Measurements are filtered to results containing GPS-quality location accuracy. Speedtest data is used today by commercial fixed network operators around the world to inform network buildout, improve global Internet quality, and increase Internet accessibility. This data can be used for rural and urban connectivity development, to help make the internet better, faster, and more accessible for everyone.
GOAL 10: Reduced inequalities
Other SDGs
GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
Digital Connectivity & Infrastructures Rural Development Territorial Development Urban Development
Source: OOKLA
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 measures, emergency response, and mitigation, including insurance. This map depicts flood prone areas for flood events with a 100-year return period (i.e. with 1% chance of being exceeded in any one year). Cell values indicate water depth in meters. The map can be used to assess flood exposure and risk for population and assets.
GOAL 13: Climate action
Other SDGs
GOAL 15: Life on Land
Real Time Climate Change Natural Disasters Land Degradation Natural Resources
Source: EC-JRC
Forest canopy height measures the average height of the tree canopy in 2012. This dataset is created by integrating broadscale optical remotely sensed data at 30-metre spatial resolution with on-the-ground measurements.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Source: NASA
This indicator measures forest canopy loss. Land- and sea-use change is the major human influence on habitats. Habitat loss is one of the biggest threats to biodiversity and is the number one reason species go extinct. Around half of the world's original forests have disappeared, and they are still being removed at a rate 10x higher than any possible level of regrowth. As tropical forests contain at least half the Earth's species, the clearance of some 17 million hectares each year is a dramatic loss. Hansen et al. (2021) examined global Landsat data at a 30-metre spatial resolution to characterize forest canopy extent, loss and gain from 2000 to 2021. For this indicator, only forest canopy loss since 2020 was taken into account. Recently harvested areas using clear-cutting practices are thus shown. What does very high risk mean for this indicator? Areas of very high risk have experienced high rates of forest loss (>8%).
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, GOAL 14: Life Below Water
Source: WWF
Forests worldwide are in a state of flux, with accelerating losses in some regions and gains in others. Given the recognized importance of forest ecosystem services, quantification of global forest extent and change is needed. This map displays the tree cover in the year 2000. Tree cover is defined as canopy closure for all vegetation taller than 5m in height and is expressed as a percentage per output grid cell, in the range 0–100.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Climate Change Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Forests
Source: Hansen/UMD/Google/USGS/NASA
Forests worldwide are in a state of flux, with accelerating losses in some regions and gains in others. Given the recognized importance of forest ecosystem services, quantification of global forest extent and change is needed. This map displays the forest gain during the period 2000–2018. Forest gain is defined as the inverse of loss, or a change from non-forest to forest entirely within the study period. It is expressed as either 1 (gain) or 0 (no gain).
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Climate Change Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Forests
Source: Hansen/UMD/Google/USGS/NASA
Forests worldwide are in a state of flux, with accelerating losses in some regions and gains in others. Given the recognized importance of forest ecosystem services, quantification of global forest extent and change is needed. This map displays the forest loss during the period 2000–2018, defined as a stand-replacement disturbance, or a change from forest to non-forest state. It is expressed as either 1 (loss - in red) or 0 (no loss).
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Climate Change Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Forests
Source: Hansen/UMD/Google/USGS/NASA
The Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR) is an Essential Climate Variable that serves as an integrated indicator of the status and health of plant canopies. FAPAR plays a critical role in the global carbon cycle and in determining primary productivity of the biosphere. Climate change affects the terrestrial ecosystem dynamics, but few of these dynamics are observable from space. FAPAR is monitored using space remote sensing techniques, allowing high resolution and near-real-time measures of the state and evolution of terrestrial vegetation dynamics.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 13: Climate Action
Real Time Climate Change Natural Resources Forests Food and Agriculture
Source: EC-JRC
Food crisis response planning can save lives if put in place in a timely manner. To do this, decision makers must be warned of climate extreme events impacting agricultural production. The Anomaly hotSpot of Agricultural Production tool (ASAP) is an online decision support system for early warning about hotspots of agricultural production anomaly (crop and rangeland), developed by the JRC for food security crises prevention and response planning anticipation. This map shows the frequency at which countries were classified as hotspots for agricultural production problems between 2004 and 2018. Hotspots are identified on a monthly basis.
GOAL 01: No poverty
Other SDGs
GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, GOAL 2: Zero Hunger
Source: EC-JRC
Food crisis response planning can save lives if put in place in a timely manner. To do this, decision makers must be warned of climate extreme events impacting agricultural production. The Anomaly hotSpot of Agricultural Production tool (ASAP) is an online decision support system for early warning about hotspots of agricultural production anomaly (crop and rangeland), developed by the JRC for food security crises prevention and response planning anticipation. This map shows the frequency of ASAP anomaly warnings for crop growth for 2004-2018. It highlights the high sensitivity of the main agricultural areas in Northern Africa, the Horn of Africa and the Southern African Development Community to drought conditions.
GOAL 01: No poverty
Other SDGs
GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, GOAL 2: Zero Hunger
Food and Agriculture Land Use in Agriculture Yields Crop Health
Source: EC-JRC
Food crisis response planning can save lives if put in place in a timely manner. To do this, decision makers must be warned of climate extreme events impacting agricultural production. The Anomaly hotSpot of Agricultural Production tool (ASAP) is an online decision support system for early warning about hotspots of agricultural production anomaly (crop and rangeland), developed by the JRC for food security crises prevention and response planning anticipation. This map shows the frequency of ASAP anomaly warnings for rangeland growth for 2004-2018. It highlights the high sensitivity of the main agricultural areas in Northern Africa, the Horn of Africa and the Southern African Development Community to drought conditions.
GOAL 01: No poverty
Other SDGs
GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, GOAL 2: Zero Hunger
Natural Disasters Natural Resources Food and Agriculture Crop Health
Source: EC-JRC
The Global 200 is the list of ecoregions identified by WWF, the global conservation organization, as priorities for conservation. According to WWF, an ecoregion is defined as a "relatively large unit of land or water containing a characteristic set of natural communities that share a large majority of their species dynamics, and environmental conditions". The WWF assigns a conservation status to each ecoregion in the Global 200: critical or endangered; vulnerable; and relatively stable or intact. Globally, over half of the ecoregions in the Global 200 are rated endangered.
GOAL 06: Clean water and sanitation
Other SDGs
GOAL 15: Life on Land
Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Protected Areas & Ecological Networks
Source: WWF
Mapping ongoing project activities in the field of conservation in protected areas is essential to identify the various actors and to identify the areas where information and actors are scarce. The aim is to better understand who is funding what and where, with a view to improve decision-making on biodiversity conservation. This map provides the geolocation of all sites that have received funding in the frame of a biodiversity conservation project -or an activity within a project- within approx. the last 20 years. It specifies whether the site is protected or not. One project usually includes several sites.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 14: Life Below Water
Economy Financing Training & Capacity Building Sustainable Growth & Jobs Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Protected Areas & Ecological Networks
Source: EC-JRC
GHS-BUILT-S R2023A - GHS built-up surface grid, derived from Sentinel2 composite and Landsat, multitemporal (1975-2030). The spatial raster dataset depicts the distribution of built-up surfaces, expressed as the number of square meters. The data report about the total built-up surface and the built-up surface allocated to dominant non-residential (NRES) uses.
GOAL 11: Sustainable cities and communities
Other SDGs
GOAL 15: Life on Land
Sustainable Growth & Jobs Territorial Development Urban Development People Population Growth
Source: EC-JRC
GHS-BUILT-S R2023A - GHS built-up surface grid, derived from Sentinel2 composite and Landsat, multitemporal (1975-2030). The spatial raster dataset depicts the distribution of built-up surfaces, expressed as the number of square meters. The data report about the total built-up surface and the built-up surface allocated to dominant non-residential (NRES) uses.
GOAL 11: Sustainable cities and communities
Other SDGs
GOAL 15: Life on Land
Sustainable Growth & Jobs Territorial Development Urban Development People Population Growth
Source: EC-JRC
Warm-water coral reefs are the most biodiverse of marine habitats and the most important ecosystem engineers found in the marine environment. Most of this diversity is not due to the corals themselves but rather due to the multitude of organisms that depend on the coral reef ecosystem. This dataset shows the global distribution of coral reefs in tropical and subtropical regions. It is the most comprehensive global dataset of warm-water coral reefs to date, acting as a foundation baseline map for future, more detailed, work.
GOAL 14: Life below water
Other SDGs
Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Marine Resources Water & Freshwater Ecosystem Services
Source: UNEP-WCMC
Mining has major economic, environmental and societal consequences, yet knowledge and understanding of its global footprint are still limited. These polygons represent the global mining land use detected via remote sensing analysis of high-resolution, publicly available satellite imagery. The dataset comprises 74,548 polygons, covering ~66,000 km2 of features like waste rock dumps, pits, water ponds, tailings dams, heap leach pads and processing/milling infrastructure.
GOAL 09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Other SDGs
GOAL 15: Life on Land
Source: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6806817.
The erosive force of rainfall (rainfall erosivity) is a major driver of soil, nutrient losses worldwide and an important input for soil erosion assessments models. This map shows the geographical distribution of erosivity changes for RCP2.6 for the period 2010–2050.
GOAL 13: Climate action
Other SDGs
GOAL 15: Life on Land, GOAL 2: Zero Hunger
Climate Change Climate Services Disaster Risk Natural Disasters Land Degradation Desertification Soil Food and Agriculture
Source: EC-JRC
The erosive force of rainfall (rainfall erosivity) is a major driver of soil, nutrient losses worldwide and an important input for soil erosion assessments models. This map shows the geographical distribution of erosivity changes for RCP4.5 for the period 2010–2050.
GOAL 13: Climate action
Other SDGs
GOAL 15: Life on Land, GOAL 2: Zero Hunger
Climate Change Climate Services Disaster Risk Natural Disasters Land Degradation Desertification Soil Food and Agriculture
Source: EC-JRC
The erosive force of rainfall (rainfall erosivity) is a major driver of soil, nutrient losses worldwide and an important input for soil erosion assessments models. This map shows the geographical distribution of erosivity changes for RCP8.5 for the period 2010–2050.
GOAL 13: Climate action
Other SDGs
GOAL 15: Life on Land, GOAL 2: Zero Hunger
Climate Change Climate Services Disaster Risk Natural Disasters Land Degradation Desertification Soil Food and Agriculture
Source: EC-JRC
The erosive force of rainfall (rainfall erosivity) is a major driver of soil, nutrient losses worldwide and an important input for soil erosion assessments models. This map shows the geographical distribution of erosivity changes for RCP2.6 for the period 2050–2070.
GOAL 13: Climate action
Other SDGs
GOAL 15: Life on Land, GOAL 2: Zero Hunger
Climate Change Climate Services Disaster Risk Natural Disasters Land Degradation Desertification Soil Food and Agriculture
Source: EC-JRC
The erosive force of rainfall (rainfall erosivity) is a major driver of soil, nutrient losses worldwide and an important input for soil erosion assessments models. This map shows the geographical distribution of erosivity changes for RCP 4.5 for the period 2050–2070.
GOAL 13: Climate action
Other SDGs
GOAL 15: Life on Land, GOAL 2: Zero Hunger
Climate Change Climate Services Disaster Risk Natural Disasters Land Degradation Desertification Soil Food and Agriculture
Source: EC-JRC
The erosive force of rainfall (rainfall erosivity) is a major driver of soil, nutrient losses worldwide and an important input for soil erosion assessments models. This map shows the geographical distribution of erosivity changes for RCP8.5 for the period 2050–2070.
GOAL 13: Climate action
Other SDGs
GOAL 15: Life on Land, GOAL 2: Zero Hunger
Climate Change Climate Services Disaster Risk Natural Disasters Land Degradation Desertification Soil Food and Agriculture
Source: EC-JRC
The Great Green Wall (GGW) Initiative comprises 21 African countries and is implemented under the coordination of the African Union.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Biodiversity & Wildlife Forests Protected Areas & Ecological Networks Ecosystem Services
Source: greatgreenwall
Global data sets on the geographic distribution of livestock are essential for diverse applications in agricultural socio-economics, food security, environmental impact assessment and epidemiology. This dataset contains the global distribution of cattle in 2010 expressed in total number of cattle per pixel (5 min of arc) according to the Gridded Livestock of the World database (GLW 3). Cattle are the most common and widespread species of large ruminant livestock and are raised primarily to produce milk, meat and hides and to provide draft power. In grass-based systems they play an important role in nutrient recycling and convert human-inedible plant matter into protein. Cattle are raised in diverse production systems ranging from capital-intensive, specialised beef and dairy grass-based and feed-lot systems; through multi-purpose cattle in labour-intensive, mixed crop-livestock systems; to extensive pastoral and agro-pastoral systems.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
Source: FAO
Global data sets on the geographic distribution of livestock are essential for diverse applications in agricultural socio-economics, food security, environmental impact assessment and epidemiology. This dataset contains the global distribution of goats in 2010 expressed in total number of goats per pixel (5 min of arc) according to the Gridded Livestock of the World database (GLW 3). The domestic goat is kept mainly for meat, milk, hides and hair. Unlike cattle and sheep, goats are primarily browsing animals and have an extremely varied plant diet that has allowed them to adapt to many diverse environments. They are raised in a wide range of production systems around the world. The majority are raised in smallholder, mixed farming systems but goats are an important component of pastoralist herds and high-value animals are raised for specialized dairy production in temperate regions.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
Source: FAO
Global data sets on the geographic distribution of livestock are essential for diverse applications in agricultural socio-economics, food security, environmental impact assessment and epidemiology. This dataset contains the global distribution of sheep in 2010 expressed in total number of sheep per pixel (5 min of arc) according to the Gridded Livestock of the World database (GLW 3). The domestic sheep is raised primarily for its wool, meat, milk and hides. Sheep are primarily grazing animals, cropping pasture close to the ground. They are raised in a wide range of production systems around the world, reflecting the prevailing environmental conditions and socio-economic context.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
Source: FAO
Poverty affects billions of people around the globe. On a daily basis, they face low wages and substandard health, education, and living standards. Because of this, poverty must be understood and approached as a multidimensional issue. The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) acknowledges that poverty has many faces. The first dimension in the MIP is the Health dimension. This includes child mortality and nutrition. This map represents the percentage contribution of the health dimension to overall poverty. The lower percentages are shown in darker reds while the higher percentages are shown as brighter, lighter reds.
