Data Collections

Anthropogenic Biomes Anthropogenic biomes, also known as "anthromes" or "human biomes", describe the terrestrial biosphere in its contemporary, human-altered form using global ecosystem units defined by patterns of sustained direct human interaction. Ellis and Ramankutty (2008) delineate 21 anthropogenic biomes based on population density, land use and vegetation cover. The anthropogenic biomes are grouped into six major categories -- dense settlements, villages, croplands, rangeland, forested and wildlands.	Archive of Census Related Products (ACRP) This archive is a collection of georeferenced data files containing census information that spans the United States and its territories. This coverage will expand to include Mexico and Canada, establishing a North American repository for population, land use, and emissions data and integrated data products. These data files are value-added products derived from the original 1990 census files compiled by the U.S. Bureau of the Census.	China Dimensions Over the past decade, China has experienced rapid economic and social change. These changes, in concert with a growing population, are expected to lead to significant regional and global environmental change. This collection offers access to a unique data collection that has been designed to facilitate a wide range of natural science and socioeconomic research and educational activities. It enables both researchers and the general public to obtain accurate and timely information on the world's most populous country.
Climate Effects on Food Supply The purpose of this data set is to provide an assessment of potential climate change impacts on world staple crop production (wheat, rice, and maize) with a focus on quantitative estimates of yield changes based on multiple climate scenario runs. The data set assesses the implications of temperature and precipitation changes for world crop yields taking into account uncertainty in the level of climate change expected and physiological effects of carbon dioxide on plant growth.	Compendium of Environmental Sustainability Indicators The compendium is a compilation of sustainability indicators incorporating multiple country codes, and condensing the indicator descriptions into short methodological summaries in an accompanying metadata database. At present the compendium includes 426 indicators from the following six collections: 2006 Environmental Performance Index (EPI), 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI), 2004 Environmental Vulnerability Index (EVI), Rio to Johannesburg Dashboard of Sustainability and the Wellbeing of Nations 2006 National Footprint Accounts (Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity)	Environmental Performance Index (EPI) The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) ranks countries on performance indicators tracked across policy categories covering both environmental public health and ecosystem vitality. These indicators provide a gauge at a national government scale of how close countries are to established environmental policy goals. The EPI's proximity-to-target methodology facilitates cross-country comparisons as well as analysis of how the global community is doing collectively on each particular policy issue. The Trend Environmental Performance Index (Trend EPI) shows a country's improvement or decline over time.
Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) The Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) is a measure of overall progress towards environmental sustainability, developed for 146 countries. The index provides a composite profile of national environmental stewardship based on a compilation of 21 indicators derived from 76 underlying datasets.	Environmental Treaties and Resource Indicators (ENTRI) Environmental Treaties and Resource Indicators collection contains compliation of environmental treaty texts and treaty status information for multilateral environmental agreements, countries and organizations along with other related information.	Georeferenced Population Datasets of Mexico Included in this collection are approximately 100,000 records of geographic and census items for Mexican states, municipalities, and localities. The geographic records consist of state boundaries, place names, geographic coordinates of more than 30,000 urban and metropolitan places, and elevation data for more than 700 urban places. The census records contain estimates of 1990 population density, population by gender, and population by age bracket (below 6 years of age, between 6 and 14 years, and older than 15 years). For 706 selected urban localities, the population is traced back by decades, from 1990 to 1921, based on census documents.
