The mapping system is the result of a collaborative initiative between FAO (AGAL - Animal Production and Health Division) and ILRI to develop a global, one kilometre resolution, GIS map of livestock production systems. The first attempt to map livestock production systems, at least in the developing world, was by Thornton et al. in 2002, based on a classification scheme developed by Seré and Steinfeld in 1996. This version includes more accurate and higher spatial resolution input data.

Agricultural Stress Index (ASI) - Near Real Time is a quick-look indicator that facilitates the early identification of cropped land with a high likelihood of water stress (drought). It depicts the percentage of arable land, within an administrative area, that has been affected by drought conditions from the start of the season up to the current dekad. It differs from ASI Annual product which describes the drought conditions over the entire crop season. The Index is based on the integration of the Vegetation Health Index (VHI) in two dimensions that are critical in the assessment of a drought event in agriculture: temporal and spatial. The first step of the ASI calculation is a temporal averaging of the VHI, assessing the intensity and duration of dry periods occurring during the crop cycle at the pixel level; this calculation includes the use of crop coefficients, which introduces sensitivity of a crop to water stress during each phenological phase. The second step determines the spatial extent of drought events by calculating the percentage of pixels in arable areas with a VHI value below 35 percent (this value was identified as a critical threshold in assessing the extent of drought in previous research by Kogan, 1995). Each administrative area is classified according to the percentage of the affected area to facilitate the quick interpretation of results.

Phenology is defined as the study of the timing of recurring biological cycles and their connection to the climate. Changes in the vegetation phenology, including the start of season, the length of the season as well as the end of season impacts the ecosystem functioning such as carbon storage, water holding capacity and agricultural productivity. Compliment to ASIS Crop/pasture growing seasons (Start of season, Maximum of season and End of Season) maps, Progress of Season (POS) maps depict the development of crops/pastures during the growing season. For any dekad (a 10-day period), the map indicates how far the season has progressed, represented by a value between 0 and 100 percent (i.e. 50 percent is the mid-point of the growing season). The seasons’ progress is based on the long-term average of vegetation phenology for each pixel. This simplification implies that the crop/pasture phenology is static and, therefore, the growing seasons progress at a constant rate each year. The “seasonal progress” is expressed in relative terms via a fixed set of “POS images”. For any dekad in the year, they indicate for each pixel how the season has progressed. That can be a value between 0 and 100 percent (i.e. 50 percent is the mid-point of the growing season). The definition of a dekad: - Each month has three dekads: dekad 1 (day 1-10), dekad 2 (day 11-20), dekad 3 (day 21-end of month). - The number of days the dekad represents is variable for each last dekad of the month. - Since the phenology is derived from dekadal temporally smoothed and gap filled NDVI data, these dekads represent +- the middle day of their period. - The best practice is to link each dekad value with its associated date (e.g. Dekad 1 = January 5th/6th, dekad 3 = January 26th,…). Then you can convert these dates into Julian days. Phenology digital values to physical values: - In order to deal with growing seasons surpassing the calendar year (e.g. SOS <January or EOS > December) the phenology data is stored in a range of 108 dekads. The digital values in images follow the 1-108 dekad range. There is an offset of 36 dekads in order to express them with the target year as reference. - Dekad 37-72 represents the dekad 1-36 (January – December) of the target year. Values lower than 36 indicate SOS phenology < January and values higher than 72 indicate EOS phenology > December. Global ASIS covers two crop/pasture seasons. Some countries have three or four crop seasons within a crop year. For these countries, Global ASIS cannot properly capture the crop phenology between the first and the last season (e.g. for a country has four crop seasons, the crop phenology of the 2nd and 3rd season). More information, please visit FAO GIEWS Earth Observation website: https://www.fao.org/giews/earthobservation/index.jsp?lang=en Recommended citation: © FAO - Agricultural Stress Index System (ASIS), http://www.fao.org/giews/earthobservation/, [Date accessed]