GOAL 01: No poverty
Other SDGs
GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality
Health Public Health One Health Sustainable Growth & Jobs People Demography
Source: University of Oxford
Africa is considered one of the most vulnerable regions to weather and climate variability. Extreme events such as heat waves have important impacts on public health, water supplies, food security, and more generally on both regional economies and natural ecosystems. A prolonged period of hot days can feed wildfires, inhibit crop yields, or produce algae blooms with consequences on lakes oxygenation and, ultimately, fish mortality. Understanding of temperature extreme regime in Africa is necessary to assess the impacts of climate change on human and natural systems and to develop suitable adaptation and mitigation strategies at country level. A way to quantify heath waves is to use the Heat Wave Magnitude Index daily (HWMId). The HWMId is defined as the maximum magnitude of the heat waves in a year. Computed annually, this index takes into account both the duration and the intensity of extreme temperature events, and enables a comparison between heat waves with different timing and location. This dataset presents the number of years in the period 1981-2018 with a HWMId equal or superior to 4. It gives a general idea of the spatial distribution of heat waves with moderate intensity.
GOAL 13: Climate action
Other SDGs
GOAL 13: Climate Action
Source: EC-JRC
This indicator assesses the number of occurrences of herbicide resistant weeds. Herbicide resistance is the ability of a weed to survive an herbicide application that had been used to contain that population. As unwanted plants compete with crops, issues of crop loss and contamination arise. To estimate antimicrobial and agrochemical resistance, data from the Weed resistance database (International Survey of Herbicide Resistant Weeds) was used. Please note that the source data for this indicator is only available on a country level.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 2: Zero Hunger
Source: WWF
The application of fertiliser is a key component in increasing agricultural production. However, there are thresholds beyond which the cost of inputs fails to lead to corresponding increases in yield. Beyond economic inefficiency, overuse of commercial inorganic fertiliser can also result in a decline in soil condition and structure, including reduced soil carbon content, water-holding capacity and porosity, and to environmental pollution. This layer displays the areas of concern for high-input agriculture related issues derived from the convergence of global evidence of human-environment interactions that can have land degradation consequences.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Natural Resources Food and Agriculture Agroecology Sustainable Food Systems Food Production Water-Energy-Food Ecosystem
Source: EC-JRC
Africa is home to the longest river in the world -the Nile- and other major rivers like the Congo and the Niger. This layer shows the official boundaries of river (sub-)basins in Africa (approved and used by the FAO). The downloadable dataset contains the boundaries of the major hydrological basins and their sub-basins. It divides the African continent according to its hydrological characteristics.
GOAL 06: Clean water and sanitation
Other SDGs
GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
Natural Resources Water & Freshwater Food and Agriculture Water-Energy-Food Ecosystem Energy Clean & Renewable Energy
Source: FAO
Smallholder farmers and pastoralists have restricted access to capital and may not have the capacity to invest in management practices that mitigate land degradation. This layer displays the areas of concern for the issues related to income level derived from the convergence of global evidence of human-environment interactions that can lead to land degradation.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Economy Security Sustainable Growth & Jobs People Remittances
Source: EC-JRC
The management of risks due to biological hazards is a national and community priority. Epidemics of infectious diseases have shown the capacity to disrupt many dimensions of human existence. Moreover, they can affect anywhere in the world and severely test the global community's resilience. The INFORM Epidemic Risk Index is a prototype version of hazard dependent INFORM Risk Index (global risk assessment for humanitarian crises and disasters). It is a tool for assessing the countries' risk for all the type of epidemics. The risk levels are set as follows: LOW = risk score 3.5 and below; MEDIUM = risk score between 3.5 an 5; HIGH = risk score between 5 and 6.5; VERY HIGH = risk score 6.5 and above.
GOAL 03: Good health and well-being
Other SDGs
GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality
Health Public Health Diseases & Pandemic One Health Economy Sustainable Growth & Jobs
Source: EC-JRC
The management of risks due to biological hazards is a national and community priority. Epidemics of infectious diseases have shown the capacity to disrupt many dimensions of human existence. Moreover, they can affect anywhere in the world and severely test the global community's resilience. The INFORM Epidemic Risk Index is a prototype version of hazard dependent INFORM Risk Index (global risk assessment for humanitarian crises and disasters). It is a tool for assessing the countries' risk for all the type of epidemics. The risk score ranges from 0-10, where 10 is the highest risk.
GOAL 03: Good health and well-being
Other SDGs
GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality
Health Public Health Diseases & Pandemic Economy Sustainable Growth & Jobs
Source: EC-JRC
For communities, inadequate shelter and overcrowding are major factors in the transmission of diseases with epidemic potential such as acute respiratory infections, meningitis, typhus, cholera, scabies, etc. Outbreaks of disease are more frequent and more severe when the population density is high. Other public structures such as health facilities not only represent a concentrated area of patients but also a concentrated area of germs. In an emergency, the number of hospital-associated infections will typically rise. Decreasing overcrowding by providing extra facilities and a proper organization of the sites or services in health-care facilities is a priority. As a component of the INFORM Epidemic Risk Index, this Person-to-Person (P2P) transmission index captures the countries' exposure to risk of P2P disease transmission. The risk score ranges from 0-10, where 10 is the highest risk.
GOAL 10: Reduced inequalities
Other SDGs
GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality
Health Public Health Hygiene & Sanitation Diseases & Pandemic One Health Sustainable Growth & Jobs Gender & Inequality
Source: EC-JRC
Understanding why and where humanitarian disasters are likely to occur is a fundamental step in saving lives and promoting sustainable development. The INFORM Risk Index is a global, open-source risk assessment for humanitarian crises and disasters. It can support decisions about prevention, preparedness and response. This layer shows is which class of risk each of the African countries fall, on the basis of the latest INFORM Risk Index. The risk score ranges from 0-10, where 10 is the highest risk. The risk levels are set as follows: LOW = risk score 3.5 and below; MEDIUM = risk score between 3.5 an 5; HIGH = risk score between 5 and 6.5; VERY HIGH = risk score 6.5 and above.
Other SDGs
GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, GOAL 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal, GOAL 1: No Poverty, GOAL 2: Zero Hunger, GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being, GOAL 6: Clean Water and Sanitation, GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy, GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Health Public Health Security Conflicts, Violence, Criminal networks Climate Change Natural Disasters People Humanitarian Aids
Source: EC-JRC
Understanding why and where humanitarian disasters are likely to occur is a fundamental step in saving lives and promoting sustainable development. The INFORM Risk Index is a global, open-source risk assessment for humanitarian crises and disasters. It can support decisions about prevention, preparedness and response. This layer presents the latest INFORM Risk Index of the African countries. The risk score ranges from 0-10, where 10 is the highest risk.
Other SDGs
GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, GOAL 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal, GOAL 1: No Poverty, GOAL 2: Zero Hunger, GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being, GOAL 6: Clean Water and Sanitation, GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy, GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Security Conflicts, Violence, Criminal networks Climate Change Disaster Risk People Humanitarian Aids
Source: EC-JRC
Understanding why and where humanitarian disasters are likely to occur is a fundamental step in saving lives and promoting sustainable development. Preparing the health workforce to work towards the attainment of a country's health objectives represents one of the most important challenges for its health system. As part of the coping capacity dimension of the INFORM Risk Index (global risk assessment for humanitarian crises and disasters) this layer shows an index for healthcare access. It captures the health system performance via indicators such as maternal mortality, the density of physicians and the overall system strength to deliver infant vaccination. The risk score ranges from 0-10, where 10 is the highest risk.
GOAL 03: Good health and well-being
Other SDGs
GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being
Health Public Health Sustainable Growth & Jobs Gender & Inequality People Humanitarian Aids
Source: EC-JRC
Understanding why and where humanitarian disasters are likely to occur is a fundamental step in saving lives and promoting sustainable development. The main focus of humanitarian organizations is people. The Vulnerability dimension of the INFORM Risk Index (global risk assessment for humanitarian crises and disasters) addresses the predispositions of a population to be affected by hazard (economic, political and social characteristics of the community). The Aid Dependency component presented in this layer points out the countries that lack sustainability in development growth due to economic instability and humanitarian crisis. It measure the countries' economic dependency to public aid, development assistance, and remittances. The risk score ranges from 0-10, where 10 is the highest risk.
GOAL 17: Partnerships for the goals
Other SDGs
Sustainable Growth & Jobs Gender & Inequality Politics Territorial Development Smart Specialisation Partnership & Cooperation Economic Impact People Humanitarian Aids
Source: EC-JRC
Understanding why and where humanitarian disasters are likely to occur is a fundamental step in saving lives and promoting sustainable development. The main focus of humanitarian organizations is people. And young children are among the most vulnerable people in a humanitarian crisis. As part of the Vulnerability dimension of the INFORM Risk Index (global risk assessment for humanitarian crises and disasters), the Health Condition of Children Under Five component is referred to with two indicators: malnutrition and mortality of children under 5. The risk score ranges from 0-10, where 10 is the highest risk.
GOAL 03: Good health and well-being
Other SDGs
Source: EC-JRC
Understanding why and where humanitarian disasters are likely to occur is a fundamental step in saving lives and promoting sustainable development. The coping capacity dimension of the INFORM Risk Index (global risk assessment for humanitarian crises and disasters) measures the ability of a country to cope with disasters in terms of organized activities, infrastructure and governmental effort. The communication component presented in this layer aims to measure the efficiency of dissemination of early warnings through a communication network as well as coordination of preparedness and emergency activities. It is dependent on the dispersion of the communication infrastructure as well as the literacy and education level of the recipients. The risk score ranges from 0-10, where 10 is the highest risk (poorest communication infrastructure).
GOAL 09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Other SDGs
GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality, GOAL 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal, GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
Sustainable Growth & Jobs Education Gender & Inequality Technology Transfer People Humanitarian Aids
Source: EC-JRC
Understanding why and where humanitarian disasters are likely to occur is a fundamental step in saving lives and promoting sustainable development. The main focus of humanitarian organizations is people. The Vulnerability dimension of the INFORM Risk Index (global risk assessment for humanitarian crises and disasters) addresses the predispositions of a population to be affected by hazard (economic, political and social characteristics of the community). It is assumed that the more developed a country is the better its people will be able to respond to humanitarian needs using their own individual or national resources. The Development Deprivation component is a composite indicator that includes the Human Poverty Index (HDI), which measures development by combining indicators of life expectancy, educational attainment and income, and the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which identifies overlapping deprivations at the household level across the same three dimensions and shows the average number of poor people and deprivations with which poor households contend. The risk score ranges from 0-10, where 10 is the highest risk.
GOAL 01: No poverty
Other SDGs
Health Public Health Diseases & Pandemic Economy Financing Security Sustainable Growth & Jobs Gender & Inequality Politics Rural Development Territorial Development Urban Development People
Source: EC-JRC
Understanding why and where humanitarian disasters are likely to occur is a fundamental step in saving lives and promoting sustainable development. The coping capacity dimension of the INFORM Risk Index (global risk assessment for humanitarian crises and disasters) measures the ability of a country to cope with disasters in terms of organized activities, infrastructure and governmental effort. The indicator presented in this layer quantifies the level of implementation of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) activity for each country. The risk score ranges from 0-10, where 10 is the highest risk (poorest DRR implementation).
GOAL 13: Climate action
Other SDGs
Climate Change Disaster Risk Natural Disasters Sustainable Growth & Jobs Politics People Humanitarian Aids
Source: EC-JRC
Understanding why and where humanitarian disasters are likely to occur is a fundamental step in saving lives and promoting sustainable development. The main focus of humanitarian organizations is people. The Vulnerability dimension of the INFORM Risk Index (global risk assessment for humanitarian crises and disasters) addresses the predispositions of a population to be affected by hazard (economic, political and social characteristics of the community). This layer presents the Food Security component of the INFORM Risk Index. It encompasses the actual quality and type of food supplied to provide the nutritional balance necessary for healthy and active life. It captures trends in chronic hunger. The risk score ranges from 0-10, where 10 is the highest risk.
GOAL 02: Zero hunger
Other SDGs
GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality
Security Climate Change Disaster Risk Sustainable Growth & Jobs Gender & Inequality People Humanitarian Aids Food and Agriculture Yields Food Security Food Production
Source: EC-JRC
Understanding why and where humanitarian disasters are likely to occur is a fundamental step in saving lives and promoting sustainable development. The coping capacity dimension of the INFORM Risk Index (global risk assessment for humanitarian crises and disasters) measures the ability of a country to cope with disasters in terms of organized activities, infrastructure and governmental effort. The governance indicator presented in this layer captures the effectiveness of the governments’ effort for building resilience across all sectors of society as well as the level of misuse of political power for private benefit. The risk score ranges from 0-10, where 10 is the highest risk.
GOAL 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions
Other SDGs
Security Conflicts, Violence, Criminal networks Governance & Resilience Climate Change Disaster Risk Gender & Inequality Politics People Humanitarian Aids
Source: EC-JRC
Understanding why and where humanitarian disasters are likely to occur is a fundamental step in saving lives and promoting sustainable development. The main focus of humanitarian organizations is people. And people with limited access to health care systems are among the most vulnerable people in a humanitarian crisis. As part of the Vulnerability dimension of the INFORM Risk Index (global risk assessment for humanitarian crises and disasters), the "Health Conditions" index captures the prevalence of the three pandemics of low- and middle- income countries (HIV-AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria) as well as people requiring interventions against neglected tropical diseases. The risk score ranges from 0-10, where 10 is the highest risk.
GOAL 03: Good health and well-being
Other SDGs
GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality, GOAL 1: No Poverty
Health Public Health Diseases & Pandemic One Health Sustainable Growth & Jobs Gender & Inequality People Life Expectancy Humanitarian Aids
Source: EC-JRC
Understanding why and where humanitarian disasters are likely to occur is a fundamental step in saving lives and promoting sustainable development. The main focus of humanitarian organizations is people. The Vulnerability dimension of the INFORM Risk Index (global risk assessment for humanitarian crises and disasters) addresses the predispositions of a population to be affected by hazard (economic, political and social characteristics of the community). Countries with unequal distribution of human development also experience high inequality between women and men, and countries with high gender inequality also experience unequal distribution of human development. The Inequality component introduces the dispersion of conditions within population presented in the Development & Deprivation component. It includes a Gender Inequality Index, which reflects gender-based disadvantages in three dimensions—reproductive health, empowerment and the labour market, and the Gini coefficient, a measure of the extent to which the distribution of income or consumption expenditure among individuals or households within an economy deviates from a perfectly equal distribution. The risk score ranges from 0-10, where 10 is the highest risk.
GOAL 10: Reduced inequalities
Other SDGs
Economy Training & Capacity Building Climate Change Disaster Risk Sustainable Growth & Jobs Gender & Inequality People Humanitarian Aids
Source: EC-JRC
Understanding why and where humanitarian disasters are likely to occur is a fundamental step in saving lives and promoting sustainable development. This layer presents the coping capacity dimension of the INFORM Risk Index (global risk assessment for humanitarian crises and disasters). It measures the ability of a country to cope with disasters in terms of organized activities, infrastructure and governmental effort. It is aggregated by a geometric mean of two categories: the institutional category covers the existence of DRR programs that address mostly mitigation and preparedness, and the infrastructure category measures the capacity for emergency response and recovery. The risk score ranges from 0-10, where 10 is the highest risk.
Other SDGs
GOAL 16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions, GOAL 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal, GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being, GOAL 6: Clean Water and Sanitation, GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy, GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Economy Financing Digital Transformation Disaster Risk Sustainable Growth & Jobs Education Gender & Inequality Politics Partnership & Cooperation Humanitarian Aids
Source: EC-JRC
Understanding why and where humanitarian disasters are likely to occur is a fundamental step in saving lives and promoting sustainable development. The coping capacity dimension of the INFORM Risk Index (global risk assessment for humanitarian crises and disasters) measures the ability of a country to cope with disasters in terms of organized activities, infrastructure and governmental effort. In particular, the infrastructure category presented in this layer measures the lack of capacity for emergency response and recovery. The risk score ranges from 0-10, where 10 is the highest risk.
GOAL 09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Other SDGs
GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality, GOAL 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal, GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being, GOAL 6: Clean Water and Sanitation, GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
Disaster Risk Sustainable Growth & Jobs Education Gender & Inequality Politics Technology Transfer People Humanitarian Aids Energy
Source: EC-JRC
Understanding why and where humanitarian disasters are likely to occur is a fundamental step in saving lives and promoting sustainable development. The coping capacity dimension of the INFORM Risk Index (global risk assessment for humanitarian crises and disasters) measures the ability of a country to cope with disasters in terms of organized activities, infrastructure and governmental effort. In particular, the institutional category presented in this layer covers the existence of Disaster Risk Reduction (DDR) programmes, which address mostly mitigation and preparedness, and the effectiveness of the governments’ effort for building resilience. The risk score ranges from 0-10, where 10 is the highest risk.
GOAL 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions
Other SDGs
Climate Change Disaster Risk Natural Disasters People Humanitarian Aids
Source: EC-JRC
Understanding why and where humanitarian disasters are likely to occur is a fundamental step in saving lives and promoting sustainable development. The coping capacity dimension of the INFORM Risk Index (global risk assessment for humanitarian crises and disasters) measures the ability of a country to cope with disasters in terms of organized activities, infrastructure and governmental effort. In particular, the physical infrastructure component presented in this layer tries to assess both the accessibility and the redundancy of the systems, which are two crucial characteristics in a crisis situation. It addresses safe management of drinking water and sanitation services, including dimensions of accessibility, availability and quality. The risk score ranges from 0-10, where 10 is the highest risk.
GOAL 09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Other SDGs
Sustainable Growth & Jobs Gender & Inequality Rural Development Territorial Development Trade & Connectivity Urban Development
Source: EC-JRC
Understanding why and where humanitarian disasters are likely to occur is a fundamental step in saving lives and promoting sustainable development. The main focus of humanitarian organizations is people. And people affected by recent natural disasters are considered more vulnerable than the rest of the population. As part of the Vulnerability dimension of the INFORM Risk Index (global risk assessment for humanitarian crises and disasters), the "Recent Shocks" indicator identifies the countries that are recovering from humanitarian crisis situation by taking into account the population affected by natural disasters in the last 3 years.
GOAL 01: No poverty
Other SDGs
GOAL 15: Life on Land
Climate Change Disaster Risk Natural Disasters Sustainable Growth & Jobs People Humanitarian Aids
Source: EC-JRC
Understanding why and where humanitarian disasters are likely to occur is a fundamental step in saving lives and promoting sustainable development. The main focus of humanitarian organizations is people. The Vulnerability dimension of the INFORM Risk Index (global risk assessment for humanitarian crises and disasters) addresses the predispositions of a population to be affected by hazard (economic, political and social characteristics of the community). This layer presents a social vulnerability index for each country. It encompasses the socio-economical dimensions of the countries' vulnerability: inequalities, aid dependency, and development & deprivation. The risk score ranges from 0-10, where 10 is the highest risk.
GOAL 10: Reduced inequalities
Other SDGs
Economy Financing Security Governance & Resilience Sustainable Growth & Jobs Gender & Inequality Politics People
Source: EC-JRC
Understanding why and where humanitarian disasters are likely to occur is a fundamental step in saving lives and promoting sustainable development. The main focus of humanitarian organizations is people. Refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and returnees are among the most vulnerable people in a humanitarian crisis. As part of the Vulnerability dimension of the INFORM Risk Index (global risk assessment for humanitarian crises and disasters), the Uprooted people component accounts for those persons of concern. The risk score ranges from 0-10, where 10 is the highest risk.
Other SDGs
Security Conflicts, Violence, Criminal networks People Humanitarian Aids
Source: EC-JRC
Understanding why and where humanitarian disasters are likely to occur is a fundamental step in saving lives and promoting sustainable development. The main focus of humanitarian organizations is people. The Vulnerability dimension of the INFORM Risk Index (global risk assessment for humanitarian crises and disasters) addresses the predispositions of a population to be affected by hazard. It represents economic, political and social characteristics of the community that can be destabilized in case of a hazard event. This layer presents the vulnerability index for each country. The risk score ranges from 0-10, where 10 is the highest risk.
GOAL 10: Reduced inequalities
Other SDGs
GOAL 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal, GOAL 1: No Poverty, GOAL 2: Zero Hunger, GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being
Health Economy Security Disaster Risk Sustainable Growth & Jobs Gender & Inequality People Humanitarian Aids
Source: EC-JRC
Understanding why and where humanitarian disasters are likely to occur is a fundamental step in saving lives and promoting sustainable development. Refugees, internally displaced persons and returnees are among the most vulnerable people in a humanitarian crisis. Considered as pandemics of low- and middle- income countries, HIV-AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria add to the vulnerability of their populations. As part of the INFORM Risk Index (global risk assessment for humanitarian crises and disasters), this layer presents a vulnerable groups categorisation for each country. It captures the risk related to social groups with limited access to social and health care systems. The risk score ranges from 0-10, where 10 is the highest risk.
GOAL 10: Reduced inequalities
Other SDGs
Health Security Disaster Risk Sustainable Growth & Jobs Gender & Inequality
Source: EC-JRC
The hydropower installed capacity indicates the amount of energy a hydropower plant can produce in its turbines. In 2016, hydropower accounted for 54% of the installed capacity in Eastern Africa, 58% in Central Africa and 30% in Western Africa with fourteen countries having a hydropower share above 50% and eight countries above 70%. These highly hydropower-dependent countries are particularly prone to electricity cuts due to the lack of water caused by severe droughts. This map shows the location and installed capacities of hydropower plants above 5MW installed capacity in Africa for year 2016, representing 95% of the total hydropower installed capacity in Africa.
