African Stream Network Map From 1984

Africa Surface Hydrography, 1984 is a geospatial dataset containing the first-to-third order stream network for the continent. It was developed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) with data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and digitized by the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI). The data was published in December 1984.

Use Cases

• Analyze stream network density and connectivity across Africa using the line feature data.
• Study historical surface water patterns by integrating this 1984 dataset with modern hydrography layers.
• Model watershed characteristics by using the stream network as a base layer for hydrological analysis.

Strengths

• Data was digitized at a spatial resolution of 0.002 inches for precision.
• Sources were re-registered to a consistent 1:5,000,000 scale base map for alignment.

Limitations

• The dataset is temporally stale, representing the landscape as of 1984.
• The specific row count, column names, and total geographic feature count are unknown.
• The 'Feature type' is listed only as 'line', limiting detail on other hydrographic elements.

Provenance

Source

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI).

Collection Method

Digitized from the FAO/UNESCO Soil Map of the World, with sources re-registered to the base map and transformed to geographic coordinates.

Time Range

Publication date is December 1984; underlying base map is from 1977.

Freshness

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Geography

Continent of Africa.