The FAO portal to monitor Water Productivity through Open Access of Remotely sensed derived data (WaPOR) provides, as of today, access to 11 years of continued observations over Africa and the Near East. The portal provides open access to various spatial data layers related to land and water use for agricultural production and allows for direct data queries, time series analyses, area statistics and data download of key variables to estimate water and land productivity gaps in irrigated and rain fed agriculture. WaPOR Version 2 was launched in June 2019 based on extensive internal and external validation and quality assessment. This document describes the methodology used to produce Version 2 of the data at the 250m (Level 1), 100m (Level 2) and 30m (Level 3) resolution distributed through the WaPOR portal.

This document presents the results of a validation of the version-2 of the WaPOR database, produced by the FRAME consortium partners, eLEAF and VITO. The report summarises the work done by the validation partner (ITC-UTwente) to assess the quality of the new V2 core data components, currently used to estimate and derive agricultural water productivity for Africa and the Near East. WaPOR represents a comprehensive open access data portal that provides information on biomass productivity (with focus on food and agriculture production) and evapotranspiration (evaporative losses and water use) for Africa and the Near East in near real time covering the period from 1 January 2009 to date. WaPOR offers continuous data on a 10-day average basis across Africa and the Near East at three spatial resolutions. The continental level-1 data (250m) cover entire Africa and the Near East (L1). The national level-2 (100m) data cover 21 countries and four river basins (L2). The third level-3 data (30m) cover eight irrigation areas (L3). The quality assessment focused on the core data of the WaPOR database i.e., the evaporative loss components: plant transpiration (T), soil evaporation (E) and interception (I) combined in ETI, the net primary productivity – NPP, the total (TBP) and above ground biomass productivity (AGBP) and reference evapotranspiration – RET.

This report describes the quality assessment of the FAO’s data portal to monitor Water Productivity through Open access of Remotely sensed derived data (WaPOR 1.0). The WaPOR 1.0 data portal has been prepared as a major output of the project: ´Using Remote Sensing in support of solutions to reduce agricultural water productivity gaps’, funded by the Government of The Netherlands. The WaPOR database is a comprehensive database that provides information on biomass production (for food production) and evapotranspiration (for water consumption) for Africa and the Near East in near real time covering the period 1 January 2009 to date. This report is the result of an independent quality assessment of the different datasets available in WaPOR prepared by IHE-Delft. The quality assessment checks the consistency of the different layers and compares the individual layers to various other independent data sources, including: spatial data; auxiliary data and in-situ data. The report describes the results of the quality assessment per data layer for each specific theme as available on the FAO WaPOR portal.

This technical report focuses on Koga, in Ethiopia, and describes the process of developing, designing, piloting and evaluating potential solutions to increase water productivity sustainably, which is the third objective of component 4 of the project on WaPOR (Using Remote Sensing in support of solutions to reduce agricultural water productivity gaps). As irrigated areas expand, more attention must be paid to on-farm water management so as to allow for optimal use and distribution of water resources. Using WaPOR data, that is, remote-sensing based water productivity parameters, this report characterises the status of water use and productivity in the Koga irrigation scheme. It also uses the data to measure the changes occuring after the implementation of low-cost tools and irrigation practices so as to: increase yield and to reduce the water consumed or applied during the irrigation season.

The Near East and North Africa (NENA) Region has long faced water scarcity due to natural causes. Still, factors like population growth, food security policies, and socioeconomic development have worsened the situation in recent decades. Climate change and the food insecurity resulting from the war in Ukraine have further strained the already limited water resources in the region. To address these challenges, countries in the NENA Region seek ways to allocate scarce water resources effectively. They aim to improve water accounting, monitor water usage in strategic hydrological systems, and enhance water productivity and efficiency to save and redistribute water. One crucial aspect to consider in these efforts is water consumption, particularly in irrigated agriculture, which utilizes over 85 percent of renewable freshwater resources while remaining vital to the sustainability of the food sector and farming systems. Given the significant spatial scales involved, satellite remote sensing technology has become a valuable tool in determining evapotranspiration–water consumption. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Regional Initiative on Water Scarcity for the Near East and North Africa (WSI) has gathered top experts in evapotranspiration determination through satellite remote sensing to guide water stakeholders in the region. This initiative has also expanded to other FAO regions through the inter-Regional Technical Platform on Water Scarcity (iRTP-WS). To facilitate knowledge sharing, a series of twenty-five webinars were organized, fostering dialogue between experts and water actors. Additionally, this publication summarizes the outcomes of the webinars and provides further analysis and insights on satellite remote sensing determination of evapotranspiration. The publication aims to update the knowledge and enhance the capacity of water professionals, raise awareness of the strengths and limitations of remote sensing models and databases for evapotranspiration, and clarify operational aspects such as spatial and temporal resolutions and accuracy. Ultimately, it serves as a valuable reference for water actors and professionals working towards sustainable water resource management.

The Niger River Basin is a transboundary basin covering nine riparian countries to the Niger River that are increasingly putting pressure on the available water resources as their populations expand. Yet, the nine countries are also among the poorest in the world and adequate exploitation of the water of the basin could be part of a broader strategy for poverty reduction in these countries. Major challenges to that end are the lacking water infrastructure and growing vulnerability to extreme weather hazards as the climate changes. In that context, a better understanding of the state of water resources in the basin is a crucial departure point for any measures towards the sustainable use of water. The Water Accounting Plus (WA+) system designed by IHE Delft with its partners FAO and IWMI has been applied to gain full insights into the state of the water resources in the basin.

This report describes the water accounting study for the Nile River Basin carried out by IHE-Delft using the Water Productivity (WaPOR) data portal of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). The Nile River Basin faces a huge challenge in terms of water security. With an expected doubling of the population in the basin in the next twenty-five years, water supply in the basin will be further depleted as demands for agriculture, domestic and industry continues to grow. Water availability in the basin will also be threatened by climate change and variability and pollution from increased agricultural and industrial activities and from urban areas. However with limited up-to-date ground observations, in terms of duration, completeness, and quality of the hydro-meteorological records it is difficult to draw an appropriate picture of the water resources conditions. The Water Accounting Plus (WA+) system designed by IHE Delft with its partners FAO and IWMI has been applied to gain full insights into the state of the water resources in the basin.

This report provides the water accounting study for Awash River basin in Ethiopia carried out by IHE-Delft using the Water Productivity (WaPOR) data portal of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). The Awash River Basin is the most utilized river basin in Ethiopia hosting most of the industrial activities in the country, a number of small to large scale irrigation schemes and the main population centres of the country with more than 18.6 million people (2017 estimate). The basin faces high water stress during the peak of the irrigation season and frequent flooding in rainy seasons. The Water Accounting Plus (WA+) system designed by IHE Delft with its partners FAO and IWMI has been applied to gain full insights into the state of the water resources in the basin for the period 2009 to 2018. The WA+ framework is a reporting mechanism for water flows, fluxes and stocks that are summarized by means of WA+ sheets. The role of land use and land cover on producing and consuming water is described explicitly.

This report provides the water accounting study for Litani River basin in Lebanon carried out by IHE Delft using the Water Productivity open data portal (WaPOR) of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). The Litani River basin is one of the key river basins in Lebanon and it is experiencing water scarcity with annual renewable water resources being 606.9 mm3/yr. With an estimated population of 375 000 in 2010 and doubled by 2016 due to the Syrian refugee crisis, the total per capita water availability is around 800 m3/cap/yr indicating water shortage. Increasing challenges such as growing population, climate change, groundwater over-exploitation and inter-basin transfers have put the available water resources in the basin under stress. The completeness and quality of the hydro-meteorological records are insufficient to draw an appropriate picture of the water resources conditions. However, the Water Accounting Plus (WA+) system designed by IHE Delft with its partners FAO and IWMI has been applied to gain full insights into the state of the water resources in the basin for the period 2010 to 2016. The WA+ framework is a reporting mechanism for water flows, fluxes and stocks that are summarized by means of WA+ sheets.

This report outlines the conceptual framework for sand and dust storms (SDS) hazard risk and vulnerability assessment and mapping in agriculture and provides the elements as part of SDS contingency planning process in agriculture in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Its main purpose is to provide an applicable procedure for using web-based data to reduce SDS risk and impacts on agriculture. This is a first attempt to develop a contingency plan for SDS risk reduction in agriculture using freely available remote sensing imagery and geographic information system (GIS) modeling. It includes a set of agriculture-specific indicators proposed to assess SDS risk and discusses the required steps for developing indicators and procedures.Furthermore, a methodology for SDS contingency planning in agriculture is described, including the legal and institutional frameworks in the Islamic Republic of Iran relevant for SDS intervention as well as the organizational responsibilities for implementing the contingency plan. It reviews the main action areas and challenges to be addressed in SDS contingency planning in agriculture for Ahvaz County. It provides an action framework for the identification and fine-tuning of SDS priority actions to be addressed and integrated into existing national and local SDS disaster risk reduction/management plans and/or sectoral development plans in the Islamic Republic of Iran.Due to the central position of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the global dust belt, it is highly impacted by sand and dust storms (SDS). Mitigating the adverse effects of SDS on agriculture remains very important as the country is highly dependent on the sector and the sector is both an anthropogenic driver of SDS as well as the yields and productivity of crops, trees and pastures are negatively impacted by SDS. With climate change it is expected that droughts and land use changes will increase the frequency and severity of SDS risks. Hence, urgent action is needed, whereby short-term responses require to be linked to long-term development actions for building resilience against SDS.