The African Water Resource Database (AWRD) is a set of data and custom-designed tools, combined in a GIS analytical framework aimed at facilitating responsible inland aquatic resource management with a specific focus on inland fisheries and aquaculture. It provides a valuable instrument to promote food security. The AWRD data archive includes an extensive collection of datasets covering the African continent, including: surface waterbodies, watersheds, aquatic species, rivers, political boundaries, population density, soils, satellite imagery and many other physiographic and climatological data. To display and analyse the archival data, it also contains a large assortment of new custom applications and tools programmed to run under version 3 of the ArcView GIS software environment (ArcView 3.x).

GISFish is a "one stop" site from which to obtain the global experience on Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing and Mapping as applied to Aquaculture and Inland fisheries. Development of GISFish is a work in progress being carried out under the guidance of the Aquaculture Management and Conservation Service (FIMA) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). GISFish sets out the issues in aquaculture and inland fisheries, and demonstrates the benefits of using GIS, remote sensing and mapping to resolve them. The global experience provided by GISFish is captured in Issues, Publications, Activities, Training, Data and Tools, Contacts, Discussions, News and events.

The updating of world soil resources, using the Soil and Terrain (SOTER) digital database methodology, is part of a global SOTER programme and intended to replace the FAO/Unesco 1:5 million scale Soil Map of the World (1971-1981). The original map sheets were published in 1970-1980 and were compiled on basis of information and data available at that time. It is understandable that a substantial part does not reflect the present state of knowledge of the soils in the regions. The national institutes, responsible for the natural resources inventories, have been collecting a wealth of new information on the distribution and occurrence of soils in their region, which has resulted in updating their national soil maps mostly at scale 1:1 million, often applying the Revised Legend (FAO, UNEP, ISRIC, 1988) for the description of the mapping units. The International Union of Soil Science (IUSS) adopted an important change in the classification used for the map by introducing lower levels of subunits of the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (IUSS, FAO, ISRIC, 1998). This, together with the new soil data available at national level, justified such an update of the soil resources for the regional updates (South America and the Caribbean, Northeastern Africa, Southern Africa, East and Central Europe, North and Central Eurasia and Central Africa have been completed to date.

The Multipurpose Africover Database for the Environmental Resources is a digital georeferenced database on land cover and a geographic referential for the whole of Africa including: - geodetical homogeneous referential - toponomy - roads - hydrography It is produced at a 1:200,000 scale (1:100,000 for small countries and specific areas). Reinforcing national and sub-regional capacities for the establishment update and use of the geographic referential and land cover maps and spatial data bases is the core strategy of the Africover project: this has been the methodology adopted to ensure an operational approach and the sustainability of the initiative.