West Africa Dams and Reservoirs Dataset (doi:10.60507/FK2/YLDK1Y)

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West Africa Dams and Reservoirs Dataset

doi:10.60507/FK2/YLDK1Y

bonndata

2026-02-26

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Kouassi, Valery Bessely Stanislas; Yao, Blé Amouna Fhorest; Soro, Gneneyougo Emile; Goula, Bi Tié Albert; Kelome, Nelly Carine; Klaus, Julian, 2026, "West Africa Dams and Reservoirs Dataset", https://doi.org/10.60507/FK2/YLDK1Y, bonndata, V1

West Africa Dams and Reservoirs Dataset

doi:10.60507/FK2/YLDK1Y

Kouassi, Valery Bessely Stanislas (Department of Geography, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Bonn, Germany)

Yao, Blé Amouna Fhorest (Unité de Formation et de Recherche Sciences et Gestion de l’Environnement, Université Nangui Abrogoua, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire)

Soro, Gneneyougo Emile (Unité de Formation et de Recherche Sciences et Gestion de l’Environnement, Université Nangui Abrogoua, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire)

Goula, Bi Tié Albert (Unité de Formation et de Recherche Sciences et Gestion de l’Environnement, Université Nangui Abrogoua, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire)

Kelome, Nelly Carine (Département des Sciences de la Terre, Université d’Abomey-Calavi, Abomey-Calavi, Benin)

Klaus, Julian (Department of Geography, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Bonn, Germany)

West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use

Department of Geography

Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS)

Argelander Scholarships for doctoral candidates from universities in Africa, Latin America, and South/East Asia

WASCAL PhD Scholarship Programme

bonndata

Kouassi, Valery

KOUASSI, Valery Bessely Stanislas

2026-01-22

https://doi.org/10.60507/FK2/YLDK1Y

Earth and Environmental Sciences

The West Africa Dams and Reservoirs Dataset, also called Harmonized Dataset for Dams and Reservoirs in West Africa is a West Africa-specific compiled dataset developed through the integration of twelve existing datasets. This harmonized dataset aims to address the heterogeneous data records of West African dams and reservoirs in existing datasets while enhancing the accessibility of dam and reservoir information for policy development, investment planning, and regional-scale analyses. The dataset contains 1,429 georeferenced dams and 1,258 reservoirs (with a minimum surface area of 0.57 × 10⁻³ km²), 38 attributes, and an estimated total reservoir surface area of 14,038 km² and a cumulative storage capacity of 267,369 MCM. The West Africa Dams and Reservoirs Dataset is provided in shapefile and CSV formats for both dam and reservoir entries: WA_Dams (point locations of dams in West Africa) and WA_Reservoirs (polygon representations of reservoirs in West Africa) available for download and future updates.

2025-03-01-2025-07-30

Aggregate Data

<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0">CC BY 4.0</a>

Global Information System on Water and Agriculture of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO AQUASTAT). https://www.fao.org/aquastat/en/databases/dams

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2026-02-02_Kouassi_WA_Dams-Res-dens_Comp-and-Orig.png

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Compared to existing datasets, the compiled dataset integrates both large- and small-scale reservoirs. It includes a higher number of small-scale entries while preserving the central latitude mode observed in the selected datasets. This suggests better spatial completeness and scale coverage compared to individual datasets, although residual biases from the sources remain in the compiled dataset.

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2026-02-19_Kouassi_WA_Dams-Res_Dataset_Readme.txt

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Readme file of the West Africa Dams and Reservoirs Dataset providing detailed information on the dataset.

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2026-02-19_Kouassi_WA_Dams.csv

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CSV file of dam point locations in West Africa and their attributes.

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2026-02-19_Kouassi_WA_Reservoirs.csv

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CSV file of the reservoir polygon associated with dams in West Africa and their attributes.

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2026-02-19_Kouassi_WA_Reservoirs.zip

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Shapefile of the reservoir polygon associated with dams in West Africa and their attributes.

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2026-02-19_Kouassi_WA_Dams.zip

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Shapefile of dam point locations in West Africa and their attributes.

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