Rangelands data platform:
Establishing the first-ever global data platform for monitoring
rangelands and consolidating rangeland data
Carlos Domenech Garcia – Head of Climate Change and Sustainability
Services, GMV
Fiona Flintan – Interim Lead, CGIAR Initiative on Livestock and Climate,
ILRI
Presented at the Identification Mission Meeting for the Lowlands Livelihood
Resilience Project, Phase Two, for the World Bank and Government of
Ethiopia. March 6th, 2023, Addis Ababa (presented virtually).

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Primary aspects Rangelands data platform will
address
 Prize from CGIAR Inspire Challenge 2020 lighted
up the activities for the development
 Take advantage of the collective effort done
on rangelands assessment and develop a one
stop shop for rangeland communities and
development agencies to access in a unified
manner to the relevant global data on
rangelands
 Cover data gaps in terms of geographical
distribution, rangelands condition, climate risks,
trends, and opportunities for restoration or
building resilience
 Provide a free, interactive, friendly, updated
platform for users to explore data catalogue,
visualize, combine and exploit data layers

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How much of the world do rangelands cover?
We simply don’t know… The Rangelands data platform will firstly rely on mappings of
global ecological regions, but ultimately will be a collaborative platform allowing users
to upload their known local rangeland areas
Rangeland types from terrestrial ecoregions defined by WWF

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Visual narrative
 Our proposal is to design and develop a platform that includes a global interactive
map view
 that also include some engaging analysis tools
 and country (or some other type of aggregation) dashboards
 with pre-calculated trends and insights, for anyone to monitor the rangelands
evolution and the datasets chosen

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Stories
 Stories are standalone narratives that
explain a point and provide users with
a more comprehensive explanation of
a specific dataset or location.
 These pre-defined narratives would be
geolocated and linked to specific
datasets by topic and time series.
 Animated stories
Features
 Sharing and downloading
 Data upload tool
 Country specific results interface
 Landing page
 Explore map

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What about data layers?
Data collected through rangeland monitoring systems
Climate and environmental data from international programmes and organizations that
the platform will overlay over rangeland areas

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Web-based application to explore rangelands
data over Africa
Assignment from UNEP for a rangelands diagnostic in Africa presented in a web-
based application paving the way for the upcoming Rangelands data platform
Rangeland degradation and environmental threats/climate hazards
 Analysis of the rangeland dynamics over Africa
Nexus between rangelands, One Health, and sustainable food systems
 Analysis of the climate change impact on the heat stress in livestock over Africa
 Estimation of the Human Appropriation of Net Primary Productivity (HANPP) for
African rangelands

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Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World
Selected ecoregions:
• Tropical and subtropical
grasslands, savannas
and shrublands
• Flooded grasslands and
savannas
• Montane grasslands
and shrublands
• Mediterranean forest,
woodlands and scrubs
• Deserts and xeric
shrublands

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Activities
 Historic analysis of rangeland dynamics over Africa
o Analysis of the existing land cover types and land cover transitions experienced in
the last 30 years (1992-2020) over African rangelands
 Definition of rangeland systems taken from global Rangelands Atlas (WWF
Ecoregions)
 Land cover maps over Africa taken from C3S Land Cover (based on ESA CCI Land
Cover at 300m)
 Definition of transitions taken from CGLS Land Cover

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Land Cover maps

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Land cover transitions: transformation processes
t1 - change into
Forest Shrubland Grassland Wetland Bare land Cropland Built-up Water body
t0 -
change
from
Forest No change Deforestation
Deforestation &
Crop expansion
Deforestation &
Urbanization
Water expansion
Shrubland
Reforestation
No change
Vegetation cover
degradation
Wetland
regeneration
Desertification Crop expansion Urbanization
Grassland
Vegetation cover
regeneration
No change
Wetland Wetland degradation No change
Desertification &
Wetland
degradation
Crop expansion &
Wetland
degradation
Urbanization &
Wetland
degradation
Bare land Environmental regeneration No change Crop expansion
Urbanization
Cropland Land abandonment
Land
abandonment &
Desertification
No change
Built-up Deurbanization
Deurbanization &
Crop expansion
No change
Water body Water reduction No change

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Land Cover transitions

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Activities
 Analysis of the climate change impact on the heat stress in livestock species
over Africa
o Calculation of the historic record of heat stress by livestock species for Africa (1950-
2021)
 Inputs taken from meteorological reanalysis (ERA-5)
o Calculation of the expected heat stress by livestock species for Africa (2022-2099)
 Inputs taken from regional climate models for Africa (CORDEX) under different
emission scenarios (RCP 2.6 & 8.5)
 Periods 2006-2030 // 2030-2050/2050-2070/2070-2098
o Calculation of the heat stress risk index for Africa using livestock density
 Inputs taken from regional climate models for Africa (CORDEX) under different

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Heat Stress in livestock
Page. 14
Climate change impact in livestock
Temperature Humidity Index
(THI)
o Heat stress is caused by a
combination of temperature,
relative humidity, solar radiation,
air movement and precipitation.
o Most of studies focus on two main
environmental stressors:
temperature (T) and relative
humidity (RH)
For cattle
For sheep and goats
Raimi et al., 2021

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Historic heat stress in livestock

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Anticipated heat stress in livestock

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Activities
 Estimation of the Human Appropriation of Net Primary Productivity (HANPP)
for African rangelands
o Calculation of the net primary productivity (2000-2021)
 Inputs taken from MODIS satellite
o Calculation of the HANPP
 Inputs taken from FAO, satellite, and global dynamic vegetation models

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Net Primary Productivity

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Human appropriation of
net primary production
HANPP provides a useful measure of
human intervention into the productive
ecosystems
HANPP is derived for the grazing activities in
Ethiopia with results from global dynamic
vegetation models, satellite
observations and country statistics from
FAOSTAT
This dataset is highly experimental as uses
a novel approach combining model and
satellite data. The product is expected to be
further developed and once validated,
included into the web-based app platform

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Thank you
Carlos Domenech: cdomenech@gmv.com
&
Fiona Flintan: f.flintan@cgiar.org