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| Global water
stress maps | |
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| Global water stress maps |
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In order to provide a global, real-time
and qualitative warning of current and future agricultural emergencies,
Agroclimatic Hotspots maps will indicate areas where excess or deficit
over the expected rainfall is likely to produce serious damage to
rainfed agriculture or pastures.
The risk can be weighted with other coexistent critical factors, for
instance high population density or high soil degradation. The use of
downloadable digital grids improves the flexibility of this product.
The methodology used to produce the Global Water Stress Maps in digital
form consists in comparing actual and average monthly precipitation digital
maps at 1.0° of spatial resolution during the periods when agricultural activities
are more “sensitive” to water stress, i.e. in the zones where the combination of
rainfall, mean temperature and potential evapotranspiration average patterns
produces an active “growing season”. Over a given period of time,
selected by the user, the final maps show the percentage of the
agricultural season affected by precipitation excess and/or deficit.
Input data are provided by the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC)
operated by the operated by the Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD, National Meteorological
Service of Germany).
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