GOAL 07: Affordable and clean energy
Other SDGs
GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Water & Freshwater Energy Energy Production Clean & Renewable Energy
Source: EC-JRC
Irrigation enables farmers to increase crop production by reducing their dependence on natural rainfall. It is considered a vital part of ensuring food security in the future. Yet it also causes extensive environmental damage and undermines human resilience to water scarcity. Irrigation is responsible for 70 % of all freshwater withdrawals in the globe. Human induced salinisation is a widespread problem as around 30 % of irrigated land are affected and becoming commercially unproductive. This layer displays the areas of concern for irrigation related issues, derived from the convergence of global evidence of human-environment interactions that can have land degradation consequences.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Climate Change Land Degradation Desertification Natural Resources Water & Freshwater Food and Agriculture Water-Energy-Food Ecosystem
Source: EC-JRC
Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) are the most important places in the world for species and their habitats. Faced with a global environmental crisis we need to focus our collective efforts on conserving the places that matter most. The KBA Programme supports the identification, mapping, monitoring and conservation of KBAs to help safeguard the most critical sites for nature on our planet – from rainforests to reefs, mountains to marshes, deserts to grasslands and to the deepest parts of the oceans. By providing the precise location of places that contribute significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity, KBAs can accelerate efforts to reverse the loss of nature, by ensuring conservation efforts are focussed in the places that matter most, and by enabling entities that may have negative impacts on nature to avoid or reduce those impacts in the places they would be most damaging. This layer shows the location of the KBAs, identified and mapped by the KBA partnership.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 14: Life Below Water
Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Protected Areas & Ecological Networks
Source: Birdlife
Some areas in Africa represent spectacular, still viable examples of Africa’s wildlife and wild places. They are of such outstanding importance and value that they should be conserved at all costs and in principle forever. Those areas are referred to as Key Landscapes for Conservation or KLCs. A suitable network of KLCs has the potential to protect the well-known wildlife species within natural ecosystems and to stimulate rural economic growth.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Protected Areas & Ecological Networks
Source: EC-JRC
Land cover is defined as the physical material at the surface of the earth, usually documented via the interpretation of earth observations. Common land cover types include trees, grass, bare ground, built up areas, water, etc. How well are different ecosystem types (as indicated by land cover) preserved and how strong are anthropogenic changes affecting their distribution in a given area? Human pressures are constantly increasing and it is important to monitor the consequences of the associated changes on the environment. This map shows the changes in land cover between 1995 and 2015.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
eServices Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Forests Water & Freshwater Soil
Source: ESA
Humans need increasingly more biomass for food, fodder, fiber and energy. In Africa, circa 22% of the vegetated land surface showed a decline or unstable land productivity between 1999 and 2013. Persistent reduction of land productivity points to long-term alteration of the health and productive capacity of the land, which are characteristic of land degradation. It has impact on ecosystem services and benefits, thus on the sustainable livelihoods of human communities. This map shows the dynamics of (vegetated) land productivity over a time period, in other terms the trajectories of above-ground biomass. It reflects changes in ecosystem functioning e.g. vegetation growth cycles due to natural variation and/or human intervention, and can be associated with processes of land degradation or recovery. The 5 classes depict two levels of persistent productivity decline, one level of instability or stress in capacity, one level of stable productivity and one level of increased productivity.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 5: Gender Equality, GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
Climate Change Land Degradation Desertification Deforestation Natural Resources Food and Agriculture Land Use in Agriculture Crop Health
Source: EC-JRC
Habitat fragmentation occurs when natural habitat is broken up by non-natural land uses. For this layer, land fragmentation is expressed as the Natural Land Cover Pattern Index (NLPI), which classifies natural or semi-natural landcover into six spatial pattern classes: core, edge, perforation, islet, margin, and core-opening. Natural landcover pixels from Climate Change Initiative Land Cover (CCI-LC) raster maps are classified as ‘core’ habitat. Non-natural land cover pixels within core habitat are classified as ‘core openings’ as these represent openings from within natural habitat. External interfaces between core and non-natural landcover are classified as ‘edges’ (i.e. exposed to outside-in habitat loss pressures), while internal interfaces between core and core-openings are classified as ‘perforations’ (i.e. exposed to inside-out habitat loss pressure). Collections of isolated natural landcover pixels that are too small to contain core habitat are classified as ‘islets’, while similarly small collections of pixels are classified as ‘margins’ when they are connected to core habitats.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Climate Change Land Degradation Desertification Deforestation Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife
Source: EC-JRC
This indicator measures cropland expansion, river fragmentation and pressures on marine environments through shipping and direct human impact. Land- and sea-use change is the major human influence on habitats. Habitat loss is one of the biggest threats to biodiversity and is the number one reason species go extinct. Clearcutting forests to create agricultural lands, creating dams that change river flow and intensifying shipping in marine environments are all examples of land- and sea-use change that cause habitat destruction. This indicator includes data from terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments. Terrestrial: Potapov’s global maps of cropland extent gain were used to assess conversion of land cover to cropland. Please note that forest canopy loss (another important aspect of land-use change) is covered in indicator 5.2. Freshwater: The Water Risk Filter’s Fragmentation Status of Rivers has been integrated into the Biodiversity Risk Filter without changes. See the specific risk indicator layers in the WRF methodology for more details. Marine areas: Halpern’s shipping and direct human impact score were used. What does very high risk mean for this indicator? Areas of very high risk experienced high percentages of cropland expansion (>12%) and a high fragmentation of rivers; or high pressure from shipping and direct human impact.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, GOAL 14: Life Below Water
Source: WWF
Humans need increasingly more biomass for food, fodder, fiber and energy. In Africa, circa 22% of the vegetated land surface showed a decline or unstable land productivity between 1999 and 2013. Persistent reduction of land productivity points to long-term alteration of the health and productive capacity of the land, which are characteristic of land degradation. It has impact on ecosystem services and benefits, thus on the sustainable livelihoods of human communities. This map shows the dynamics of (vegetated) land productivity over a time period, in other terms the trajectories of above-ground biomass. It reflects changes in ecosystem functioning e.g. vegetation growth cycles due to natural variation and/or human intervention, and can be associated with processes of land degradation or recovery. The 5 classes depict two levels of persistent productivity decline, one level of instability or stress in capacity, one level of stable productivity and one level of increased productivity.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Climate Change Land Degradation Desertification Deforestation Natural Resources Food and Agriculture Land Use in Agriculture Crop Health
Source: EC-JRC
This indicator assesses the potential threat of rainfall- and earthquake-triggered landslides. Landslides impose significant risks to human lives and economic activities. Landslides have become more prevalent because of anthropogenic disturbances, such as land-cover changes, land degradation and expansion of infrastructure. These are further exacerbated by more extreme precipitation due to climate change, which is predicted to trigger more landslides and threaten sustainable development in vulnerable regions. The Global Landslide Hazard Map has been used as the basis for this indicator. It presents a qualitative representation of global landslide hazard on a global scale. It is a combination of the Global Landslide Hazard Map: Median Annual Rainfall-Triggered Landslide Hazard and the Global Landslide Hazard Map: Earthquake-Triggered Landslide Hazard.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 2: Zero Hunger
Source: WWF
This indicator refers to the stock status of marine fish. As the largest traded food commodity in the world, seafood provides sustenance to billions of people worldwide. More than 85% of the world's fisheries have been pushed to or beyond their biological limits. Overfishing occurs in areas that have been exploited at levels that exceed the capacity for replacement by reproduction and growth of the exploited species. Species that are being overfished are producing catches that are below the level that could be sustainably derived. As a result of intense exploitation, most fisheries generally follow sequential stages of development: undeveloped, developing, fully exploited, overfished, and collapsed. To assess areas where marine fish availability is limited, all fish stocks that were assessed by the Sea Around Us project as anything other than ‘developing’ were considered.
GOAL 02: Zero hunger
Other SDGs
GOAL 14: Life Below Water
Source: WWF
Timber availability refers to the physical abundance and accessibility of realizable timber provisions. As timber is used for house building, furniture and in food storage, water and agricultural infrastructure, a lack of timber supply can significantly impact business through production/supply chain disruption, higher operating costs, and growth constraints. At low extraction rates it is sustainable and can continue to be provided at the rates consumed. At high extraction rates it is consumptive of the ecosystem and may damage the co-benefits for other services provided by forests. It was calculated on the basis of relative realised timber services indices (RRTS) - a function of potential commercial timber within 6 hours travel time of a population centre of >50K people and on slope gradients <31.5 degrees (70%) considered to be workable for logging. Please note that this is a global indicator and may not be applicable in certain conditions, e.g. in sparsely populated areas such as some boreal regions.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 14: Life Below Water
Source: WWF
This indicator refers to the unavailability of commercially harvested species. Wild species are used in many applications, including for medicinal, cosmetic, aromatic and genetic purposes. They are used globally as feed, fibre (e.g., for clothing, building materials, etc.), fuel, medicines and food ingredients. Overexploitation is one of the main threats to nature, but the intensity of this threat varies geographically. To approximate where availability of wild flora and fauna might be limited, De Minin et al.'s (2019) global centers of unsustainable commercial harvest paper has been used. The paper identified global concentrations, on land and at sea, of 4,543 species threatened by unsustainable commercial harvesting, to identify regions under threat.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 14: Life Below Water
Source: WWF
The Dead Wood Carbon and Litter Carbon pools have been estimated at global level as constant fractions of ESA Biomass CCI Above Ground Biomass (AGB), v.3 (2018) using a lookup table based on global ecological zone, elevation and precipitation regime, as proposed by Harris, N.L., Gibbs, D.A., Baccini, A. et al. Global maps of twenty-first century forest carbon fluxes. Nat. Clim. Chang. 11, 234–240 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-00976-6
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 13: Climate Action
Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Forests Ecosystem Services
Source: EC-JRC
Given the massive scale of livestock production systems, it is unlikely that any other single human activity has a larger environmental impact on the terrestrial land mass of the planet. As the world’s largest user of land, livestock production has a huge footprint, affecting many components of the global environment. In many developing countries, the per-capita consumption of livestock foodstuffs is projected to continue to rise. This layer displays the areas of concern for livestock density related issues, derived from the convergence of global evidence of human-environment interactions. The density of livestock is related to environmental pressures from livestock related land use change, grazing lands and fodder production, and greenhouse gas emissions.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Food and Agriculture Land Use in Agriculture Food per Person Food Security Food Production Water-Energy-Food Ecosystem
Source: EC-JRC
Poverty affects billions of people around the globe. On a daily basis, they face low wages and substandard health, education, and living standards. Because of this, poverty must be understood and approached as a multidimensional issue. The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) acknowledges that poverty has many faces. The third and last dimension in the MPI is the Living Standard dimension. This includes access to electricity, improved sanitation services and safe drinking water, flooring, cooking fuel, and assets ownership. This map shows the percentage contribution of the Living Standards Dimension to the overall poverty index. The lower percentages are shown in darker greens while the higher percentages are shown as brighter, lighter greens.
GOAL 03: Good health and well-being
Other SDGs
GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality
Economy Sustainable Growth & Jobs Politics People Demography
Source: University of Oxford
Smallholder farmers have limited access to capital and are reluctant to trade their low-risk system (low input and low yield) to a high-risk system (high input and potentially higher yields). But Insufficient application of fertilizer on agricultural land may lead to soil nutrients depletion, lower yields, and eventually land abandonment. This layer displays the areas of concern for low-input agriculture related issues derived from the convergence of global evidence of human-environment interactions that can have land degradation consequences.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Food and Agriculture Land Use in Agriculture Yields Crop Health Food Production
Source: EC-JRC
Malaria, a life-threatening disease transmitted by mosquitoes, affects millions of people worldwide. This layer highlights malaria rates among children age 2 to 10 in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2015.
GOAL 03: Good health and well-being
Other SDGs
Health Public Health Diseases & Pandemic One Health Sustainable Growth & Jobs People Demography
Source: University of Oxford
Mangroves are trees or shrubs adapted to saline and brackish environments. They are found in the intertidal zone of tropical and sub-tropical coastlines. Mangrove forests are among the most productive ecosystems on earth. They serve many important functions, including water filtration, prevention of coastal erosion, carbon storage, food, timber and livelihood provision, and biodiversity protection (as they provide habitat, nurseries, and feeding grounds for a vast array of organisms). Despite their incredible value, mangrove forests are destroyed and degraded at a rate of about 1% per year as a result of land use change, exploitation, coastal development and climate change. This layer shows the change in mangrove extent -either stable, gain or loss- between 1996 and 2016.
GOAL 06: Clean water and sanitation
Other SDGs
Source: Global Mangrove Watch
Critical natural assets are defined as the natural and semi-natural terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems required to maintain 12 of nature’s ‘local’ contributions to people (local NCP) in the ocean (blue). 12 Local NCP for key benefits like security in food, water, hazards, material and culture. as follows: for food, pollinator habitat sufficiency ofr pollination dependent crop production, fodder production for livestock, wild riverine and marine fish catch ; for water, water quality regulation, via sediment retention and nutrient retention; for natural hazards, flood risk reduction and coastal risk reduction. For materials, timber production, fuelwood production and access to nature. For cultural benefits, coral reef tourism and access to nature for recreation or other uses. Criticality of the natural assets was defined on the basis of the highest value areas across all NCPs, the magnitude of benefits and the number of beneficiaries. Cropland, urban areas, bare areas and permanent snow and ice are excluded from the analysis.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 13: Climate Action
Climate Change Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Forests Soil Ecosystem Services
Source: Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA
The Marine Ecoregions of the World is a global system to classify the oceans, helping to plan and prioritise marine conservation measures. How much are marine areas are protected at ecoregion level? For each African marine ecoregion, this map shows the percentage covered by protected areas.
GOAL 14: Life below water
Other SDGs
Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Protected Areas & Ecological Networks
Source: JRC-WWF
The Global 200 is the list of ecoregions identified by WWF, the global conservation organization, as priorities for conservation. According to WWF, an ecoregion is defined as a "relatively large unit of land or water containing a characteristic set of natural communities that share a large majority of their species dynamics, and environmental conditions". The WWF assigns a conservation status to each ecoregion in the Global 200: critical or endangered; vulnerable; and relatively stable or intact. Globally, over half of the ecoregions in the Global 200 are rated endangered.
GOAL 14: Life below water
Other SDGs
Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Marine Resources Protected Areas & Ecological Networks
Source: WWF
This data set provides spatially explicit estimates of the area directly used for surface mining on a global scale. It contains 44,929 polygon features, covering 101,583 km² of land used by the global mining industry, including large-scale and artisanal and small-scale mining. The polygons cover all ground features related to mining, .e.g open cuts, tailing dams, waste rock dumps, water ponds, processing infrastructure, and other land cover types related to the mining activities.
GOAL 09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Other SDGs
GOAL 15: Life on Land
Source: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.942325?format=html#download
This dataset provides mobile (cellular) network performance metrics in zoom level 16 web Mercator tiles (approximately 610.8 meters by 610.8 meters at the equator). Download speed is collected via the Speedtest by Ookla applications for Android and iOS and averaged for each tile. Measurements are filtered to results containing GPS-quality location accuracy. Speedtest data is used today by commercial mobile network operators around the world to inform network buildout, improve global Internet quality, and increase Internet accessibility. This data can be used for rural and urban connectivity development, to help make the internet better, faster, and more accessible for everyone.
GOAL 10: Reduced inequalities
Other SDGs
GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
Digital Connectivity & Infrastructures Rural Development Territorial Development Urban Development
Source: OOKLA
This dataset provides mobile (cellular) network performance metrics in zoom level 16 web Mercator tiles (approximately 610.8 meters by 610.8 meters at the equator). Download speed is collected via the Speedtest by Ookla applications for Android and iOS and averaged for each tile. Measurements are filtered to results containing GPS-quality location accuracy. Speedtest data is used today by commercial mobile network operators around the world to inform network buildout, improve global Internet quality, and increase Internet accessibility. This data can be used for rural and urban connectivity development, to help make the internet better, faster, and more accessible for everyone.
GOAL 10: Reduced inequalities
Other SDGs
GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
Digital Connectivity & Infrastructures Rural Development Territorial Development Urban Development
Source: OOKLA
Chlorophyll-a concentrations (Chla) are an indicator of phytoplankton abundance and biomass in open waters. They can be an effective measure of trophic status and are commonly used to measure water quality. This layer compares the Chla value from the last full month with the long-term mean Chla. A positive anomaly (warm colours) means the monthly Chla is higher than the long-term average for that month; a negative anomaly (cool colours) means it is lower than the average.
