Indicator Code: IRRSTR
Objective: Ecosystem Vitality
Policy Category: Productive Natural Resources
Subcategory: Agriculture
Indicator Short Name: Irrigation Stress
Indicator Full Name: Percentage of Irrigated Area that is in Water Stressed Areas
Indicator Description: Agriculture is by far the largest user of “blue water” (freshwater in streams, lakes, from groundwater aquifers, etc) globally, with irrigation accounting for 70% of freshwater extraction globally and as much as 80-90% in some developing countries. When wateris abstracted for irrigation in water stressed areas (catchments in which consumption exceeds 40% of available water supplies) , it can contribute to seasonal low-flows, and to excessive concentration of agrochemicals from agricultural runoff. This indicator simply measures the percentage of irrigated agriculture that falls in areas of water stress within a country.
Units: Percentage Area
Country Coverage: 159
Reference Year: circa 2000
Target: 0%
Target Source: Expert Judgment
Short Source: CIESIN calculation based on global irrigation map by Johann Wolfgang Goethe University and Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, and water stressed area map by University of New Hampshire Water Systems Analysis Group.
Source: CIESIN calculation based on three data sets:
Johann Wolfgang Goethe University and Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, Global Map of Irrigation Areas version 4.0.1, available at: http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/irrigationmap/index10.stm
University of New Hampshire Water Systems Analysis Group, Mean annual relative water stress index (unitless ratio per grid cell),available at http://wwdrii.sr.unh.edu/
Country Grid (CIESIN 2006): Country grid with cell size of 0.083333. Grid values are UNSD codes
Source URL: http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/irrigationmap/index10.stm
http://wwdrii.sr.unh.edu/
Methodology: The Global Map of Irrigation Areas version 4.0.1, with a spatial resolution of 5 arc-minutes, was overlaid on the global map of mean annual relative water stress index, with a spatial resolution of 30 arc-minutes. The irrigated area that fell in water stressed grid cells was summed and divided by the total irrigated area for the country in order to calculate the percentage of irrigated area that is in water stressed areas. The specific processing steps were as follows:
1. Resampled the UNH Relative Water Stress data at 0.083333 grid cell size to match that of the Global Map of Irrigated Areas
2. Reclassify the Relative Water Stress data into the following classess
a. 1: grid value < 40%
b. 2:grid value >= 40%
3. Calculate Irrigation area within each class
4. Summary area irrigated in each country using Zonal Statistics\\
Additional Citations: Siebert, S., P. Döll, S. Feick, J. Hoogeveen and K. Frenken. (2007). Global Map of Irrigation Areas version 4.0.1. Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany / Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy.