To create a comparative index of national-level environmental sustainability and to provide a mechanism for making environmental management more quantitative, empirically grounded and systematic.

To provide tabular data to researchers without GIS capabilities who need data on population and land area by country across a range of physical characteristics. These include measures such as the number of persons living within coastal zones, the percent of a region within specific elevation strata, or the number of persons living within different climate zones.

To provide quantitative metrics for evaluating a country's environmental performance in different policy categories relative to clearly defined targets.

To provide a spatial surface of the proportional economic impacts of global drought hazard.

To provide a means of assessing the relative distribution and frequency of global flood hazard.

To provide a means of assessing global drought mortality risks and distribution.

To provide a spatial surface of the total economic impacts of global drought hazard.

To provide data on country-level population and downscaled projections based on the SRES B2 marker scenario.

To provide data on country-level population and downscaled projections based on the SRES A1, B1, and A2 marker scenarios.

To provide gridded GDP data on country-level downscaled projections based on the SRES B2 marker scenario.

To provide data on country-level GDP per capita and downscaled projections based on the SRES A1, A2, B1, B2 marker scenarios.

To provide a geographically explicit and reliable database of reservoirs for the scientific community.

To provide a gridded data on country-level population and downscaled projections based on the SRES B2 marker scenario.

To provide tabular data on environmental conditions (elevations, climate, coastal) in which people reside.

To provide quantitative metrics for evaluating a country's environmental performance in different policy categories relative to clearly defined targets.

To provide quantitative metrics for evaluating a country's environmental performance in different policy categories relative to clearly defined targets.

To provide a comparative index of national-level environmental sustainability based on lessons learned from the year 2000 pilot effort.

To provide quantitative metrics for evaluating a country's environmental performance in different policy categories relative to clearly defined targets.

To test the feasibility of creating a comparative index of national-level environmental sustainability.

To provide a comparative index of national-level environmental sustainability covering a number of sustainability dimensions.