GOAL 13: Climate action
Other SDGs
GOAL 14: Life Below Water
Climate Change Natural Disasters Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Marine Resources
Source: EC-JRC
Monitoring of sea surface temperature (SST) provides fundamental information on the global climate system and for the study of marine ecosystems. This layer compares the SST value of the last full month with the long-term mean SST. A positive anomaly (warm colours) means the monthly SST is warmer than the long-term average for that month; a negative anomaly (cool colours) means it is cooler than the average.
GOAL 13: Climate action
Other SDGs
Source: EC-JRC
Increasing water scarcity and water quality issues are serious constraints in Africa and worldwide. Measuring precipitation anomalies is important for detecting and characterizing meteorological droughts, and, in the agricultural sector especially, for effectively managing climate related uncertainties. This layer shows the deviation of the precipitations of the last full month from the long-term average of the same month. A positive anomaly (shades of blue) means there was more rainfall than average during that month. A negative anomaly (yellow to red) means there was less rainfall than average during that month.
GOAL 13: Climate action
Other SDGs
Source: EC-JRC
In the last decade, the global and African economies have been marked by a high volatility in the prices of diesel. Higher diesel prices impact not only the electricity generation costs but also the prices of all other goods that rely on diesel as an intermediate input. Food –on which poor people in low-income developing countries spend a disproportionately high share of their total household expenditures– is the most significantly impacted. This layer shows the national retail diesel prices [US $ cents /litre] in African countries in a context of high fuel prices. The 2012 prices were selected to represent high diesel prices. The 2012 layer (high fuel prices) can be compared with the 2016 layer (low fuel prices - https://africa-knowledge-platform.ec.europa.eu/dataset/dieselpid16), not only in terms of the actual retail prices, but also taking account of per capita incomes and truck revenues, also in terms of affordability.
GOAL 10: Reduced inequalities
Other SDGs
GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
Source: EC-JRC
In the last decade, the global and African economies have been marked by a high volatility in the prices of diesel. Higher diesel prices impact not only the electricity generation costs but also the prices of all other goods that rely on diesel as an intermediate input. Food –on which poor people in low-income developing countries spend a disproportionately high share of their total household expenditures– is the most significantly impacted. This layer shows the national retail diesel prices [US $ cents /litre] in African countries in a context of low fuel prices. The February 2016 prices were selected to represent low diesel prices. During this time, one of the lowest price levels in the decade was registered, when the price of Brent fell to around US$29 per barrel. The 2016 layer (low fuel prices) can be compared with the 2012 layer (high fuel prices - https://africa-knowledge-platform.ec.europa.eu/dataset/dieselpid12), not only in terms of the actual retail prices, but also taking account of per capita incomes and truck revenues, also in terms of affordability.
GOAL 10: Reduced inequalities
Other SDGs
GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
Source: EC-JRC
Whether you’re monitoring crops, modelling green energy installations or soil sealing, combatting loss of natural resources or just helping countries meet their Sustainable Development Goals, chances are high that you’ll need an accurate and spatially detailed map on land cover and land use. Earth Observation satellites, like those from EU’s flagship programme Copernicus, are key to providing such maps, at a global scale, with free and open access. Derived from the Copernicus Global Land Cover, this map represents the distribution of areas where land cover is not heavily disturbed by man’s activities. In other words, it shows areas where natural ecosystems and their associated species are expected to be found.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, GOAL 13: Climate Action, GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being
Source: EC-JRC
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity. This is embodied in an international treaty called the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted by UNESCO in 1972. What makes the concept of World Heritage exceptional is its universal application. World Heritage sites belong to all the peoples of the world, irrespective of the territory on which they are located.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 14: Life Below Water
Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Protected Areas & Ecological Networks
Source: UNESCO/WCMC
Net migration is defined as the difference between the number of immigrants and the number of emigrants. Developing high spatial resolution data on net migration is a first step to analyse the relation between climate change, population distribution and related migration. This map shows the net migration for the 2010-2014 period as estimated by the European Commission's Knowledge Centre on Migration and Demography (KCMD) at a 25km resolution level, i.e. referring to areas of 25x25 km. It makes it possible to identify whether these areas experience migration losses (i.e. have negative net migration) or migration gains (i.e. positive net migration). The full dataset provides data on net migration for five-year time-steps between 1975 and 2015.
GOAL 10: Reduced inequalities
Other SDGs
Sustainable Growth & Jobs People Migration & Mobility Remittances
Source: EC-JRC
Net official development assistance (ODA) is government aid designed to promote the economic development and welfare of developing countries. Aid may be provided bilaterally, from donor to recipient, or channelled through a multilateral development agency such as the United Nations or the World Bank. Net official aid (OA) refers to aid flows from official donors to more advanced (developing) countries and territories. Official aid is provided under terms and conditions similar to those for ODA. This map shows the aggregated figure (sum of ODA and OA) for African countries. Data are in current U.S. dollars.
GOAL 10: Reduced inequalities
Other SDGs
Economy Financing Sustainable Growth & Jobs Gender & Inequality Politics
Source: World Bank
Nuclear Trade is provided by the Joint Research Centre's Nuclear Trade Atlas is developed to promote understanding of global trade flows of nuclear goods. Trade flows are classified under a basket of Harmonized System (HS) codes associated with nuclear commodities. While these HS codes are understood to also encompass non-nuclear items, they nevertheless provide a good macroscopic view of potentially nuclear trade flows. The Atlas is published as a book and as an online tool presenting country-based and commodity-based views of global nuclear trade. The slice of world trade data underlying the Nuclear Trade Atlas is made available here. The raw data was originally reported to and made publicly available by the United Nations Statistical Division (UN Comtrade data), then processed to mirror and reconcile trade asymmetries by the Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales (BACI data). For details about the BACI data processing method, see: Gaulier, G.; Zignago, S. (2010) BACI: International Trade Database at the Product-Level. The 1994-2007 Version. CEPII Working Paper, N°2010-23.
GOAL 07: Affordable and clean energy
Other SDGs
Nuclear Safety and Security Trade & Connectivity Energy Clean & Renewable Energy
Source: EC-JRC
Nuclear Trade is provided by the Joint Research Centre's Nuclear Trade Atlas is developed to promote understanding of global trade flows of nuclear goods. Trade flows are classified under a basket of Harmonized System (HS) codes associated with nuclear commodities. While these HS codes are understood to also encompass non-nuclear items, they nevertheless provide a good macroscopic view of potentially nuclear trade flows. The Atlas is published as a book and as an online tool presenting country-based and commodity-based views of global nuclear trade. The slice of world trade data underlying the Nuclear Trade Atlas is made available here. The raw data was originally reported to and made publicly available by the United Nations Statistical Division (UN Comtrade data), then processed to mirror and reconcile trade asymmetries by the Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales (BACI data). For details about the BACI data processing method, see: Gaulier, G.; Zignago, S. (2010) BACI: International Trade Database at the Product-Level. The 1994-2007 Version. CEPII Working Paper, N°2010-23.
GOAL 07: Affordable and clean energy
Other SDGs
Nuclear Safety and Security Trade & Connectivity Energy Clean & Renewable Energy
Source: EC-JRC
Nuclear Trade is provided by the Joint Research Centre's Nuclear Trade Atlas is developed to promote understanding of global trade flows of nuclear goods. Trade flows are classified under a basket of Harmonized System (HS) codes associated with nuclear commodities. While these HS codes are understood to also encompass non-nuclear items, they nevertheless provide a good macroscopic view of potentially nuclear trade flows. The Atlas is published as a book and as an online tool presenting country-based and commodity-based views of global nuclear trade. The slice of world trade data underlying the Nuclear Trade Atlas is made available here. The raw data was originally reported to and made publicly available by the United Nations Statistical Division (UN Comtrade data), then processed to mirror and reconcile trade asymmetries by the Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales (BACI data). For details about the BACI data processing method, see: Gaulier, G.; Zignago, S. (2010) BACI: International Trade Database at the Product-Level. The 1994-2007 Version. CEPII Working Paper, N°2010-23.
GOAL 07: Affordable and clean energy
Other SDGs
Nuclear Safety and Security Trade & Connectivity Energy Clean & Renewable Energy
Source: EC-JRC
Nuclear Trade is provided by the Joint Research Centre's Nuclear Trade Atlas is developed to promote understanding of global trade flows of nuclear goods. Trade flows are classified under a basket of Harmonized System (HS) codes associated with nuclear commodities. While these HS codes are understood to also encompass non-nuclear items, they nevertheless provide a good macroscopic view of potentially nuclear trade flows. The Atlas is published as a book and as an online tool presenting country-based and commodity-based views of global nuclear trade. The slice of world trade data underlying the Nuclear Trade Atlas is made available here. The raw data was originally reported to and made publicly available by the United Nations Statistical Division (UN Comtrade data), then processed to mirror and reconcile trade asymmetries by the Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales (BACI data). For details about the BACI data processing method, see: Gaulier, G.; Zignago, S. (2010) BACI: International Trade Database at the Product-Level. The 1994-2007 Version. CEPII Working Paper, N°2010-23.
GOAL 07: Affordable and clean energy
Other SDGs
Nuclear Safety and Security Trade & Connectivity Energy Clean & Renewable Energy
Source: EC-JRC
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 feature in public and policy debates, which are hampered or biased by a lack of accurate information on environmental impacts. This dataset presents a global crop map. It covers areas where oil palm plantations were detected at global scale, and includes industrial and smallholder mature oil palm plantations.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Forests Food and Agriculture Food Production
Source: EC-JRC
African Railways extracted from OpenStreetMap on the 15th of October 2021.
GOAL 11: Sustainable cities and communities
Other SDGs
GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality
eServices Territorial Development Transport & Other Infrastructure Urban Development
Source: OpenStreetMap
African Roads extracted from OpenStreetMap on the 15th of October 2021.
GOAL 09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Other SDGs
GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality
eServices Territorial Development Transport & Other Infrastructure Urban Development
Source: OpenStreetMap
African Waterways extracted from OpenStreetMap on the 15th of October 2021.
GOAL 10: Reduced inequalities
Other SDGs
GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality
eServices Territorial Development Transport & Other Infrastructure Urban Development
Source: OpenStreetMap
This indicator assesses the potential threat from transboundary animal and plant pests and diseases. As genetic and species diversity is lost and ecosystems are degraded, the complexity of the overall system can be compromised, making it more vulnerable and potentially creating new opportunities for disease emergence. Emerging diseases include transboundary animal and plant pests and diseases, including forest/timber pests and aquatic animal diseases. Food safety threats can have a large impact on food security, human health, livelihoods and trade. To estimate the frequency of zoonotic, vector-borne and water-borne diseases, data from the FAO’s Food Chain Crisis Early Warning Bulletin (2018-2020) was used. The purpose of the dataset is to inform of forecasted threats to animal and plant health and food safety that may have a significant impact on food and nutrition security. Please note that the source data for this indicator is only available on a country level.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 2: Zero Hunger
Source: WWF
This indicator assesses whether there is enough natural habitat surrounding cropland to support natural pollination. Up to two-thirds of all crops require some degree of animal pollination to reach their maximum yields, and natural habitat around farmlands can support healthy populations of wild pollinators by providing them with foraging and nesting resources. As part of the mapping of the planet’s critical natural assets for people (NCP), the crop pollination dataset models the potential contribution of wild pollinators to nutrition production, based on pollination sufficiency of habitat surrounding farmland and the pollination dependency of crops. NCP for crop pollination is expressed in terms of the average equivalent number of people fed per acre of natural habitat.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 2: Zero Hunger
Source: WWF
This indicator is based on nutrient, pesticide and air pollution. Pollution is an important driver of biodiversity and ecosystem change throughout all biomes. While terrestrial ecosystems have been affected by nitrogen-phosphorous fertilisers, these have had a far more pernicious effect on the biodiversity of freshwater and marine habitats, leading to eutrophication and hypoxic or ‘dead’ zones that support no aquatic life. PM 2.5 is the annual global surface concentrations (micrograms per cubic meter) of all composition ground-level fine particulate matter of 2.5 micrometers or smaller. Exposure to high average concentrations of PM2.5 over time has been a reliable predictor of heightened mortality. There are multiple sources of air pollution, including emissions from industries, through the use of fossil fuels, agricultural processes, and vehicular emissions. The BRF only focusses on nutrient, pesticide (for terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments) and air pollution at this point. Terrestrial: FAO data has been used to calculate total nitrogen and pesticides per hectare of cropland. Please note that this source data is only available on a country level. Freshwater: McDowell’s projected median concentrations for total nitrogen concentrations during the growing season for catchments across the globe were used. Marine areas: Halpern’s impact score for nutrient pollution (from fertilizer runoff) has been used. Air: Hammer et.al. (2022) measured average concentrations of PM2.5 by combining Aerosol Optical Depth retrievals from multiple satellite algorithms. What does very high risk mean for this indicator? Areas of very high risk have high levels of nitrogen and pesticides per hectare of cropland (>77kg/ha; >5.9kg/ha, respectively); high total N concentrations in freshwater (>2.6mg/L); a very high nutrient & chemical pollution impact score in marine areas; experience more than 50 mg/m2 of PM 2.5.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, GOAL 14: Life Below Water
Source: WWF
The human imprint on the planet has a major impact on the functioning of the Earth system. Because the impact on the environment is closely intertwined with population dynamics, it is important to monitor and include these in the evaluation of land degradation. This layer displays the areas of concern for population change related issues derived from the convergence of global evidence of human-environment interactions that can lead to land degradation. It reflects the dynamics of increasing number of people in a certain area.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Source: EC-JRC
According to UN estimates, the global population will increase by 2.4 billion between 2015 and 2050. Of this, an overwhelming 50 % will be concentrated in Africa (1.3 billion). There could be up to four times as many people in sub-Saharan Africa by the end of the century. The human imprint on the planet has a major impact on the functioning of the Earth system. Because the impact on the environment is closely intertwined with population dynamics, it is important to monitor and include these in the evaluation of land degradation. This layer displays the areas of concern for population density related issues derived from the convergence of global evidence of human-environment interactions that can lead to land degradation.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Sustainable Growth & Jobs Urban Development People Demography
Source: EC-JRC
Developing high spatial resolution data on net migration is a first step to analyse the relation between climate change, population distribution and related migration. Net migration is defined as the difference between the number of immigrants and the number of emigrants. When data on in-migration and out-migration are not available, net migration is obtained by comparing population increase over a given period of time with natural increase (births minus deaths) over the same period. This map shows the natural increase for the 2010-2014 period as estimated by the European Commission's Knowledge Centre on Migration and Demography (KCMD) at a 25km resolution level, i.e. referring to areas of 25x25 km. The full dataset provides data on population natural increase for five-year time-steps between 1975 and 2015.
