Global GAUL new 2024 release

The Global Administrative Unit Layers (GAUL) 2024 is a vector dataset compiling the most recent available information on administrative boundaries from multiple sources, produced by FAO from 2022 to 2024 in the framework of the Hand-in-Hand Initiative and the Geospatial Data Platform activities. The GAUL 2024 aims at maintaining global layers with a unified coding system at country, first (e.g. departments), and second (e.g. districts) administrative levels. The data, sourced and processed from the United Nations Second Administrative Level Boundaries (UN-SALB) programme and from other relevant data sources, was complemented by the UN-FAO-CSI AgroInformatics Geospatial Analysis team with data from official geospatial data producers. Country boundaries were processed against UN official recognized borders (UN-map 2018), and the administrative subdivisions were checked for geometry and topology, then corrected and validated. The data is used for thematic mapping, geospatially enabled statistics location-based integration, and for all Hand-in-Hand Initiative geospatial analysis such as GIS-Multi Criteria Evaluation, suitability/location analysis, agricultural typologies, and zonal statistics extractions. 

Data can be downloaded at https://data.apps.fao.org/catalog/iso/34f97afc-6218-459a-971d-5af1162d318a (level 1) and https://data.apps.fao.org/catalog/iso/60b23906-f21a-49ef-8424-f3645e70264e (level 2). 

Detailed technical documentation is also available at https://openknowledge.fao.org/items/aebf0333-a0e3-4177-9d4a-bb2472d0367e.