The Agricultural Stress Index (ASI) is a quick-look indicator that facilitates the early identification of cropped land with a high likelihood of water stress (drought). ASI related products (maps, spatial aggregation based on administrative unit) are processed by FAO GIEWS (Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture) every 10 days. ASI Annual Summary is processed at the end of crop season. It depicts the percentage of arable land, within an administrative area, that has been affected by drought conditions over the entire cropping season. It differs from ASI dekadal product, which is based on conditions from the start of the season up to the current dekad. The Index is based on the integration of the Vegetation Health Index (VHI) in two dimensions that are critical in the assessment of a drought event in agriculture: temporal and spatial. The first step of the ASI calculation is a temporal averaging of the VHI, assessing the intensity and duration of dry periods occurring during the crop cycle at the pixel level; this calculation includes the use of crop coefficients, which introduces sensitivity of a crop to water stress during each phenological phase. The second step determines the spatial extent of drought events by calculating the percentage of pixels in arable areas with a VHI value below 35 percent (this value was identified as a critical threshold in assessing the extent of drought in previous research by Kogan, 1995). Each administrative area is classified according to the percentage of the affected area to facilitate the quick interpretation of results. More information, please visit FAO GIEWS Earth Observation website: https://www.fao.org/giews/earthobservation/index.jsp?lang=en Data license policy: Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC BY-NC- SA 3.0 IGO) Recommended citation: © FAO - Agricultural Stress Index System (ASIS), http://www.fao.org/giews/earthobservation/, [Date accessed]

Complementary to Agricultural Stress Index (ASI) which detects the severe and extreme drought, Drought Intensity is another quick-look indicator in ASIS that facilitates the early understanding of the intensity of the drought. It is a new indicator introduced in ASIS 2 (2018). Agricultural droughts are classified by their intensity and are categorized into four classes: Extreme, Severe, Moderate or Mild. The intensity of drought in ASIS is calculated through the weighted Mean Vegetation Health Index, indicating that the poorer the vegetation health the more severe the drought. The Annual summary of Drought Intensity is processed at the end of crop season. It allows the user to assess the overall intensity of drought for an entire growing season. It differs from Drought Intensity dekadal product, which is based on conditions from the start of the season up to the current dekad. Important note: Map legend value= Pixel physical value * multiplier (100), except 251: off season, 252: no data, 253: no season and 254: no crop land, 255: water More information please visit FAO GIEWS Earth Observation website: https://www.fao.org/giews/earthobservation/index.jsp?lang=en Data license policy: Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC BY-NC- SA 3.0 IGO) Recommended citation: © FAO - Agricultural Stress Index System (ASIS), http://www.fao.org/giews/earthobservation/, [Date accessed]

Complementary to Agricultural Stress Index (ASI) which detects the severe and extreme drought, Drought Intensity is another quick-look indicator in ASIS that facilitates the early understanding of the intensity of the drought. It is a new indicator introduced in ASIS 2 (2018). Agricultural droughts are classified by their intensity and are categorized into four classes: Extreme, Severe, Moderate or Mild. The intensity of drought in ASIS is calculated through the weighted Mean Vegetation Health Index, indicating that the poorer the vegetation health the more severe the drought. Drought Intensity dekadal product is processed based on the conditions from the start of the season up to the current dekad. If differs from Drought Intensity Annual product which describes the drought conditions over the entire crop season. Important note: Map legend value= Pixel physical value * multiplier (100), except 251: off season, 252: no data, 253: no season and 254: no crop land, 255: water More information, please visit FAO GIEWS Earth Observation website: https://www.fao.org/giews/earthobservation/index.jsp?lang=en Data license policy: Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC BY-NC- SA 3.0 IGO) Recommended citation: © FAO - Agricultural Stress Index System (ASIS), http://www.fao.org/giews/earthobservation/, [Date accessed]

Phenology is defined as the study of the timing of recurring biological cycles and their connection to the climate. Changes in the vegetation phenology, including the start of season, the length of the season as well as the end of season impacts the ecosystem functioning such as carbon storage, water holding capacity and agricultural productivity. Crop/pasture phenology maps depict the progress of the seasons. It is based on the long-term average of vegetation phenology for each pixel (In ASIS, Cropland/Grassland masks are applied. Pixel with at least 5% covered by the class are defined as a cropland/grassland pixel). This simplification implies that the crop/pasture phenology is static and therefore the growing seasons progress at a constant rate each year. The progress of growing seasons are described by three major phases: Start of Season (SOS), Maximum of Season (MOS) and End of Season (EOS). Start of Season (SOS) indicates the early stage of crop/grass emergence, defined as the date when the rising NDVI-curve cuts the threshold NDVIs: NDVIs=NDVImins + Ts.(NDVImax – NDVImins) NDVImax is the NDVI at the maximum of the cycle, NDVImins is the minimum before this maximum and threshold Ts is fixed to 0.25 for all land cover types. SOS is searched leftwards from NDVImax to NDVImins. Maximum of Season (MOS) indicates when crop/grass foliage is fully developed, defined as the date when the NDVI is at its maximum value. End of Season (EOS) indicates when crop/grass has reached physiological maturity, defined as the date when the descending NDVI-curve crosses NDVIe, This date does not necessarily correspond to the harvest period. NDVIe=NDVImine + Te.(NDVImax – NDVimine) NDVImax is the NDVI at the maximum of the cycle, NDVImine is the minimum after this maximum and threshold Te is set to 0.75 for cropland and to 0.25 for all other land. EOS is searched rightwards from NDVImax to NDVImine. Map legend label and pixel value mapping (half open intervals): <October Y-1: (-36)-(-6); November - December Y-1: (-6)-0; January - February: 0-6; March - April: 6-12; May - June: 12-18; July - August: 18-24; September - October: 24-30; November - December: 30-36; January - February Y+1: 36-42; >March Y+1: 42-72: Map flags: no seasons/no season 2: 251; no cropland/no grassland: 254 Global ASIS covers two crop/pasture seasons. Some countries have three or four crop seasons within a crop year. For these countries, Global ASIS cannot properly capture the crop phenology between the first and the last season (e.g. for a country has four crop seasons, the crop phenology of the 2nd and 3rd season). More information, please visit FAO GIEWS Earth Observation website: https://www.fao.org/giews/earthobservation/index.jsp?lang=en Recommended citation: © FAO - Agricultural Stress Index System (ASIS), http://www.fao.org/giews/earthobservation/, [Date accessed]

