Sustainability Thematic Portal: News
New Characterization of Biomes Includes Human Interaction
Date: August 2008
Existing systems of ecological research have traditionally omitted any representation of human interaction, or have simplified it. Now a recently-released data set, “Anthropogenic Biomes of the World,” authored by Erle C. Ellis and Navin Ramankutty, presents the first description of biomes that includes the element of human interaction with ecosystems. This data set identifies 18 so-called “anthropogenic biomes,” acknowledging that human residence and agriculture have significantly altered ecosystems. This integrated approach to ecological classification suggests new possibilities for exploring and understanding patterns within the terrestrial biosphere.
Now Released: First-Ever Global Map of Total Human Effect on Oceans
Date: April 1, 2008
The world’s oceans are significantly impacted by human activities, with no unaffected areas remaining, according to the first global-scale study of human influence on marine ecosystems.
However, there are still large areas that are relatively unaffected by humans, particularly near the poles.
Researchers overlaid maps of 17 different activities such as fishing, climate change, and pollution, to produce a composite map of human influence on the oceans of the world.
The report, “A Global Map of Human Impact on Marine Ecosystems,“ was published in the February 15 issue of Science. Data is available from the Web site. The project had its genesis in a working group at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara, California.
Report | Web site
New Human Footprint Data Now Available
Date: March 17, 2008
CIESIN has released an updated version of The Human Footprint, a data set that aims to measure the extent of human influence on the Earth’s surface. First produced in 2002 by CIESIN with the Wildlife Conservation Society, this new version of The Human Footprint uses updated data on human population density, land transformation, human access, electrical power infrastructure, and settlements. Urban boundaries are drawn from CIESIN’s urban population data (Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project (GRUMP)), which is more recent (circa 2000) and is also a better representation of urban boundaries than what was used in the first version. The population density data (Global Population of the World (GPWv3)), produced by the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) operated by CIESIN, also have a number of improvements over the data used in the earlier version. The roads data are more complete, particularly concerning roads in Africa and Latin America; a greater number of navigable rivers is included; and more extensive land cover data are used.
Data available for download include the Human Influence Index, Human Footprint, and the Last of the Wild data sets.
2008 Environmental Performance Index Released
Date: January 23, 2008
The Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland was the venue for the release today of the 2008 Environmental Performance Index (EPI), co-authored by CIESIN and Yale University’s Center for Environmental Law and Policy. Last released in 2006, the EPI ranks 149 countries on 25 indicators across six policy categories: Environmental Health, Air Pollution, Water Resources, Biodiversity and Habitat, Productive Natural Resources, and Climate Change. Each indicator in the EPI measures how close each country comes to broadly-accepted targets, on a 0–100 scale. As a quantitative gauge of environmental outcomes, the Index is meant to provide a powerful tool for improving policymaking by shifting environmental decisionmaking onto firmer analytic foundations.
The 2008 EPI ranks Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Costa Rica as the top five overall countries. Mali, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Angola, and Niger occupy the bottom five positions. The U.S. is ranked 39th, lower than most industrial countries.
The Index also provides “peer group” rankings for each country, comparing performance of countries facing similar environmental challenges. These benchmarks allow easy tracking of leaders and laggards on an issue-by-issue and aggregate basis. The data also support efforts to identify “best practices” in the environmental realm.
2006 National Footprint Accounts Added to Compendium of Sustainability Indicators
Date: December 11, 2007
The 2006 Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity indicators from the 2006 National Footprint Accounts produced by the Global Footprint Network have been added to the SEDAC Compendium of Environmental Sustainability Indicators Collection (v.1.1). The complete compendium of 426 indicators and 38 ancillary variables is available for download in comma-separated values (CSV), SPSS and Stata formats.
Data for CSD Coastal Population Indicator Released
Date: August 6, 2007
The United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) maintains a list of a core set of indicators of sustainable development. CIESIN is the lead agency for the indicator, entitled Percentage of Total Population Living in Coastal Areas. As a service to the community, CIESIN, through its SEDAC program, is providing pre-calculated national-level data for this indicator and one alternative: Percentage of Total Population Living in the Low Elevation Coastal Zone (<10 meters elevation).
SEDAC Releases New Data Set on Human Appropriation of Net Primary Productivity (HANPP)
Date: February 2, 2007
SEDAC, in partnership with scientists at Goddard Space Flight Center, has released data sets describing the global spatial distribution of net primary productivity (NPP), the global spatial distribution of the human appropriation of NPP (HANPP), and HANPP as a percentage of NPP. The data were originally published in the journal Nature (2004) and Journal of Geophysical Research (2006).
Experts Review CSD List of Indicators
Date: October 6, 2006
UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) sponsored an expert group meeting (EGM) from October 3–4, 2006 to review indicators included on the Commission for Sustainable Development’s list. The main objectives of the meeting is to finalize the 2001 set of CSD Sustainable Development Indicators (CSD-ISD) following a December 2005 EGM which substantially revised the list. That EGM worked within the adopted thematic framework and attempted to maintain the size of the CSD-ISD by cutting some indicators while adding others. The meeting sought commitment from lead agencies to provide updated and revised methodology sheets, where necessary. A report of the workshop is available on the Web site.
ICSU's SCOPE Issues Policy Brief on Sustainability Indicators
Date: May 6, 2006
ICSU's SCOPE has issued a six-page policy brief on sustainability indicators. The report, "Indicators of Sustainability: Reliable Tools for Decision-Making," describes the utility of synthetic indicators in a variety of policy contexts.
Download (1.7 MB PDF) Night-Time Lights Unveiled as Promising Data Source for Sustainability Studies
Night-Time Lights Unveiled as Promising Data Source for Sustainability Studies
Date: April 10, 2006
A recent article in Ecological Economics describes a potentially valuable new data source for studying the spatial patterns of economic activity that may have an impact on regional sustainability. Using night-time lights remote sensing data, which correlates closely with gross regional product, Christopher Doll and colleagues utilize this data set to map a surrogate of economic activity at 5-km resolution. These results provide the first detailed examination of night-time light characteristics with respect to local economic activity and highlight issues, which should be considered when undertaking such analysis.
