ECIRA - European crop-specific irrigated area at 1 km resolution annually from 2010 to 2020

Irrigation significantly contributes to total water withdrawal and exhibits considerable spatial and temporal variability, particularly in more humid regions. This variability is caused by climate, soil properties, and crop water requirements. However, time series of high-resolution, crop-specific irrigated area data remain scarce in Europe. We developed and applied a method to harmonize input data on crop types and irrigation to obtain the European Crop-specific IRrigated Area (ECIRA) dataset, providing annual 1-km gridded crop-specific irrigated area for 16 crop types across 28 European countries for 2010-2020. The ECIRA dataset effectively identifies crop-specific irrigated hotspots, aligns with subnational census data, and strongly agrees with LUCAS field observations and other survey-based crop-specific irrigation area datasets. However, caution is needed for region- and location-specific studies, as the Europe-wide scope of ECIRA entails a trade-off between local details and overall consistency. It can be used in assessments of crop productivity and crop water use, as input in land surface-, crop-, and hydrological modeling, in climate impact studies and to support improved water resources management.