Nitrogen Fertilizer Use Risk Map (2023)

Source: FAO / WWF Biodiversity Risk Filter Year: 2023 Category: Transition risks · Pollution Coverage: Global (national polygons, 199 countries) Format: Boundary polygons Used in risk analysis: Yes — gates Pollution

What it shows

This layer rates the biodiversity risk associated with nitrogen-fertiliser use in each country. Intensive fertiliser application drives nutrient pollution of soils, freshwater and coastal waters, contributing to eutrophication and habitat degradation. The layer helps screen where agricultural nitrogen loading poses a higher pressure on nature.

How it is built

The layer is derived from Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) statistics on nitrogen-fertiliser use per hectare of agricultural land, covering 199 countries for the year 2023. Each country's fertiliser-use intensity is translated into a biodiversity-risk level following the WWF Biodiversity Risk Filter methodology, which sorts countries into five risk categories. Because the underlying data is national, risk is uniform within each country's boundary rather than varying locally.

How to read it

Countries are assigned to one of five risk classes, conventionally colour-coded from very low (green) through to very high (dark red). A higher class means greater nitrogen-fertiliser pressure and therefore higher associated biodiversity risk for sites in that country; a lower class means less. As a country-level layer, it indicates national context rather than field-level conditions.

Class thresholds

The underlying quantity is a physical flux: nitrogen-fertiliser use per hectare of agricultural land, in kilograms of nitrogen per hectare (kg N/ha), from FAO national statistics for 2023. Each country's value places it in one of five risk classes:

A site is flagged on the Pollution dimension when its country falls in the High risk or Very high risk class (i.e. nitrogen use above ~72 kg N/ha).

How these thresholds were set. The five-class split follows the WWF Biodiversity Risk Filter (BRF) methodology, applied to the FAO 2023 nitrogen-use data. The non-round break values (14 / 53 / 72 / 77 kg N/ha) are consistent with percentile-based classes of the global distribution rather than fixed agronomic limits; the exact derivation is set in the WWF BRF methodology and is not re-documented here.

Reference: WWF Biodiversity Risk Filter — riskfilter.org/biodiversity.

Source

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) nitrogen-fertiliser-use data for 2023, classified per the WWF Biodiversity Risk Filter methodology.

Comparison with the WWF Risk Filter Suite

This layer maps to the WWF Biodiversity Risk Filter pollution theme (BRF S13_4 Pollution) and uses the same FAO national fertiliser-use inputs and five-class WWF methodology, so it is closely aligned. Where Darwin maintains gridded 2023 risk maps for other fertiliser/pesticide pressures, those are finer than WWF's country-level inputs; this particular layer remains at the same national resolution as WWF.

Risk analysis

A site is flagged on a dimension by combining a proximity trigger (this layer) with an activity trigger (the entity's ENCORE pressure/service). Proximity only → Potentially material; proximity and the matching ENCORE pressure/service is material → Very material; neither → Not material.

Legend

Symbolised field: Nitrogen Use Risk Level

Generated from darwin/layers/layer-nitrogen-fertilizer-use-risk-map-2023.toml and risk_indicator_pairs.toml (develop).