• Updated Data, Improved Methodology for 2009 NRMI Release
• New Grid-Based Cartograms Build on CIESIN Population Data
• Human Biomes Defined, Data Available, on New Web Site
• Integrating Population and Geographic Data for Insights into Security Issues

Updated Data, Improved Methodology for 2009 NRMI Release

October 20, 2009

The NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) operated by CIESIN has released the 2009 National Resource Management Index (NRMI). This version of the NRMI has updated data and improved methodology for the eco-region protection indicator, one of the four indicators that make up the NRMI. The improvements included the exclusion of international protected areas, many of which lack effective protection (the ones that do already have a national designation), and improved coastal boundary matching between biomes and national boundaries using the highest resolution coastal data available.

The NRMI is a composite index of four measures. In addition to the eco-region protection indicator, the indicators include: access to improved sanitation, access to improved water, and child mortality. In response to the search for a natural resources management indicator initiated by the the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), the NRMI was first developed in May 2005 by a consortium led by CIESIN and including the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy (YCELP), the University of New Hampshire Water Systems Analysis Group, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and the Columbia University Tropical Agriculture Program. The MCC uses the NRMI as as one of its performance indicators to help determine country eligibility for its foreign aid programs.

See: Natural Resource Management Index Web site

New Grid-Based Cartograms Build on CIESIN Population Data

October 4, 2009

The Gridded Population of the World (GPW) version 3 data set available through the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Application Center operated by CIESIN is the basis for a new set of grid-based population cartograms for most countries of the world recently released on the interactive Worldmapper Web site. Worldmapper is a collection of cartograms in which a particular thematic variable is substituted for the land area of a map, effectively re-sizing the map. In the case of the population grids, each cartogram provides a distinctive visualization of the internal population variations within a country or region. More-populated areas appear inflated whereas less-populated areas are less prominent. The cartograms have been made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported license.

See: Worldmapper Web site
       Gridded Population Cartograms

Human Biomes Defined, Data Available, on New Web Site

October 1, 2009

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. In a paper presented in the journal, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, Ellis and Ramankutty (2008) delineate 21 anthropogenic biomes based on population density, land use, biota, climate, terrain and geology. The anthropogenic biomes are further grouped into six major categories: dense settlements, villages, croplands, rangeland, forested, and wildlands. A new Web site, “Anthropogenic Biomes (version one),” provides access to the spatial data sets described in the paper. Available in raster GeoTiff and GRID formats, the data may be downloaded as one global grid or a grid for each of the six populated continents. The methodology involves a multi-stage procedure where “anthropogenic” cells are first separated from “wild” cells based on presence of population, crops, or pastures. A detailed description of the methods utilized to produce the data, as well as research results, may be downloaded from the Web site.

See: Anthropogenic Biomes (version one) Web site

Integrating Population and Geographic Data for Insights into Security Issues

September 26, 2009

In a video interview for the September 24 posting of the blog, “The New Security Beat,” which is hosted by Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP) Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, CIESIN deputy director Marc Levy talks about using CIESIN’s gridded population data product, Gridded Population of the World (GPW), to more easily combine population and geographic data. “If you want to ask questions about how people are located with respect to drought hazards, for example, you can take your map of the location of droughts, overlay it with our map of population, and then get a sense of how many people are located in these drought zones,” said Levy. ECSP director Geoff Dabelko is the interviewer.

See: video interview