Global Agricultural Lands The Global Agricultural Lands in the Year 2000 data set represents the proportion of land area used as cropland (land used for the cultivation of food) and pasture (land used for grazing) in the year 2000. Satellite data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Satellite Pour l'Observation de la Terre (SPOT) Image Vegetation sensor were combined with agricultural inventory data to create a global data set. The maps show the extent and intensity of agricultural land use on earth. The data were compiled by Navin Ramankutty et al. (2008). This Web site provides access to the spatial data sets described in Ramankutty's paper in the journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles. Users may download the data as one global grid or as a grid for each of the six populated continents. The data are available in raster GeoTiff and GRID formats.	Global Fertilizer and Manure, v1 Agriculture is one of the major drivers of global environmental change. In addition to the conversion of millions of hectares of natural ecosystems, millions of tons of fertilizer and manure are applied each year to maintain crop production levels. Understanding the current level and spatial patterns of fertilizer and manure inputs would greatly improve the ability to identify areas that might be sensitive to aquatic eutrophication and habitat destruction, species extinction, and/or nutrient depletion.	Global Reservoir and Dam (GRanD), v1 The Global Reservoir and Dam Database, Version 1 (GRanDv1), Revision 01 contains 6,862 records of reservoirs and their associated dams with a cumulative storage capacity of 6,197 cubic km. The dams were geospatially referenced and assigned to polygons depicting reservoir outlines at high spatial resolution. Dams and reservoirs have multiple attributes, such as primary use, nearest city, area, name of impounded river, year of construction (or commissioning). While the main focus was to include all reservoirs with a storage capacity of more than 0.1 km³, many smaller reservoirs were added if data were available.
Global Roads The Global Roads data collection includes a catalog of roads data and the Global Roads Open Access Data Set, Version 1 (gROADSv1). The data in this collection were developed under the rubric of the International Council for Science's Committee on Data for Science and Technology (ICSU-CODATA) Global Roads Data Development Task Group. More information on this task group and associated activities can be found on the CODATA roads wiki.	Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project (GRUMP), v1 This project builds on The Gridded Population of the World (GPW) data collection to construct a common geo-referenced framework of urban and rural areas by combining census data with satellite data. GRUMPv1 actually comprises three data products. First, GRUMPv1 provides a higher resolution gridded population data product at 30 arc-seconds, or ~1km at the equator, for 1990, 1995, and 2000. Second, GRUMPv1's urban extents data set delineates urban areas based on NOAA's night-time lights data set and buffered settlement centroids (where night lights are not sufficiently bright). Third, GRUMPv1 provides a points data set of all urban areas with populations of greater than 1,000 persons, which may be downloaded in Excel, CSV, and shapefile formats. As with GPW, there is an extensive map collection depicting the data sets at country, continental, and global levels.	Gridded Population of the World (GPW), v3 This is a gridded, or raster, data product that renders global population data at the scale and extent required to demonstrate the spatial relationship of human populations and the environment across the globe.The purpose of GPW is to provide a spatially disaggregated population layer that is compatible with data sets from social, economic, and Earth science fields.The gridded data set is constructed from national or subnational input units (usually administrative units) of varying resolutions. The native grid cell resolution is 2.5 arc-minutes, or ~5km at the equator, although aggregates at coarser resolutions are also provided. Separate grids are available for population count and density per grid cell.
Gridded Species Distribution, v1 This collection contains 30 arc-second (~1 km) resolution grids of the distribution of amphibians globally, and for birds and mammals in the Americas.	Historical Anthropogenic Sulfur Dioxide Emissions This data set provides annual estimates of anthropogenic global and regional sulfur dioxide emissions spanning the period 1850-2005 using a bottom-up mass balance method, calibrated to country-level inventory data. Emissions by source category (coal, petroleum, biomass combustion, smelting, fuel processing, and other processes) are available for 142 countries and regions. For the purpose of viewing the data pattern and changes, the maps of total emissions in 1970-2005 are also provided for online view and download in the archive.	Human Appropriation of Net Primary Productivity (HANPP) Human appropriation of net primary productivity (HANPP), through the consumption of food, paper, wood and fiber, alters the composition of the atmosphere, levels of biodiversity, energy flows within food webs and the provision of important ecosystem services. The spatial data are available in raster GRID and Compressed GeoTIFF formats. In addition, a downloadable Excel format file provides tabular data by country on total estimated consumption of NPP in the form of food, paper, wood, and fiber.