GOAL 10: Reduced inequalities
Other SDGs
Source: EC-JRC
Substantial crop losses occur at various stages along the postharvest value chain. Losses result from poor handling and storage practices combined with limited awareness, infrastructure, and knowledge. The African Postharvest Losses Information System (APHLIS) (www.aphlis.net) is the foremost international effort to collect, analyse and disseminate data on postharvest losses of cereal grains in sub-Saharan Africa. The cumulative % loss in weight incurred during harvesting, drying, threshing/shelling, winnowing, household-level storage, transport and market-level storage for the selected crop, location, and year is presented. Complimentary data sets are collected and used to convert this % loss into absolute loss values in tonnes, US$ and nutrients, along with the nutritional and financial impacts of these losses by province and country. Understanding the magnitude of postharvest loss, the points in the value chain where losses occur, and the causes and impacts of loss helps decision-makers formulate effective policies and invest in successful postharvest loss programmes.
GOAL 12: Responsible consumption and production
Other SDGs
GOAL 13: Climate Action
Source: EC-JRC
Substantial crop losses occur at various stages along the postharvest value chain. Losses result from poor handling and storage practices combined with limited awareness, infrastructure, and knowledge. The African Postharvest Losses Information System (APHLIS) (www.aphlis.net) is the foremost international effort to collect, analyse and disseminate data on postharvest losses of cereal grains in sub-Saharan Africa. The cumulative % loss in weight incurred during harvesting, drying, threshing/shelling, winnowing, household-level storage, transport and market-level storage for the selected crop, location, and year is presented. Complimentary data sets are collected and used to convert this % loss into absolute loss values in tonnes, US$ and nutrients, along with the nutritional and financial impacts of these losses by province and country. Understanding the magnitude of postharvest loss, the points in the value chain where losses occur, and the causes and impacts of loss helps decision-makers formulate effective policies and invest in successful postharvest loss programmes.
GOAL 12: Responsible consumption and production
Other SDGs
GOAL 13: Climate Action
Source: EC-JRC
Substantial crop losses occur at various stages along the postharvest value chain. Losses result from poor handling and storage practices combined with limited awareness, infrastructure, and knowledge. The African Postharvest Losses Information System (APHLIS) (www.aphlis.net) is the foremost international effort to collect, analyse and disseminate data on postharvest losses of cereal grains in sub-Saharan Africa. The cumulative % loss in weight incurred during harvesting, drying, threshing/shelling, winnowing, household-level storage, transport and market-level storage for the selected crop, location, and year is presented. Complimentary data sets are collected and used to convert this % loss into absolute loss values in tonnes, US$ and nutrients, along with the nutritional and financial impacts of these losses by province and country. Understanding the magnitude of postharvest loss, the points in the value chain where losses occur, and the causes and impacts of loss helps decision-makers formulate effective policies and invest in successful postharvest loss programmes.
GOAL 12: Responsible consumption and production
Other SDGs
GOAL 13: Climate Action
Source: EC-JRC
Substantial crop losses occur at various stages along the postharvest value chain. Losses result from poor handling and storage practices combined with limited awareness, infrastructure, and knowledge. The African Postharvest Losses Information System (APHLIS) (www.aphlis.net) is the foremost international effort to collect, analyse and disseminate data on postharvest losses of cereal grains in sub-Saharan Africa. The cumulative % loss in weight incurred during harvesting, drying, threshing/shelling, winnowing, household-level storage, transport and market-level storage for the selected crop, location, and year is presented. Complimentary data sets are collected and used to convert this % loss into absolute loss values in tonnes, US$ and nutrients, along with the nutritional and financial impacts of these losses by province and country. Understanding the magnitude of postharvest loss, the points in the value chain where losses occur, and the causes and impacts of loss helps decision-makers formulate effective policies and invest in successful postharvest loss programmes.
GOAL 12: Responsible consumption and production
Other SDGs
GOAL 13: Climate Action
Source: EC-JRC
Substantial crop losses occur at various stages along the postharvest value chain. Losses result from poor handling and storage practices combined with limited awareness, infrastructure, and knowledge. The African Postharvest Losses Information System (APHLIS) (www.aphlis.net) is the foremost international effort to collect, analyse and disseminate data on postharvest losses of cereal grains in sub-Saharan Africa. The cumulative % loss in weight incurred during harvesting, drying, threshing/shelling, winnowing, household-level storage, transport and market-level storage for the selected crop, location, and year is presented. Complimentary data sets are collected and used to convert this % loss into absolute loss values in tonnes, US$ and nutrients, along with the nutritional and financial impacts of these losses by province and country. Understanding the magnitude of postharvest loss, the points in the value chain where losses occur, and the causes and impacts of loss helps decision-makers formulate effective policies and invest in successful postharvest loss programmes.
GOAL 12: Responsible consumption and production
Other SDGs
GOAL 13: Climate Action
Source: EC-JRC
This dataset shows the African power plants by energy generation type. It includes thermal plants (coal, gas, oil, nuclear, biomass, waste, geothermal) and renewables (hydro, wind, solar). Each power plant is geolocated and entries contain information on plant capacity and generation type.
GOAL 07: Affordable and clean energy
Other SDGs
GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Energy Energy Production Clean & Renewable Energy Fossil Fuels
Source: EC-JRC
This dataset shows the African power plants and their installed capacity in MegaWatt (MW). It includes thermal plants (coal, gas, oil, nuclear, biomass, waste, geothermal) and renewables (hydro, wind, solar). Each power plant is geolocated and entries contain information on plant capacity and generation.
GOAL 07: Affordable and clean energy
Other SDGs
GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Energy Energy Production Fossil Fuels Clean & Renewable Energy
Source: EC-JRC
Protected areas have long played a crucial role in protecting natural landscapes and wildlife, and many consider them to be one of the most effective tools in protecting biodiversity. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) officially defines a protected area as ' a clearly defined geographical space, recognised, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values'. Protected areas also play a key role in preserving the benefits that nature brings to people, often referred to as 'ecosystem services'. They come in many shapes and sizes, ranging from strict nature reserves where only scientific research is permitted, to areas that allow natural resources to be used. The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) is the most comprehensive global database of marine and terrestrial protected areas.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 14: Life Below Water
Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Protected Areas & Ecological Networks
Source: UNEP-WCMC/IUCN
By detecting areas where agricultural production deficits might occur, it is possible to prevent food security crises and anticipate response planning. To do this, we need accurate and reliable information on agricultural land cover. This layer shows the extent of rangeland in Africa. Each pixel represents the fraction of the area covered by rangeland (i.e. the percentage of the pixel with rangeland).
GOAL 02: Zero hunger
Other SDGs
GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, GOAL 2: Zero Hunger
Food and Agriculture Land Use in Agriculture Yields Food per Person Crop Health
Source: EC-JRC
Raw materials are essential for the sustainable functioning of modern societies and their industries. The European Commission's Raw Materials Information System (RMIS) is developed by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) in cooperation with the DG for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (GROWTH). The RMIS is the Commission’s reference web-based knowledge platform on non-fuel, non-agricultural raw materials from primary and secondary sources. From gold to natural rubber, including cobalt, cooking coal, construction aggregates (sand, gravel...) and many more, it focuses on both abiotic and biotic materials, covering the entire value chain. This map shows the amount (in USD) of the main non-food, non-energy raw material commodities exported by each African country in 2017.
GOAL 09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Other SDGs
GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy, GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
Economy Sustainable Growth & Jobs Gender & Inequality Raw Materials Energy Clean & Renewable Energy
Source: EC-JRC
Raw materials are essential for the sustainable functioning of modern societies and their industries. The European Commission's Raw Materials Information System (RMIS) is developed by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) in cooperation with the DG for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (GROWTH). The RMIS is the Commission’s reference web-based knowledge platform on non-fuel, non-agricultural raw materials from primary and secondary sources. From gold to natural rubber, including cobalt, cooking coal, construction aggregates (sand, gravel...) and many more, it focuses on both abiotic and biotic materials, covering the entire value chain. This map shows the amount (in USD) of the main non-food, non-energy raw material commodities imported by each African country in 2017.
GOAL 09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Other SDGs
GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy, GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
Economy Sustainable Growth & Jobs Gender & Inequality Raw Materials Energy Clean & Renewable Energy
Source: EC-JRC
The Regional Economic Communities (RECs) are regional groupings of African states. The 1980 Lagos Plan of Action for the Development of Africa and the 1991 Abuja Treaty proposed the creation of RECs as the basis for wider African integration. Each with their own role and structure, the RECs aim to facilitate regional economic integration between members of the region and through the wider African Economic Community (AEC), established under the Abuja Treaty. They are increasingly involved in coordinating African Union Member States’ interests in wider areas such as peace and security, development and governance. This map shows how many and which RECs each African country belongs to. The African Union recognises eight RECs: the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Community of Sahel–Saharan States (CEN–SAD), the East African Community (EAC), the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
GOAL 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions
Other SDGs
Source: EC-JRC
Many businesses rely on ecosystem services that regulate or support production processes, including the cultivation of crops or breeding of animals. Declines in enabling ecosystem services such as soil health, water quality , and habitat provision can result increased costs of production or inability to operate. It comprises the indicators: 1) Soil Condition, 2) Water Condition, 3) Air Condition, 4) Ecosystem Condition and 5) Pollination. See the specific indicators for more details.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 14: Life Below Water
Source: WWF
Tensions over freshwater use and management in international river basins are one of the main concerns in political relations. They may exacerbate existing tensions, increase regional instability and social unrest. Hydro-political interactions are here defined as episodes of cooperation or conflict between countries over transboundary water resources. The probability index presented in this map is based on past hydro-political issues in international river basins and a selection of biophysical and socioeconomic indicators (for the period 1997-2012). Areas are more (red) or less (blue) likely to experience transboundary water-related issues. A higher likelihood identifies areas where hydro-political interactions are more probable, due to lack of water supply and/or human pressure in a more vulnerable institutional and socioeconomic context. This data driven index can help policy makers identify areas where cooperation over water should be actively pursued to avoid possible tensions, especially under changing environmental conditions.
GOAL 06: Clean water and sanitation
Other SDGs
GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality, GOAL 16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions
Climate Change Sustainable Growth & Jobs Gender & Inequality Politics Natural Resources Water & Freshwater
Source: EC-JRC
International migration – the movement of people across international boundaries – has enormous implications for growth and poverty alleviation in both origin and destination countries. Remittances - the money sent by migrant workers to their country of origin - has an important role to play in this. This map based on World Bank data shows the annual remittance inflows (i.e. remittances received) per country, in USD. (Next update expected in April 2021)
GOAL 17: Partnerships for the goals
Other SDGs
GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality
Economy Sustainable Growth & Jobs Gender & Inequality Migration & Mobility Remittances
Source: World Bank
In an age of Development Agendas that call for universal inclusiveness of people, global population grids are essential to support analyses and inform policy-making in a wide range of fields, from environmental assessment to disaster risk analysis and reduction. This map combines the best-available population estimates (from CIESIN Gridded Population of the World) with the best-available assessment of the spatial extents of human settlements (inferred from Landsat satellite data). It depicts the distribution and density of population, expressed as the number of people per cell, at high spatial resolution (250m) for the year 2015.
