A recent message from CGIAR (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) Consortium for Spatial Information (CSI).
1/ IWMI has released a webmap to give you simple & easy access to 102 years of climate data (see link here below). This webpage allows you to select your location of interest either through a webmap or by entering its long/lat coordinates. In case you are interested in getting data just for a few locations this is the best and most simple option. This webmap gives you access to 102 years of monthly climate data at 0.5 deg resolution (the data source is CRU Climate Research Unit of University of East Anglia, UK) as indicated in the metadata. It also gives you access to 30 year averages from the IWMI Water and Climate Atlas at 0.1 deg resolution.
http://dw.iwmi.org/dataplatform/ClickandPlot.aspx
2/ IWMI-CPWF have released an on-line data and information portal that provides access to water, agriculture and environment scientific data. The portal name is IDIS – Integrated Database Information System. It allows you to query, download, plot, graph shared data and access its metadata (in GeoNetwork of course ;^) – quite a few CGIAR centers have tried to build a similar multi- domain data sharing portal but none succeeded so far – this is a CGIAR breakthrough.
http://dw.iwmi.org/
3/ IWMI has released a new and much improved version of the World Water and Climate Atlas interface that merely any mortal can use ;^) As with the previous versions you can easily export data for any area into text files. One of the new features I really enjoy is the ability to import ArcView/ArcGIS shapefiles on top of the climate & water layers. ArcInfo ascii grid coverages are available for all layers featured in the Atlas (see links at the end of this email or type ‘iwmi water atlas’ on CSI geonetwork).
A simple guideline document on how to get started with the new interface is available at the following link :
http://dw.iwmi.org/atlas/Atlasguide.pdf
If you already have CD1 and CD2 from the older version all you need to do is download the udpated Atlas interface at the following link :
http://www2.iwmi.cgiar.org/WAtlas/Programs/Synthesizer2005.zip
If you want to try the Altas you need to download the 2 data CDs (2 links here below) as well as the new interface (link above).
http://www2.iwmi.cgiar.org/WAtlas/Programs/CD1.zip
http://www2.iwmi.cgiar.org/WAtlas/Programs/CD2.zip
As you may remember the Atlas gives irrigation and agricultural planners rapid access to accurate data on climate and moisture availability for agriculture. The resolution of data for the Atlas is 0.1 degree (~10 Km) and the coverage is the globe. You can learn more about it at http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/WAtlas/atlas.htm. Whereas local climate & water products might be available and/or prefered for data rich areas/countries the Atlas provides a very interesting alternative for data poor areas/countries.