Where are Syria's five agricultural stability zones today, and where have their boundaries moved?

Zones computed with the official definition (mean seasonal rainfall and the share of seasons reaching each zone's threshold) on 1996/97–2025/26 rainfall, compared with 1981/82–2010/11, with each zone's area in every sub-district and governorate and the area that shifted to a drier zone: 29,011 km².

In short

The Badia (zone 5) is 55.5% of Syria in 1996/97–2025/26; rain-fed zones 1–4 together are 44.5%.

29,011 km² moved to a drier zone between 1981/82–2010/11 and 1996/97–2025/26, against 887 km² to a wetter one.

Sub-districts that shifted most towards dryness are in the sub-district table.

Syria agricultural stability zones map from the latest 30 years: zone boundaries and area per sub-district — Reduced-resolution preview with a watermark; the full-resolution map is in the package.

Who it is for

Agriculture and geography students, agricultural directorate engineers, food-security and rural-development organisations, and agricultural investors choosing a site.

Method: what we add to the raw data

For each cell, mean seasonal rainfall and the share of seasons reaching 300, 250 and 200 mm were computed for 1996/97–2025/26 and 1981/82–2010/11.
Cells were classified with the official zone definitions, from driest to wettest, so each cell takes the wettest zone whose full criterion (mean and frequency) it meets.
Mean and frequency surfaces were linearly densified from 5 km to 1 km before classification, giving continuous boundaries instead of squares.
The two periods were compared cell by cell to extract areas that moved to a drier or wetter zone.
Each zone's area in every sub-district and governorate uses an equal-area projection.

Product details

What you get	4 spatial layers in GeoPackage, 3 GeoTIFF rasters, 3 CSV tables, lyrx and qml symbology for ArcGIS Pro and QGIS, a PNG map at 220 dpi, and an Arabic and English guide
Formats	GPKG, GeoTIFF, CSV, lyrx, qml, PNG
Coordinate system	WGS 84 (EPSG:4326)
Licence	Commercial use allowed for you and the organisation you buy for; no resale or redistribution
Delivery	A private download link valid for 24 hours, within 6 hours of payment confirmation
Package size	ZIP 2.5 MB
Personal data	The product contains no personal data

Spatial layers

zones_1997_2026 — polygons, 6: Stability zones 1996/97–2025/26
zones_1982_2011 — polygons, 6: Stability zones 1981/82–2010/11 for comparison
zone_shift — polygons, 2: Areas whose zone changed
subdistricts_zones — polygons, 272: Sub-districts with area of each zone

Raster files (GeoTIFF)

D076_zones_1997_2026.tif — 730 × 550, 0.01° (~1 km): Zones 1996/97–2025/26 (1–6)
D076_zones_1982_2011.tif — 730 × 550, 0.01°: Zones 1981/82–2010/11 (1–6)
D076_mean_rainfall_1997_2026_mm.tif — 730 × 550, 0.01°: Mean annual rainfall 1996/97–2025/26

Tables

D076_zones_by_subdistrict.csv — 272 rows: Zone areas per sub-district
D076_zones_by_governorate.csv — 14 rows: Zone areas per governorate
D076_zone_area_comparison.csv — 6 rows: Zone area comparison between periods

Limitations

Zones are computed from recent rainfall with the official definition and may differ from the officially adopted map, drawn on older data and field considerations.
The original rainfall cell is 5 km, so boundaries in the mountains and Mount Hermon are approximate.
The definition uses rainfall only; soil, irrigation and elevation are not included.

FAQ

How long does delivery take?: Up to 6 hours after payment is confirmed.
How long does the download link last?: 24 hours, and it is renewed free on request.
Can I get a refund?: Digital products are not refundable once downloaded — unless the file is defective or does not match the description, in which case it is replaced or fully refunded.
What does the licence allow?: Commercial use is allowed for you and the organisation you buy for; resale or redistribution is not.

Syria agricultural stability zones map from the latest 30 years: zone boundaries and area per sub-district