Ethiopia Baseline Water Stress at 5000-Meter Resolution

Ethiopia's baseline water stress, measuring the ratio of total water withdrawals to available renewable surface water supplies. The dataset has a 0.05-degree pixel resolution (approximately 5000 meters) and was developed by the World Resources Institute's Aqueduct project for the IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Center. It uses a long-term supply series from 1950–2010 to measure chronic water stress rather than drought.

Use Cases

• Modeling chronic water scarcity based on the baseline water stress ratio.
• Assessing watershed risk and competition among users based on relative water demand.
• Identifying arid and low water use areas based on the masking thresholds described.
• Planning water resource management interventions in high-stress watersheds.

Strengths

• Provides a long-term perspective on water stress using a supply series from 1950–2010.
• Has a defined spatial resolution of 0.05 degrees (approximately 5000 meters).
• Includes a defined masking logic for 'arid and low water use' areas to reduce error.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The dataset ignores complexities of short-term water storage like dams due to lack of global operational data.

Provenance

Source

World Resources Institute (WRI) Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas, provided by IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Center (ICPAC).

Collection Method

Likely derived from global hydrological models and water withdrawal estimates.

Time Range

Supply data covers 1950–2010; dataset referenced 2023.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-17 09:12:56.665823; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Ethiopia.