Historic Agricultural Drought Frequency Maps depict the frequency of severe drought in areas where 30 percent/50 percent of the cropland/grassland has been affected. The historical frequency of severe droughts (as defined by ASI) is based on the entire ASI Annual Summary times series (1984-2021). Formula: The number of years when land affected>30 percent/50 percent occurred/(2021-1984+1) *100 Pixel value ranges from 0-100 (unit: percentage). Flag: 252: no data; 253: no season; 254: no cropland/grassland. More information, please visit FAO GIEWS Earth Observation website: https://www.fao.org/giews/earthobservation/index.jsp?lang=en Data license policy: Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC BY-NC- SA 3.0 IGO) Recommended citation: © FAO - Agricultural Stress Index System (ASIS), http://www.fao.org/giews/earthobservation/, [Date accessed]

The Vegetation Health Index (VHI) illustrates the severity of drought based on the vegetation health and the influence of temperature on plant conditions. The VHI is a composite index and the elementary indicator used to compute the seasonal drought indicators in ASIS: Agricultural Stress Index (ASI), Drought Intensity and Mean Vegetation Health Index (Mean VHI). VHI combines both the Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) and the Temperature Condition Index (TCI). The TCI is calculated using a similar equation to the VCI, but relates the current temperature to the long-term maximum and minimum , as it is assumed that higher temperatures tend to cause a deterioration in vegetation conditions. A decrease in the VHI would, for example, indicate relatively poor vegetation conditions and warmer temperatures, signifying stressed vegetation conditions, and over a longer period would be indicative of drought. In ASIS, VHI is computed in two modality: dekadal and monthly. The dekadal/monthly VHI raster layer published in Hand in Hand Geospatial platform is further updated in the following 5 dekads (improve data precision, remove cloud pixel etc.). Flags of raster file: 251=missing, 252=cloud, 253=snow, 254=sea, 255=background More information, please visit FAO GIEWS Earth Observation website: https://www.fao.org/giews/earthobservation/index.jsp?lang=en Data license policy: Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC BY-NC- SA 3.0 IGO) Recommended citation: © FAO - Agricultural Stress Index System (ASIS), http://www.fao.org/giews/earthobservation/, [Date accessed]

The Vegetation Health Index (VHI) illustrates the severity of drought based on the vegetation health and the influence of temperature on plant conditions. The VHI is a composite index and the elementary indicator used to compute the seasonal drought indicators in ASIS: Agricultural Stress Index (ASI), Drought Intensity and Mean Vegetation Health Index (Mean VHI). VHI combines both the Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) and the Temperature Condition Index (TCI). The TCI is calculated using a similar equation to the VCI, but relates the current temperature to the long-term maximum and minimum , as it is assumed that higher temperatures tend to cause a deterioration in vegetation conditions. A decrease in the VHI would, for example, indicate relatively poor vegetation conditions and warmer temperatures, signifying stressed vegetation conditions, and over a longer period would be indicative of drought. In ASIS, VHI is computed in two modality: dekadal and monthly. The dekadal/monthly VHI raster layer published in Hand in Hand Geospatial platform is further updated in the following 5 dekads (improve data precision, remove cloud pixel etc.). Flags of raster file: 251=missing, 252=cloud, 253=snow, 254=sea, 255=background More information, please visit FAO GIEWS Earth Observation website: https://www.fao.org/giews/earthobservation/index.jsp?lang=en Recommended citation: © FAO - Agricultural Stress Index System (ASIS), http://www.fao.org/giews/earthobservation/, [Date accessed]