Copyright © Ramsar Monitoring 2022
Wetlands are among the most diverse ecosystems in the world, supporting high biodiversity and many ecosystem services. The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance or Ramsar Convention focuses on protection of wetlands, including wise use. This database features the World's more than 2,300 designated wetlands, listed by countries on the basis of criteria, including representativeness, rarity and ecosystem values. This website offers an interactive mapping tool to access and summarise spatial data from global and regional sources for monitoring and reporting on the condition of Ramsar wetlands of international importance.
| Ramsar Wetland Type | Global Ecosystem Typology | ||
|---|---|---|---|
Delineated Ramsar polygons are based on Protected Planet, The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) and World Database on Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (WD-OECM)
www.protectedplanet.net
Precipitation: based on the Global Precipitation Measurement ( V6 (2000-2014) and V7 (2015 – present)) which is remotely sensed satellite data of rainfall. The metric provides estimated total annual rainfall within the Ramsar polygon as well as within the catchment area ( HydroBasin level 5 )
Drought and runoff : TerraClimate climate and climatic water balance for global terrestrial surfaces which is used to calculate the average annual Palmer Drought Severity Index and Runoff within the catchment area ( HydroBasin level 5 ).
Moisture and vegetation cover : Remotely sensed Sentinel-2 MSI data used to calculate Moisture Index (B8A - B11) /(B8A + B11) and a Vegetation Index (B8-B4)/(B8+B4) within the Ramsar polygon .
Surface water : remotely sensed distribution of surface water based on the Copernicus Programme which is used to calculate the maximum annual area of surface water as well as the annual monthly average.
Fire : burned area based on the MODIS instrument onboard the Terra satellite and the Terra and Aqua satellites used the calculate the total burned areas with the Ramsar polygon at a probability greater than 0.80 and greater than 0.95.
DEA Wetlands Insight Tool : remotely sensed data combining both the Water Observations from Space and Fractional Cover summarising the relative annual area of water, green vegetation, dry vegetation and bare soil over time within the Ramsar polygon .
Geoscience Australia Water Observations : remotely sensed data of the Water Observations from Space summarising the maximum annual area of water within the Ramsar polygon .
Eastern Australian Waterbird Survey : aerial survey of waterbirds carried out since 1983 by the Centre of Ecosystem Science, UNSW. Metrics include total annual number of waterbirds and abundances of five functional response groups recorded along stratified 30-km survey bands which intersect with the Ramsar polygon .
Murray-Darling Targeted Survey : aerial survey of waterbirds carried out since 2007 at 38 important wetland and river sites in the Murray-Darling Basin.
Wetlands are diverse ecosystems, supporting high biodiversity and ecosystem services. This database can be used to explore more than 2,000 Ramsar-designated wetlands around the world, providing data for ecosystem assessment.