Drought Island Nation Help

[Invalid]

Hi, first time poster/map maker here. I've recently come up with the idea for a continent that is stricken by a huge drought, with the only source of water coming from the middle of the land and distributed/controlled by the government. I've been trying to make a map that reflects that, by having the distribution of green/fertile land be more towards the middle and darken into unhealthier grass/sand as it goes further outwards. I'm not too happy with the results though, and as this is my first time I don't really know what I'm doing too well.

I'm using Campaign Cartographer 3 and the method I've been doing is having a few layers of different shades of green and then mixing them using the glow effect. Is there any way to do that that'd look better?

Here's what I have so far.



Any suggestions as to how to make it more realistic/look better would be welcome.

A little information on the setting if that'd help, the government pumps water through a large pipe system to the various parts of the country. Water distribution is lessened as it gets farther from the distribution center, which is why there's a drop off in green.

Once I finalize how I want to show the drought I'll be adding various pipes going across the land and changing the fertility to match (More green near the pipes, or where the pipes end).

[Straf]

Hi Invalid, a very interesting scenario you describe there with potential for a real dystopian regime. I'm not familiar with CC3 so I don't know if this would help but take a look at satellite imagery and maps of some of the Canary Islands off the North West coast of Africa. They are volcanic islands and don't have a lot of natural water - I think most, if not all, of the tap water comes from desalinated sea water.

Gran Canaria, Tenerife and La Gomera have green areas towards the middle that thin out into more barren, rocky areas towards the coastal regions. From the satellite images it looks like vegetation grows more favourably north of centre, probably because of less intense sunlight. It is quite a dry heat somewhat tempered by a sea breeze but the breeze doesn't blow away UV and even a short time exposed without sufficient protection can result in severe sunburn. At least for us pasty northern European types anyway.

I like the base so far