GOAL 11: Sustainable cities and communities
Other SDGs
Sustainable Growth & Jobs Urban Development People Population Growth Migration & Mobility Energy
Source: EC-JRC
Droughts affect millions of people in the world each year and have long-lasting socioeconomic impacts. They can occur over most parts of the world, even in wet and humid regions, and can profoundly impact agriculture, basic household welfare, tourism, ecosystems and the services they provide. The Risk of Drought Impact for Agriculture (RDrI-Agri) is a categorized risk index, indicating the probability of having impacts from a drought, with particular focus on vegetation. Higher risk (in red) means that the areas affected will be the most likely to report impacts due to droughts. It is updated every ten days.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 15: Life on Land
Real Time Climate Change Natural Disasters Land Degradation Desertification Natural Resources Water & Freshwater
Source: EC-JRC
The Sahel is an area that, over time, has had multiple definitions, climatic-botanical and political: its limits have been traced in very different ways. Even the usage of this name and its delimitation on maps has been openly questioned and contested. Our contribution proposes a cartography capable of mapping the incessant movement of conditions, limits and possibilities that characterize this strip between the Sahara and the humid Sudanese regions, rendering the areal definition of the Sahel visible and fluid at the same time. However, it is a question of rethinking the very foundation of cartography – what has been ‘taken for granted’ in the past – such as the common tools of cartographic representation, for example the concept of ‘isohyet’ to identify climatic areas or ‘boundaries’ to define political jurisdictions. Knowledge from fieldwork and expertise in the processing of satellite and geo-referenced data converge in this path of analysis and representation.
GOAL 13: Climate action
Other SDGs
GOAL 15: Life on Land
Source: University of Padova
The Sahel is an area that, over time, has had multiple definitions, climatic-botanical and political: its limits have been traced in very different ways. Even the usage of this name and its delimitation on maps has been openly questioned and contested. Our contribution proposes a cartography capable of mapping the incessant movement of conditions, limits and possibilities that characterize this strip between the Sahara and the humid Sudanese regions, rendering the areal definition of the Sahel visible and fluid at the same time. However, it is a question of rethinking the very foundation of cartography – what has been ‘taken for granted’ in the past – such as the common tools of cartographic representation, for example the concept of ‘isohyet’ to identify climatic areas or ‘boundaries’ to define political jurisdictions. Knowledge from fieldwork and expertise in the processing of satellite and geo-referenced data converge in this path of analysis and representation. The Sahel is a sub-Saharan area defined between the isohyetal lines of 150mm and 850 mm of rain per year. However, depending on the period, the season and the drought / rain conditions this area moves: hence the definition of the breath of the Sahel. This data represents the minimum and maximum extension of the Sahel area over the last 30 years.
GOAL 13: Climate action
Other SDGs
GOAL 15: Life on Land
Source: University of Padova
Monitoring of sea surface temperature (SST) provides fundamental information on the global climate system and for the study of marine ecosystems. For example, it helps estimating heat stress conducive to coral bleaching, the process by which they expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissues and become white (bleached) and vulnerable. The NOAA Coral Reef Watch's daily global 5km satellite SST Anomaly (SSTA) compares the daily SST value with the long-term mean SST. A positive anomaly (+1.0 °C or more, warm colours) means the daily SST is warmer than the long-term average for that day; a negative anomaly (-1.0 °C or less, cold colours) means it is cooler than the average.
GOAL 13: Climate action
Other SDGs
GOAL 14: Life Below Water
Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Ocean temperature is related to ocean heat content (the energy absorbed by the ocean), an important topic in the study of global warming. Monitoring of sea surface temperature (SST) from earth-orbiting infrared radiometers has had a wide impact on oceanographic science. It provides fundamental information on the global climate system and for the study of marine ecosystems. For example, it helps estimating heat stress conducive to coral bleaching, the process by which they expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissues and become white (bleached) and vulnerable. The NOAA Coral Reef Watch Daily Global 5km Satellite Sea Surface Temperature product (a.k.a. CoralTemp) measures the night-time ocean temperature at the sea surface, calibrated to 0.2 meters depth.
GOAL 13: Climate action
Other SDGs
GOAL 14: Life Below Water
Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Monitoring of sea surface temperature (SST) provides fundamental information on the global climate system and for the study of marine ecosystems. For example, it helps estimating heat stress conducive to coral bleaching, the process by which they expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissues and become white (bleached) and vulnerable. The NOAA Coral Reef Watch's daily global 5km 7-day SST Trend product shows the SST trend for the most recent seven days. Pixels coloured in blue to purple follow a cooling trend while pixels coloured in yellow to red follow a warming trend. Pixels coloured in green have insignificant trends.
GOAL 13: Climate action
Other SDGs
GOAL 14: Life Below Water
Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
The NASA Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) global 1 arc second (~30 metre) DEM is archived and distributed by the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC). This dataset is a result of a collaborative effort by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA – previously known as the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, or NIMA), as well as the participation of the German and Italian space agencies. The primary goal of creating this dataset was to eliminate voids that were present in earlier versions of the SRTM elevation data. Africa Knowledge Platform provides free and open access to the NASA Version 3 SRTM DEM product over Africa.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Source: https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/sensors/srtm
Soil condition indicates whether soil can perform basic functions to benefit human use and ecosystems alike. This indicator is based on soil organic carbon (SOC) content. SOC is the main component of soil organic matter and is a prerequisite for soil functions and food production, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While there are many other aspects that can influence soil condition, SOC has also long been used as an indicator of soil health, due to its capacity to improve soil structural stability, which affects porosity, aeration and water filtration capacities to supply clean water. GSOCmap is the first global SOC map, produced through a consultative and participatory process involving Global Soil Partnership member countries, which makes this map unique.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 2: Zero Hunger
Source: WWF
In most people's mind, soil would not figure highly in a list of the natural resources of Africa. However, healthy and fertile soils are the cornerstones of food security, key environmental services, social cohesion and the economies of most African countries. Unfortunately, soil in Africa tends to reach public awareness only when it fails – often with catastrophic consequences as seen by the famine episodes of the Sahel in the 1980s and more recently in Niger and the Horn of Africa. In the context of major global environmental challenges such as food security, climate change, fresh water scarcity and biodiversity loss, the protection and the sustainable management of soil resources in Africa are of paramount importance. This layer presents the diversity of soil types across Africa. This map was produced by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission for the Soil Atlas of Africa.
GOAL 02: Zero hunger
Other SDGs
GOAL 13: Climate Action, GOAL 15: Life on Land
Source: EC-JRC
Agricultural drought events can affect large regions across the world. Soil moisture (or soil water content) is an important variable for plant growth, and - together with precipitation and evapotranspiration - is a basic component of the hydrological cycle. The Soil Moisture Anomaly (SMA) indicator is used to detect and monitor agricultural drought, that is when there is reduced crop production due to insufficient soil moisture. It is computed as a deviation from the climatological reference period, and is updated 3 times a month (after the 10th, the 20th and the last day of the month). This layer displays the map for the last full decade of the current month. Negative anomalies (shades of brown) represent dry conditions.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 13: Climate Action
Real Time Climate Change Climate Services Natural Resources Soil Food and Agriculture
Source: EC-JRC
Soil organic carbon (SOC) is the carbon that remains in the soil after partial decomposition of any material produced by living organisms. It constitutes a key element of the global carbon cycle through atmosphere, vegetation, soil, rivers and the ocean. It is a crucial contributor to food production, mitigation and adaption to climate change. Soils represent the largest terrestrial organic carbon reservoir. Depending on local geology, climatic conditions and land use and management (amongst other environmental factors), soils hold different amounts of SOC. This map shows the amount of carbon stored in the soil (from 0 to 30 cm depth), expressed in Mg (megagrams or tonnes) per km2.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Forests Soil Ecosystem Services
Source: FAO
African countries have an evident potential for solar energy. Knowing the amount of solar radiation reaching the earth's surface is of particular interest for photovoltaic installations. It can be represented by the Global Horizontal Irradiation: the total amount of energy received from the Sun by a surface horizontal to the ground during a period of time, expressed in Wh/m2. This map shows the yearly average (2005-2015) global horizontal irradiation (kWh/m2).
GOAL 07: Affordable and clean energy
Other SDGs
Climate Change Climate Services Energy Energy Production Clean & Renewable Energy
Source: EC-JRC
The availability and quantity of observational species occurrence records have greatly increased due to technological advancements and the rise of online portals, such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), coalescing occurrence records from multiple datasets. Funded by the world's governments, this international network and data infrastructure is aimed at providing anyone, anywhere, open access to data about all types of life on Earth. This map displays all the observations reported to the GBIF from 1600 to present. This knowledge derives from many sources, including everything from museum specimens collected in the 18th and 19th century to geotagged smartphone photos shared by amateur naturalists in recent days and weeks. Individual records are available at https://www.gbif.org
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 14: Life Below Water
Source: GBIF
Africa’s extraordinary richness in biodiversity and ecosystem services comprises a strategic asset for sustainable development. Yet the decline and loss of biodiversity hampers the sustainable social and economic targets set by African countries. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species is the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species. This map shows the richness in amphibian species based on the IUCN ranges (the species geographical distribution). Areas with a high species richness are shown in shades of red: more amphibian species potentially occur in these areas.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Source: IUCN
Africa’s extraordinary richness in biodiversity and ecosystem services comprises a strategic asset for sustainable development. Yet the decline and loss of biodiversity hampers the sustainable social and economic targets set by African countries. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species is the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species. This map shows the richness in bird species based on the IUCN ranges (the species geographical distribution). Areas with a high species richness are shown in shades of red: more bird species potentially occur in these areas.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Source: IUCN
Africa’s extraordinary richness in biodiversity and ecosystem services comprises a strategic asset for sustainable development. Yet the decline and loss of biodiversity hampers the sustainable social and economic targets set by African countries. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species is the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species. This map shows the richness in corals and ray species based on the IUCN ranges (the species geographical distribution). Areas with a high species richness are shown in shades of red: more corals and ray species potentially occur in these areas.
GOAL 14: Life below water
Other SDGs
Source: IUCN
Africa’s extraordinary richness in biodiversity and ecosystem services comprises a strategic asset for sustainable development. Yet the decline and loss of biodiversity hampers the sustainable social and economic targets set by African countries. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species is the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species. This map shows the richness in mammal species based on the IUCN ranges (the species geographical distribution). Areas with a high species richness are shown in shades of red: more mammal species potentially occur in these areas.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 14: Life Below Water
Source: IUCN
Africa’s extraordinary richness in biodiversity and ecosystem services comprises a strategic asset for sustainable development. Yet the decline and loss of biodiversity hampers the sustainable social and economic targets set by African countries. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species is the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species. This map shows the richness in shark and ray species based on the IUCN ranges (the species geographical distribution). Areas with a high species richness are shown in shades of red: more shark and ray species potentially occur in these areas.
GOAL 14: Life below water
Other SDGs
Source: IUCN
Droughts affect millions of people in the world each year and have long-lasting socioeconomic impacts. They can occur over most parts of the world, even in wet and humid regions, and can profoundly impact agriculture, basic household welfare, tourism, ecosystems and the services they provide. The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) is the most commonly used indicator worldwide for detecting and characterizing meteorological droughts, which are prolonged periods of less than average rainfall in a given region. It measures precipitation anomalies at a given location, based on a comparison of observed total precipitation amounts for an accumulation period of interest (in this case, 3 months), with the long-term rainfall record for that period. SPI values below ‒1.0 indicate rainfall deficits (drier than normal – yellow to red), while SPI values above 1.0 indicate excess rainfall (wetter than normal – purple to blue). The lower the SPI, the more intense is the drought. The layer show the SPI-3 from the month second to last and is updated monthly.
