Groundwater Depth and Conflict Events in Africa, 1997-2021

Replication Data for 'Groundwater, Climate Change and Conflict: Empirical Evidence from Africa' by Mathieu Couttenier, hosted on Harvard Dataverse. The dataset covers 10,310 grid cells across Africa from 1997 to 2021, containing information on conflict events, groundwater depth, and local climate shocks. It was last updated on 2026-05-18.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the relationship between groundwater accessibility and conflict occurrence based on groundwater depth data.
• Modeling the impact of persistent versus temporary climate shocks on localized violence based on temperature variation measures.
• Investigating the role of within-cell inequalities in water access as a conflict driver.
• Examining the mediating effects of pastoralist activities and state capacity on climate-conflict links.

Strengths

• Covers a 25-year time span from 1997 to 2021.
• Spatial analysis is conducted across 10,310 grid cells, each approximately 55x55 km.
• Defines two specific measures for local climate shocks: temporary yearly variation and persistent multi-year moving averages.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and file size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic and temporal bias inherent to the source platforms and conflict event reporting.

Provenance

Source

Harvard Dataverse, author Mathieu Couttenier.

Collection Method

Likely compiled from conflict event databases and groundwater/climate data sources for empirical analysis.

Time Range

1997 to 2021

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-18 17:47:31; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Africa, analyzed in 10,310 grid cells (0.5x0.5 degrees each).