Livelihood zoning consists in identifying areas where rural people share relatively homogeneous living conditions, on the basis of a combination of biophysical and socio-economic determinants. The main criteria to establish livelihood zones are: the predominant source of income (livelihood activities); the natural resources available to people and the way they are used; and the prevailing agroclimatic conditions that influence farming activities. Patterns of livelihood vary from one area to another, based on local factors such as climate, soil or access to markets. The analysis delineates geographical areas within which people share similar livelihood patterns: source of living, access to food, farming practices, including crops, livestock and access to markets. The map of livelihood zones is the main output from a participatory mapping workshop and forms the basis for the overall AWM assessment. It describes and geographically locates the different country livelihood contexts, focusing on the main smallholders’ livelihood strategies, their water-related problems and other constraints for development, and the role agricultural water management plays for their livelihoods. An attribute table provides a detailed description of each livelihood zone.

Map of discharge stations used by Mouhamed Idrissou for getting runoff data from the Dano Catchment.

The majority of the people of West Africa are engaged in agriculture and related activities. As such, land is an important factor of agricultural production. But land scarcity and fragmentation in the wake of population growth, climatic variability and environmental deterioration have undermined large-scale agricultural production. This has worsened the poverty and food insecurity situation in the subregion. With migration as an integral feature of the socioeconomic dynamics of most societies, people have–apart from other responses–resorted to migration in search of fertile land and economic opportunities.

Groundwater dynamic for Bankandi station in the Dano catchment during the year 2013. Station coordinates (UTM): X 489905 Y 1243909

The carbon stock map was established using the Random Forest map based on about 1300 soil samples from the topsoil (A horizon).

Soil properties in the present excel files concern field and laboratory analysis data of the Dano catchment. Data are related to carbon content, nitrogen content, CEC,sand, silt and clay content.