5082d838-ca5a-e196-e063-3050940a6f82 English dataset British Geological Survey +44 115 936 3100 United Kingdom enquiries@bgs.ac.uk pointOfContact 2026-08-24 UK GEMINI 2.3 http://data.bgs.ac.uk/id/dataHolding/13608678 WGS 84 (EPSG::4326) Groundwater salinity map of Africa 2026-04-22 creation http://data.bgs.ac.uk/id/dataHolding/13608678 This gridded dataset represents the first continental?scale compilation of groundwater salinity across Africa, derived from 12,255 in situ measurements assembled by Gurmessa et al. (2022). The dataset is a gridded representation of electrical conductivity (EC) point data collected across Africa and compiled by the British Geological Survey. The dataset is a spatially continuous representation of groundwater salinity across the diverse hydrogeological and climatic environments of the African continent. A detailed description of source of the data, the dataset itself and methodology used to construct it, is provided at the following link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969722013754#s0010 Seifu Kebede Gurmessa North-West University Potchefstroom South Africa not available originator Issoufou Ouedraogo University of Fada N'Gourma Burkina Faso not available originator Enquiries British Geological Survey 0115 936 3142 0115 936 3276 The Lyell Centre, Research Avenue South EDINBURGH LOTHIAN EH14 4AP United Kingdom enquiries@bgs.ac.uk distributor Enquiries British Geological Survey 0115 936 3142 0115 936 3276 The Lyell Centre, Research Avenue South EDINBURGH LOTHIAN EH14 4AP United Kingdom enquiries@bgs.ac.uk originator Enquiries British Geological Survey 01491 838800 01491 692345 Maclean Building, Crowmarsh Gifford WALLINGFORD OXON OX10 8BB United Kingdom enquiries@bgs.ac.uk distributor Enquiries British Geological Survey 01491 838800 01491 692345 Maclean Building, Crowmarsh Gifford WALLINGFORD OXON OX10 8BB United Kingdom enquiries@bgs.ac.uk distributor Enquiries British Geological Survey 01491 838800 01491 692345 Maclean Building, Crowmarsh Gifford WALLINGFORD OXON OX10 8BB United Kingdom enquiries@bgs.ac.uk originator Enquiries British Geological Survey 01491 838800 01491 692345 Maclean Building, Crowmarsh Gifford WALLINGFORD OXON OX10 8BB United Kingdom enquiries@bgs.ac.uk originator Enquiries British Geological Survey United Kingdom not available distributor Enquiries British Geological Survey not available originator Enquiries British Geological Survey United Kingdom not available pointOfContact notApplicable https://resources.bgs.ac.uk/images/geonetworkThumbs/5082d838-ca5a-e196-e063-3050940a6f82.png Geology GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0 2008-06-01 publication Salinity Water chemistry Groundwater Water quality BGS Thesaurus of Geosciences 2022 revision Citable Data NGDC Deposited Data dataCentre NERC_DDC otherRestrictions licenceOGL Available under the Open Government Licence subject to the following acknowledgement accompanying the reproduced NERC materials "Contains NERC materials ©NERC [year]" otherRestrictions The copyright of materials derived from the British Geological Survey's work is vested in the Natural Environment Research Council [NERC]. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a retrieval system of any nature, without the prior permission of the copyright holder, via the BGS Intellectual Property Rights Manager. Use by customers of information provided by the BGS, is at the customer's own risk. In view of the disparate sources of information at BGS's disposal, including such material donated to BGS, that BGS accepts in good faith as being accurate, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) gives no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the quality or accuracy of the information supplied, or to the information's suitability for any use. NERC/BGS accepts no liability whatever in respect of loss, damage, injury or other occurence however caused. Available under the Open Government Licence subject to the following acknowledgement accompanying the reproduced NERC materials "Contains NERC materials ©NERC [year]" English geoscientificInformation British Geological Survey Gazetteer: Geographical hierarchy from Geosaurus 1979 creation AFRICA [id=600000] -17.5400 51.2700 -34.8200 37.3400 2017-04-01 2020-04-30 Enquiries British Geological Survey 0115 936 3142 0115 936 3276 The Lyell Centre, Research Avenue South EDINBURGH LOTHIAN EH14 4AP United Kingdom enquiries@bgs.ac.uk distributor Enquiries British Geological Survey 01491 838800 01491 692345 Maclean Building, Crowmarsh Gifford WALLINGFORD OXON OX10 8BB United Kingdom enquiries@bgs.ac.uk distributor Enquiries British Geological Survey 01491 838800 01491 692345 Maclean Building, Crowmarsh Gifford WALLINGFORD OXON OX10 8BB United Kingdom enquiries@bgs.ac.uk distributor Enquiries British Geological Survey United Kingdom not available distributor https://webapps.bgs.ac.uk/services/ngdc/accessions/index.html#item192050 Data download https://doi.org/10.5285/291ae426-d132-4156-9f07-c46defeb06a2 WWW:LINK-1.0-http--related Citation Information - Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Kebede, S., MacAllister, DJ., White, D., Ouedraogo, I., Lapworth, D., MacDonald, A. (2026). Groundwater salinity map of Africa. NERC EDS National Geoscience Data Centre. (Dataset). https://doi.org/10.5285/291ae426-d132-4156-9f07-c46defeb06a2 information dataset dataset INSPIRE Implementing rules laying down technical arrangements for the interoperability and harmonisation of Geology 2011 publication See the referenced specification false Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services 2010-12-08 publication See http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2010:323:0011:0102:EN:PDF false Salinity data was compiled from unpublished and published datasets, reports and maps. All point and spatial data were first converted to units of weight per unit volume in milligrams per litre (mg/l). Then a conversion factor of 0.7 was used to convert to EC in micro-Siemens per centimetre (µS/cm). EC data were classified into five categories; non-saline groundwater (< 500 ?S/cm); slightly saline (500–1000 ?S/cm); moderately saline (1000–2000 ?S/cm); highly saline (2000–15,000 ?S/cm); and very highly saline groundwater or brine (>15,000 ?S/cm). The grid is 0.5°. The mode of the categorical variables within a cell was taken to represent the EC value within each cell. The raster was created using the “Point to raster” geoprocessing tool in ESRI ArcPro. The “Unique values” symbology option was used to separate the five classifications. The “Export Raster” option was used to create the TIFF.