GOAL 13: Climate action
Other SDGs
GOAL 13: Climate Action
Real Time Climate Change Natural Resources Water & Freshwater
Source: EC-JRC
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 geological features that affect the distribution of plants and ecosystems in Africa.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Source: USGS-ESRI
Critical natural assets are defined as the natural and semi-natural terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems required to maintain 12 of nature’s ‘local’ contributions to people (local NCP) on land. 12 Local NCP for key benefits like security in food, water, hazards, material and culture. as follows: for food, pollinator habitat sufficiency ofr pollination dependent crop production, fodder production for livestock, wild riverine and marine fish catch ; for water, water quality regulation, via sediment retention and nutrient retention; for natural hazards, flood risk reduction and coastal risk reduction. For materials, timber production, fuelwood production and access to nature. For cultural benefits, coral reef tourism and access to nature for recreation or other uses. Criticality of the natural assets was defined on the basis of the highest value areas across all NCPs, the magnitude of benefits and the number of beneficiaries. Cropland, urban areas, bare areas and permanent snow and ice are excluded from the analysis.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 13: Climate Action
Climate Change Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Forests Soil Ecosystem Services
Source: Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA
The RESOLVE Ecoregions dataset, updated in 2017, offers a depiction of the 846 terrestrial ecoregions that represent our planet.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Protected Areas & Ecological Networks
Source: RESOLVE
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 where organisms and environmental conditions create a network of interactions and are affected by forces such as disturbance (temporary change in environmental conditions that causes a pronounced change) and succession (process of change in the species structure of an ecological community over time). This layer maps the Ecosystems of Africa, based on Africa's climate regions, topography and lithology (bedrock), with a 100m spatial resolution.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Forests Protected Areas & Ecological Networks Water & Freshwater Ecosystem Services
Source: USGS-ESRI
The Global 200 is the list of ecoregions identified by WWF, the global conservation organization, as priorities for conservation. According to WWF, an ecoregion is defined as a "relatively large unit of land or water containing a characteristic set of natural communities that share a large majority of their species dynamics, and environmental conditions". The WWF assigns a conservation status to each ecoregion in the Global 200: critical or endangered; vulnerable; and relatively stable or intact. Globally, over half of the ecoregions in the Global 200 are rated endangered.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 14: Life Below Water
Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Protected Areas & Ecological Networks
Source: WWF
This map provides a spatially explicit characterization of 47 terrestrial habitat types, as defined in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) habitat classification scheme, which is widely used in ecological analyses, including for quantifying species’ Area of Habitat. The map broadens our understanding of habitats globally, assist in constructing area of habitat refinements, and are relevant for broad-scale ecological studies and future IUCN Red List assessments. Periodic updates are planned as better or more recent data becomes available.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Forests Protected Areas & Ecological Networks Water & Freshwater Ecosystem Services
Source: IUCN
This map provides a spatially explicit characterization of 47 terrestrial habitat types, as defined in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) habitat classification scheme, which is widely used in ecological analyses, including for quantifying species’ Area of Habitat. The map broadens our understanding of habitats globally, assist in constructing area of habitat refinements, and are relevant for broad-scale ecological studies and future IUCN Red List assessments. Periodic updates are planned as better or more recent data becomes available.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Forests Protected Areas & Ecological Networks Water & Freshwater Ecosystem Services
Source: IUCN
A global strategy to conserve biodiversity must aim to protect representative examples of all of the world’s ecosystems, as well as those areas that contain exceptional concentrations of species and endemics. The WWF’s Global 200 project analysed global patterns of biodiversity to identify a set of the Earth's terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecoregions that harbour exceptional biodiversity and are representative of its ecosystems. The process yielded 238 ecoregions (the Global 200) comprised of 142 terrestrial, 53 freshwater, and 43 marine priority ecoregions. The map shows their location on the African continent. Effective conservation in these ecoregions would help conserve the most outstanding and representative habitats for biodiversity on this planet.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Protected Areas & Ecological Networks
Source: WWF
Africa’s extraordinary richness in biodiversity and ecosystem services comprises a strategic asset for sustainable development. Yet the decline and loss of biodiversity hampers the sustainable social and economic targets set by African countries. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species is the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species. This map shows the richness in amphibian species based on the IUCN ranges (the species geographical distribution). Areas with a high species richness are shown in shades of red: more amphibian species potentially occur in these areas.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Source: IUCN
Africa’s extraordinary richness in biodiversity and ecosystem services comprises a strategic asset for sustainable development. Yet the decline and loss of biodiversity hampers the sustainable social and economic targets set by African countries. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species is the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species. This map shows the richness in bird species based on the IUCN ranges (the species geographical distribution). Areas with a high species richness are shown in shades of red: more bird species potentially occur in these areas.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Source: IUCN
Africa’s extraordinary richness in biodiversity and ecosystem services comprises a strategic asset for sustainable development. Yet the decline and loss of biodiversity hampers the sustainable social and economic targets set by African countries. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species is the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species. This map shows the richness in corals and ray species based on the IUCN ranges (the species geographical distribution). Areas with a high species richness are shown in shades of red: more corals and ray species potentially occur in these areas.
GOAL 14: Life below water
Other SDGs
Source: IUCN
Africa’s extraordinary richness in biodiversity and ecosystem services comprises a strategic asset for sustainable development. Yet the decline and loss of biodiversity hampers the sustainable social and economic targets set by African countries. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species is the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species. This map shows the richness in mammal species based on the IUCN ranges (the species geographical distribution). Areas with a high species richness are shown in shades of red: more mammal species potentially occur in these areas.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 14: Life Below Water
Source: IUCN
Africa’s extraordinary richness in biodiversity and ecosystem services comprises a strategic asset for sustainable development. Yet the decline and loss of biodiversity hampers the sustainable social and economic targets set by African countries. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species is the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species. This map shows the richness in shark and ray species based on the IUCN ranges (the species geographical distribution). Areas with a high species richness are shown in shades of red: more shark and ray species potentially occur in these areas.
GOAL 14: Life below water
Other SDGs
Source: IUCN
Africa’s extraordinary richness in biodiversity and ecosystem services comprises a strategic asset for sustainable development. Yet the decline and loss of biodiversity hampers the sustainable social and economic targets set by African countries. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species is the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species. This map shows the richness in amphibian species based on the IUCN ranges (the species geographical distribution). Areas with a high species richness are shown in shades of red: more amphibian species potentially occur in these areas.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Source: IUCN
Africa’s extraordinary richness in biodiversity and ecosystem services comprises a strategic asset for sustainable development. Yet the decline and loss of biodiversity hampers the sustainable social and economic targets set by African countries. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species is the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species. This map shows the richness in bird species based on the IUCN ranges (the species geographical distribution). Areas with a high species richness are shown in shades of red: more bird species potentially occur in these areas.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Source: IUCN
Africa’s extraordinary richness in biodiversity and ecosystem services comprises a strategic asset for sustainable development. Yet the decline and loss of biodiversity hampers the sustainable social and economic targets set by African countries. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species is the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species. This map shows the richness in corals and ray species based on the IUCN ranges (the species geographical distribution). Areas with a high species richness are shown in shades of red: more corals and ray species potentially occur in these areas.
GOAL 14: Life below water
Other SDGs
Source: IUCN
Africa’s extraordinary richness in biodiversity and ecosystem services comprises a strategic asset for sustainable development. Yet the decline and loss of biodiversity hampers the sustainable social and economic targets set by African countries. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species is the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species. This map shows the richness in mammal species based on the IUCN ranges (the species geographical distribution). Areas with a high species richness are shown in shades of red: more mammal species potentially occur in these areas.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 14: Life Below Water
Source: IUCN
Africa’s extraordinary richness in biodiversity and ecosystem services comprises a strategic asset for sustainable development. Yet the decline and loss of biodiversity hampers the sustainable social and economic targets set by African countries. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species is the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species. This map shows the richness in shark and ray species based on the IUCN ranges (the species geographical distribution). Areas with a high species richness are shown in shades of red: more shark and ray species potentially occur in these areas.
GOAL 14: Life below water
Other SDGs
Source: IUCN
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 Mapping project to create maps depicting standardized, terrestrial ecosystem models. Substrate moisture regimes strongly influence the differentiation and distribution of terrestrial ecosystems, and therefore topographic moisture potential is one of the key input layers in this biophysical stratification.
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
Source: USGS-ESRI
Many African countries, especially in the Sub-Saharan region highly depend on hydropower which is one of the energy sources that are most affected by droughts. At the same time hydropower has a huge impact on water consumption (mainly through evaporation from reservoir surfaces) in comparison with other fuel types despite having higher densities of plants and installed capacities. Hydropower accounts for 15% of Africa’s energy production. This map shows the energy production (GWh) of hydropower plants with an installed capacity above 5MW, aggregated for each hydropower-generating country in Africa for year 2016.
GOAL 07: Affordable and clean energy
Other SDGs
GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Water & Freshwater Energy Energy Production Clean & Renewable Energy
Source: EC-JRC
Dam-induced impoundment of water in hydropower reservoirs usually causes enlarged water surfaces compared to the waterbody extent prior to dam construction (with the exception of reservoirs constrained by geomorphologic features, i.e. canyons). The annual gross water loss from reservoirs is determined by the reservoir surface area, annual evaporation and a shared use allocation factor in the case of multi-purpose reservoirs. Consequently, an enlarged reservoir surface area leads to a significant increase of water losses, depending on location’s climate regime and shared uses of reservoir water. This map shows the country-aggregated yearly gross water loss (mcm/year) from hydropower reservoirs in Africa, as of 2016. Water losses from waterbody surfaces prior to dam construction are not considered in the estimates.
GOAL 07: Affordable and clean energy
Other SDGs
GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Resource Scarcity Natural Resources Water & Freshwater Energy Energy Production Clean & Renewable Energy
Source: EC-JRC
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 fuel types combined. In the same period, hydropower accounted for 15% of Africa’s total energy production. The ratio of annual water loss (from a hydropower reservoir) versus energy production (of the associated hydropower plant) describes somehow the water efficiency of a hydropower site. The ratio varies from region to region and depend on the reservoir’s surface area and evaporation rate, and on the produced energy of the associated hydropower plant. A better performance (lower ratios, i.e. ratios below 1) in terms of reduced water losses through evaporation per produced energy unit can be achieved at hydropower sites characterized by decreased reservoir surfaces and increased energy production. In contrast, unfavourable, higher ratios occur with water losses higher than the associated hydropower energy production rates. This map shows the water loss / energy production ratio (mcm/GWh) for each hydropower generating country in Africa (country's total water loss versus country's total annual energy production of hydropower plants) for year 2016.
GOAL 07: Affordable and clean energy
Other SDGs
GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Water & Freshwater Energy Energy Production Clean & Renewable Energy
Source: EC-JRC
Carbon storage in biomass (biological material) is a key link in the global carbon cycle, and consequently for climate change mitigation. Forests in particular are an important carbon sink that help reduce the greenhouse effect. Together, the above-ground carbon (carbon fraction contained in the stems, barks, branches and twigs of living trees), the belowground biomass carbon (carbon fraction contained in roots of living trees) and the soil organic carbon (amount of carbon stored in the soil) provide a complete overview of the total carbon stored in forest areas (trees and soil). This map shows the total carbon stored expressed in units of dry mass (Mg) per ground area unit (km2).
GOAL 15: Life on land
Other SDGs
GOAL 13: Climate Action
Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Forests Ecosystem Services
Source: EC-JRC
The global capture fisheries has increased over the last 50 years as the consumption of seafood has doubled.This has increased pressure on fish stocks across the world. According to the State of World Fishery and Aquaculture 2020(FAO), the global capture fisheries production rose 14% from 1990 to 2018 and in 2018 it reached 96.4million tonnes. Here we show how much wild fish African countries caught in their EEZ in the last ten years (tonnes). In the attribute table you can find how much of the threatened marine fish species had be legally caught
GOAL 14: Life below water
Other SDGs
Natural Resources Biodiversity & Wildlife Marine Resources Protected Areas & Ecological Networks
Source: JRC
The hydropower installed capacity indicates the amount of energy a hydropower plant can produce in its turbines. In 2016, hydropower accounted for 54% of the installed capacity in Eastern Africa, 58% in Central Africa and 30% in Western Africa with fourteen countries having a hydropower share above 50% and eight countries above 70%. These highly hydropower-dependent countries are particularly prone to electricity cuts due to the lack of water caused by severe drought. This map shows the installed capacities (MW) of hydropower plants with an installed capacity above 5MW, aggregated for each hydropower generating country in Africa for year 2016. The selection of hydropower sites represents 95% of the total hydropower installed capacity in Africa.
GOAL 07: Affordable and clean energy
Other SDGs
GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Water & Freshwater Energy Energy Production Clean & Renewable Energy
Source: EC-JRC
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 in the region of dam influence with higher evaporation and water temperatures due to increased water surfaces. This map shows the aggregated surfaces (sqkm) of reservoirs subject to hydropower production per country, as of 2016. It includes reservoirs of associated hydropower plants with installed capacities above 5MW. Apart from this, only reservoirs with a detected dam-caused impoundment of water surface are considered.
GOAL 07: Affordable and clean energy
Other SDGs
GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Water & Freshwater Energy Energy Production Clean & Renewable Energy
Source: EC-JRC
This indicator measures the availability of natural and cultural resources. Some industries, such as tourism, real estate and education, can depend highly on the presence of touristic valuable land or seascapes or specific sites. Tourism is an engine for jobs and investment. The degradation or loss of key attractive features in an area can negatively impact companies that rely on them. The Travel and Tourism Demand Drivers subindex of WEF’s Travel & Tourism Development Index 2021 Edition captures the principal “reasons to travel”. For this analysis, natural resource indicators and cultural resource indicators were included. The natural resources pillar measures the available natural capital as well as the development of outdoor tourism activities. The cultural resource pillar measures the availability of cultural resources such as archaeological sites and entertainment facilities. Please note that the source data for this indicator is only available on a country level. What does very high risk mean for this indicator? Areas of very high risk have a very low natural and cultural resource score.
GOAL 08: Decent work and economic growth
Other SDGs
GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, GOAL 14: Life Below Water, GOAL 15: Life on Land
Source: WWF
The world is shrinking. Cheap flights, large scale commercial shipping and expanding road networks all mean that we are better connected to everywhere else than ever before. Accessibility - whether it is to markets, schools, hospitals or water - is a precondition for the satisfaction of almost any economic need. The new map of Travel Time to Major Cities -developed by the European Commission and the World Bank- captures this connectivity and the concentration of economic activity. It also highlights that there is little wilderness left. The map shows the travel time (in hours/days) to major cities (i.e. cities of 50,000 or more people in year 2000) using land (road/off road) or water (navigable river, lake and ocean) based travel.
GOAL 11: Sustainable cities and communities
Other SDGs
GOAL 13: Climate Action, GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
Economy Tourism Climate Change Pollution Sustainable Growth & Jobs Territorial Development Trade & Connectivity People Energy
Source: EC-JRC
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 ecosystems, with all of their important provisioning, regulating and cultural services, are exchanged for another land use, such as crop agriculture, with a narrow provisioning service focus. Damages to the land resource include the immediate reduction or loss of biomass productivity with a linked loss in habitat, biodiversity, and carbon stock. Clearance of natural forests accelerates soil erosion and the alteration of soil functioning. This layer displays the areas of concern for tree loss issues, derived from the convergence of global evidence of human-environment interactions that can have consequences on land degradation.
