Global Map of Irrigation Areas

Albania

The area equipped for irrigation was about 420 000 ha at the beginning of the 1990’s [AL01], [AL02] and declined to 340 000 ha at present [AL03], [AL04]. However, the area actually used for irrigation is much lower. It was reported to be 316 000 ha in 1991 [AL02], but because many areas faced an urgent need for rehabilitation it declined to smaller than 80 000 ha in 1994 [AL03]. Due to intensive rehabilitation works the area actually used for irrigation increased again to 120 000 ha in 1996 and about 250 000 ha in 1998 [AL05]. Area equipped for irrigation per district as given for the year 1993 (in total 416 977 ha, [AL01]) was scaled so that the country totals meet the value of 340 000 ha reported to be still present. The irrigated area per district as calculated is documented in the table below.

To distribute irrigated area within the districts irrigated area was assigned to all polygons classified as cultivated land in the CORINE land cover 2000 database for Europe using the following priority levels:

The result of this assignment has been in good agreement to other maps showing irrigation infrastructure in Albania ([AL07], [AL08]).

References

[AL01]: World Bank. 1994. Albania - irrigation rehabilitation project. Staff Appraisal Document, Report no. 12609-ALB, Worldbank, Washington, US (available at http://www.worldbank.org).
[AL02]: FAO. 1992. Albania - irrigation subsector review. Report no. 93/92 CP-ALB 4 SR, FAO Investment Centre, Rome, Italy.
[AL03]: World Bank. 2003. Water resources management in South Eastern Europe. Vol. II: Country water notes and water fact sheets. Worldbank, Washington, US (available at http://www.worldbank.org).
[AL04]: FAO. 2006. FAO AQUASTAT database, available at http://www.fao.org/ag/agl/aglw/AQUASTAT/database/index.stm, 28/02/2006.
[AL05]: World Bank. 1999. Albania - second irrigation rehabilitation project. Project Appraisal Document, Report no. 19242-ALB, Worldbank, Washington, US (available at http://www.worldbank.org).
[AL06]: EEA. 2005. Corine land cover 2000 - vector by country (CLC2000), version 1. (available at: http://dataservice.eea.europa.eu/dataservice/metadetails.asp?id=667).
[AL07]: Toepfer, H. 1993. Die Bewässerungslandwirtschaft und Nahrungsmittelproduktion in Albanien. Irrigation map (Figure 1) on p. 107, In H. Popp & K. Rother, eds. Die Bewässerungsgebiete im Mittelmeerraum, Passau, Germany, Passavia Universitätsverlag.
[AL08]: National Environmental Agency. 1994. Albanian State of the Environment Report: 1993-1994. Map: Water reservoir and irrigation areas, available at: http://enrin.grida.no/htmls/albania/soe/htmls/94/html/alba0.htm, 07/07/2006.

Distribution of irrigated area in Albania per district: