WaterData is an integrated portal providing a one stop access to all data stored in IWMI’s archive. It also provides access to data in IDIS (http://dw.iwmi.org) and IWMIDSP. While providing access to large amount of water and agriculture related data, the system also supports data management in IWMI’s research projects. Access to data is provided in compliance with copyrights, intellectual property rights and data agreements. As a User your access to data stored in WaterData is therefore limited to what you are authorized to use. more...

This is the version 2.0 release (update; as of May 10, 2007) of the International Water Management Institute's (IWMI's) Global irrigated area map (GIAM) and associated products and data.

The GIAM products are produced using time-series data of: (a) AVHRR 10-km monthly from 1997-1999, (b) SPOT 1-km monthly for 1999, (c) GTOPO30 1-km elevation, (d) CRU 50-km grid monthly precipitation from 1961-2000, (e) AVHRR derived 1-km forest cover, and (f) AVHRR 10-km skin temperature. In addition JERS SAR data was used for the African and South American rainforests. more...

Irrigation benchmarking is a process of comparative analysis of the performance that allows scheme managers to understand the service, financial and other aspects of their system’s performance in relation to other similar irrigation schemes.

Irrigation benchmarking is based on voluntary subscription of information by interested users. Other users may also undertake comparative analysis of the available data. more...

The IWMI World Water and Climate Atlas gives irrigation and agricultural planners rapid access to accurate data on climate and moisture availability for agriculture. The Atlas includes monthly and annual summaries for precipitation, temperature, humidity, hours of sunshine, evaporation estimates, wind speed, total number of days with and without rainfall, days without frost and Penman-Montieth reference evapotranspiration rates. The core of the Atlas is data assembled from weather stations around the world for the period 1961-1990. Data can be extracted in summary, manipulated using the Atlas software, or exported in a standardized format for use in other applications. Users can also include their own local data for a more detailed picture of a particular area. more...

The IWMI Global Wetlands Initiative seeks to provide a multi-purpose and multiple-scale approach to wetlands, wetland conservation, and the wise-use of wetland resources. In particular, we put an emphasis on wetlands within agricultural landscapes and landscape approaches for better management of agricultural interfaces with the terrestrial water cycle. A broad program of wetland research and outreach activities seeks to delineate and understand the interactions of agriculture with terrestrial aquatic ecosystems, its role in meeting expanding global food security needs, and the urgent necessity of conserving wetland biodiversity. more...

This website offers information on projects, studies, better practices, databases and expertise for work related to water and poverty across the globe.

The project on “Pro-Poor Intervention Strategies in Irrigated Agriculture in Asia” is being undertaken by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), with financial support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) under its program on Agriculture and Natural Resources Research at CGIAR Centers. It is a multi-country project with case studies in six developing member countries (DMCs) of ADB: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Vietnam. The main objective of this project is to determine realistic options for increasing returns to poor farmers through improving the overall performance of established medium and large-scale surface irrigation systems (canals). Case studies under the project was carried out in collaboration with national research and development organizations and agencies in the participating countries. more...

The IWMI's Global Map of Rainfed Cropland Areas (GMRCA) is a by-product derived when working on IWMI's Global Map of Irrigated Areas (GMIA). The datasets approaches, and methods used to produce GMRCA are, to a great extent, similar to producing GIAM. Thereby, we refer the reader to detailed documentation on GIAM made available in this web site.

The Global Rainfed Croplands were estimated at 1.132 billion hectares at the end of the last millennium, from the GMRCA products (Biradar et al., 2007). This is 2.78 times the TAAI or net irrigated areas (407 Mha) of the World. The GMRCA area provided here is for the June-October period only. Like, GMIA it is possible to estimate seasonal Global Rainfed Cropland areas using the products and methods developed in this study. However, double crop rainfed is considered negligible. more...

South Asia Drought Monitor (SADM) is an evolving drought monitoring tool, which, in its present form is based entirely on remote sensing data. It aims to supply timely information on drought onset, progression and areal extent. This near-real-time drought monitoring and reporting system currently covers Afghanistan, Pakistan and western parts of India. The system is based on drought-related indices derived from high resolution remote-sensing data (MODIS).

The unique feature of the system is the use of earlier established relationship between drought-related indices obtained from MODIS and AVHRR data. These data types have different pixel resolution and optical characteristics (Thenkabail et al, 2004). The results ensure the continuity of the two data sets and should allow the reports on drought development in the region to be made in near-real time with a spatial resolution of 500 meters and at 8 or 16 days interval. more...

Thematic emphasis is on ecological changes in semi-arid Central- and West-Asia, with the objective to investigate possibilities for a more meaningful, regional assessment of eco-system health from space. Though the primary interest is a regional one the results are intended to be detailed enough in order to be useful for local decision making. To explain any changes in eco-system health and their drivers, research effort is on vegetation, soils, climate, hydrology, and human activities. This will be achieved through various innovative techniques including a classifier that is sensitive to functional characteristics of vegetation or an algorithm that allows the separation of climate induced from subtle, human induced green biomass changes. more...

The CGIAR-CSI GeoPortal is able to provide SRTM 90m Digital Elevation Data for the entire world. The SRTM digital elevation data, produced by NASA originally, is a major breakthrough in digital mapping of the world, and provides a major advance in the accessibility of high quality elevation data for large portions of the tropics and other areas of the developing world. The SRTM digital elevation data provided on this site has been processed to fill data voids, and to facilitate it's ease of use by a wide group of potential users. This data is provided in an effort to promote the use of geospatial science and applications for sustainable development and resource conservation in the developing world. Digital elevation models (DEM) for the entire globe, covering all of the countries of the world, are available for download on this site. more...