To provide estimates of urban and rural populations and land areas for the years 1990, 2000, 2015 for 234 countries and statistical areas with contiguous coastal elevations of less than or equal to 5m above sea level, 5-10m above sea level, and national totals using multiple updated data sources for comparative analysis.

To provide a polygon representation of urban areas with city or agglomeration name and time series population estimates.

To provide back-cast population count estimates at 30 arc-second (~1 km) resolution.

To provide back-cast population density estimates at 30 arc-second (~1 km) resolution.

To provide populated place (point) data with consistent population estimates.

To assess likely future areas of urban expansion up to the year 2030.

To provide estimates of total, urban and rural populations and land areas in proximity to nuclear power plants.

To provide a preliminary assessment of coastal Ramsar Sites that are at risk to inundation as a consequence of sea level rise.

To provide estimates of urban and rural populations and land areas for the years 1990, 2000, and 2010; and projections to the year 2100 for 202 countries with contiguous coastal elevations in the following categories: less than or equal to 1m, 3m, 5m, 7m, 9m, 10m, 12m, or 20m; as well as national totals.

To provide a time series of raster population data for ntegration with other data sets.

To provide a raster representation of urban areas (or urban mask) for use with GRUMP population grids or other data sets.

To provide land area data for use with GRUMPv1 population and urban data as well as a quantitative measure of resolution of the input spatial units for GRUMPv1.

To provide a time series of raster population density data for data integration.

To permit cartographic display of countries and territories that exactly match the GRUMPv1 population surfaces

To provide populated place (point) data with consistent population estimates.

To permit cartographic display of coastlines that exactly match the GRUMPv1 population surfaces.

To permit the summation of population values by country/territory and, in combination with other data layers, the summation of population values by irregular areas represented in the other data layers and country/territory.

To provide estimates of urban and rural populations and land areas in the low elevation coastal zone.

To preserve access to the original population data used by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) and other related research.