Indicators of Coastal Water Quality Indicators of Coastal Water Quality contains datasets with measurements of chlorophyll-a concentrations derived from NASA's Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) to analyze trends over a ten year period (1998-2007) and to identify near-coastal areas with improving, declining, and stable chlorophyll concentrations that can provide guidance for decision making in the context of environmental management.	Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) This collection contains datasets based on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Reports and IPCC Special Reports. Included are emissions scenarios, including those from the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES), baseline socioeconomic data, observed climate change impacts data and vulnerability information based on climate change scenarios and national capacities to adapt to climate change.	Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) This mapping project assessed the degree to which both existing and proposed terrestrial protected area networks protect/would protect landscape-level biodiversity, which are represented as vegetation types delineated from remotely-sensed imagery. A comprehensive, standardized, and thematically-appropriate map of Central American vegetation and landcover types was developed by classifying AVHRR imagery (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer imagery 1 square kilometer resolution) using advanced digital image processing routines and expertise provided by a Central America Vegetation Working Group. The map identifies 17 remaining natural vegetation types. The classification accuracy of the map is estimated to exceed 80 percent. The data accurately reflect conservation status up to 1995.
Last of the Wild, v2 The Last of the Wild Version 2 collection contains maps and measurement of the human influence on the earth's land surface to facilitate policy making aimed at conserving Last of the Wild.	Last of the Wild, v1 The Last of the Wild, Version 1 collection contains maps and measurement of the human influence on the earth's land surface.	Low Elevation Coastal Zone (LECZ) The Low Elevation Coastal Zone collection includes country-level estimates of urban, rural and total population and land area country-wide and in low elevation coastal areas generated using SRTM Digital Elevation Model data. The SRTM dataset used came from ISciences; the GRUMP population and urban-rural data were developed by CIESIN.
National Aggregates of Geospatial Data Collection (NAGDC) The collection contains country-level measures of spatial characteristics for a series of countries and other UN recognized territories for researchers who find national aggregates more useful than GIS data.	Natural Disaster Hotspots Disasters represent a major source of risk for the poor. These natural events can wipe out development gains and accumulated wealth in developing countries. In this project we have assessed the global risks of two disaster-related outcomes: mortality and economic losses. We have estimated risk levels by combining hazard exposure with historical vulnerability for two indicators of elements at risk-gridded population and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per unit area-for six major natural hazards: earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, floods, drought, and cyclones. A set of accompanying case studies, available separately, explores risks from particular hazards or for localized areas in more detail, using the same theoretical framework as the global analysis.	Natural Resource Management Index (NRMI) The Natural Resource Management Index is a composite index for 157 countries derived from the average of four proximity-to-target indicators for eco-region protection (weighted average percentage of biomes under protected status), access to improved sanitation, access to improved water and child mortality.
Population Exposure to Natural Disasters Population Exposure to Natural Disasters contains data and maps showing the pre-disaster characteristics of the populations that appear to have been most directly affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.	Poverty Mapping The Global Poverty Mapping Project includes data sets of the global distribution of poverty and the geographic and biophysical conditions of where the poor live.	Satellite-Derived Environmental Indicators The development of a scientifically robust set of satellite-derived environmental indicators has the potential to help policymakers make informed decisions and ultimately support policies and programs that protect the environment and human health.
Socioeconomic Downscaled Projections With the help of the modeling groups of the IPCC Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES), CIESIN developed a data set of country-level population and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and corresponding geospatial data products (downscaled grids) for selected years. The downscaled population and GDP data represented an initial effort to meet the urgent needs of impacts researchers for country-level data. This work was the first exercise of its kind in downscaling socioeconomic drivers.	Superfund Site Footprints An assessment of populations living in proximity to Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) sites for the year 2000 conducted by CIESIN in response to the request of by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).	U.S. Census Grids The U.S. Census Grids provide raster data sets that include not only population and housing counts, but a wide variety of socioeconomic characteristics. These gridded data sets transform irregularly shaped census block and block group boundaries into a regular surface - a raster grid - for faster and easier analysis. Data are for 1990 and 2000.
Urban Landsat The Urban Landsat collection contains images for 66 urban areas and the raw, underlying data for 28 of these places. Each image shows a Landsat false color composite in UTM projection. The R/G/B layers correspond to TM/ETM+ bands 7/4/2. Each pixel is 30x30 meters in area and most images are 30x30 km in area.