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Higher energy demands in Africa has led to a wide expansion of the number of hydropower sites, mainly between the 1960s and 980s. The construction of dams causes impoundments of rivers and reservoirs in the region of dam influence with higher evaporation and water temperatures due to increased water surfaces. This map shows the aggregated surfaces (sqkm) of reservoirs subject to hydropower production per country, as of 2016. It includes reservoirs of associated hydropower plants with installed capacities above 5MW. Apart from this, only reservoirs with a detected dam-caused impoundment of
The hydropower installed capacity indicates the amount of energy a hydropower plant can produce in its turbines. In 2016, hydropower accounted for 54% of the installed capacity in Eastern Africa, 58% in Central Africa and 30% in Western Africa with fourteen countries having a hydropower share above 50% and eight countries above 70%. These highly hydropower-dependent countries are particularly prone to electricity cuts due to the lack of water caused by severe drought. This map shows the installed capacities (MW) of hydropower plants with an installed capacity above 5MW, aggregated for each
How do development projects influence the geographic distribution of economic activity within low-income and middle-income countries? Existing research focuses on the effects of Western development projects on inter-personal inequality and inequality across different subnational regions. However, China has become a major financier of economic infrastructure in Africa. This dataset geo-locates Chinese Government-financed projects between 2000 and 2014. It captures 3,485 projects worth $273.6 billion in total official financing. It includes both Chinese aid and non-concessional official
Many African countries, especially in the Sub-Saharan region highly depend on hydropower which is one of the energy sources that are most affected by droughts. At the same time hydropower has a huge impact on water consumption (mainly through evaporation from reservoir surfaces) in comparison with other fuel types despite having higher densities of plants and installed capacities. Hydropower accounts for 15% of Africa’s energy production. This map shows the energy production (GWh) of hydropower plants with an installed capacity above 5MW, aggregated for each hydropower-generating country in
Mining has major economic, environmental and societal consequences, yet knowledge and understanding of its global footprint are still limited. These polygons represent the global mining land use detected via remote sensing analysis of high-resolution, publicly available satellite imagery. The dataset comprises 74,548 polygons, covering ~66,000 km2 of features like waste rock dumps, pits, water ponds, tailings dams, heap leach pads and processing/milling infrastructure.
This data set provides spatially explicit estimates of the area directly used for surface mining on a global scale. It contains 44,929 polygon features, covering 101,583 km² of land used by the global mining industry, including large-scale and artisanal and small-scale mining. The polygons cover all ground features related to mining, .e.g open cuts, tailing dams, waste rock dumps, water ponds, processing infrastructure, and other land cover types related to the mining activities.
The large-scale expansion of built infrastructure is profoundly reshaping the geographies of Africa, generating lock-in patterns of development for future generations. Understanding the impact of these massive investments can allow development opportunities to be maximised and therefore be critical for attaining the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Africa Union Agenda 2063. However, until now information on the types, scope, and timing of investments, how they have evolved, and their spatial-temporal impact was dispersed amongst various agencies. We developed the first