Data set on current and future crop suitability under the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 emission scenario for the major crops in the Levant, Tigris-Euphrates, and Nile Basins

This article describes crop suitability maps (raster data) for thirty five crops in the Jordan, Litani, Orontes, Nile, and Tigris-Euphrates river basins. Spatial data on crop suitability are provided for two periods: current conditions as the average of the years 1970–2000, and projected future conditions for the year 2050 as an average for the years 2041–2060. The data were generated by simulating mean monthly climatic data from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). These climatic data are downscaled to the 1-km scale from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 5th Assessment Report. Mean monthly climatic datasets from the WorldClim database were used to generate the suitability datasets using the FAO EcoCrop model under the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 emission scenario for three General Circulation Models: CCSM4, GFDL-CM3, and HadGEM2-ES with a spatial resolution of 30 arc-seconds. The findings reveal that many crops in the Levant will witness a decrease in their suitability, whereas suitability of crops in the upper Nile Basin will increase by 2050.