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The under-explored intersection of climate, migration, and health was the subject of an online “cyberseminar,” hosted November 12–18 by the Population-Environment Research Network (PERN) and sponsored by the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) and the Population Center at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder). Moderators were members of an IUSSP Special Emphasis Panel on Climate, Migration & Health, including Lori Hunter, CU-Boulder; Philippe Bocquier, Université Catholique de Louvain; Sabine Henry, Université de Namur; and Celia McMichael, University of Melbourne. Invited experts presented comments on specific topics: Lori Hunter and Daniel Simon of CU-Boulder on integrating health in the study of migration and climate; Fernando Riosmena of CU-Boulder on migrant health through the lens of climate and migration; Elizabeth Fussell of Brown University on research design; Stefanie Koning of Northwestern University on lessons from the field; William Pan of Duke University on migration as a mediator of climate; and Caroline Zickgraf of the University of Liège on the science-policy interface.

PERN Cyberseminars provide a forum for scientists from the social and natural sciences to debate and discuss cutting edge population-environment research topics. CIESIN research scientist Susana Adamo and associate director of Science Applications Alex de Sherbinin are PERN co-coordinators. PERN is a scientific panel of the IUSSP and a sustained partner of Future Earth, an international initiative to advance global sustainability science.

Gaborone, Botswana, drew more than 800 data experts and other participants from 66 countries for International Data Week (IDW), a joint biennial meeting of the Research Data Alliance (RDA), the International Science Council (ISC) Committee on Data (CODATA), and the ISC World Data System (WDS). CIESIN director Robert Chen, associate director for Science Applications Alex de Sherbinin, and senior digital archivist Robert Downs played active roles in the meeting, chairing numerous scientific sessions, presenting seven different talks and three poster papers on a range of data topics, and participating in various side meetings. IDW opened on November 5 with a speech by the President of the Republic of Botswana, His Excellency Dr. Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi, accompanied by remarks from Prof. Ismail Serageldin, founding director of the New Library of Alexandria, and from several senior ministers from Botswana and other African countries. The week included both scientific sessions organized by CODATA and WDS as part of SciDataCon 2018 and working meetings of various RDA interest and working groups, as part of the RDA′s 12th Plenary. A key theme of IDW was the digital frontiers of global science, with a particular focus on the scientific challenges facing Africa and new initiatives such as the African Open Science Platform.

In conjunction with IDW, Downs participated in the RDA Technical Advisory Board (TAB) and Chairs Meeting on November 4 and a meeting of the CoreTrustSeal Board on November 8. On November 9, de Sherbinin co-chaired the WDS Data Repositories Day at the University of Botswana, where Downs represented the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), a regular member of the WDS. With Martina Stockhause of the World Data Center-Climate (WDC-C), Chen gave an overview of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Data Distribution Centre (DDC), which CIESIN has co-managed with the WDC-C and the UK Centre for Environmental Data Analysis for more than 20 years. Chen also served as the U.S. delegate to the CODATA General Assembly (GA) November 9–10. The GA approved a new CODATA-WDS task group, Citizen Science for the SDGs—Aligning Citizen Science Outcomes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, to be co-chaired by de Sherbinin. The GA also approved a new Constitution and elected a new President, two Vice Presidents, and eight Ordinary members of the Executive Committee.

CIESIN senior research associate Sandra Baptista joined about 60 participants at the 2018 Earth Science Women’s Network (ESWN) professional development workshop, “Building Leadership Skills for Success in the Scientific Workforce,” held October 28–30 at the University of Colorado Boulder and the Center Green Campus of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), in Boulder, Colorado. The workshop explored the components of solid leadership and effective communication for management through experiential learning and interactive dialogue. Additional activities included a session led by the American Association of University Women (AAUW) Work Smart on salary negotiation and career counseling, a networking reception with scientists and representatives from regional scientific organizations, and an interactive careers panel with successful senior leaders from academic, private, and public sectors. Baptista is currently co- investigator of the Geo-Referenced Infrastructure and Demographic Data for Development (GRID³) project and co-principal investigator of the Research Translation Core of Columbia University′s Superfund Research Program on Health Effects and Geochemistry of Arsenic, which is supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). She has also had lead roles in the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) operated by CIESIN and in a range of other projects focused on climate vulnerability and adaptation. Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) colleagues Kirsteen Tinto and Yael Kiro, both associate research scientists, also attended the workshop.

“Mapping Urban Areas from Space 2018,″ organized for a second time by the European Space Agency (ESA), was held at ESA's European Space Research Institute (ESRIN) in Frascati, Italy, October 30–31. The conference provided a venue for scientists and data users alike to share satellite data research results and progress of applications and development. For the opening session on global data products, Greg Yetman, CIESIN associate director for Geospatial Applications, gave a presentation co-authored with Robert Chen, CIESIN director, “Comparing Settlement and Population Data Products; What Do Users Need?″ Yetman also presented a poster on the High Resolution Settlement Layer data collection, describing an ongoing data development activity with the Facebook Connectivity Lab.

The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) organized “GEO Week 2018” in Kyoto, Japan, in conjunction with its 15^th Plenary session, October 31–November 1. The week included two days of side events together with an exhibition held at Kyoto’s International Convention Center. CIESIN director Robert Chen organized a side event of the GEO Data Sharing Working Group (DSWG) and also participated in a session focused on Earth observation applications in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For the DSWG session, he provided an overview of GEO’s longstanding efforts to advance open data sharing since GEO’s establishment in 2005, including the adoption of new data sharing principles in 2015. The DSWG has continued to address a range of implementation issues with regard to open data sharing at both national and international levels.

For the SDGs session, Chen reported on efforts by the GEO Human Planet Initiative (HPI) to expand understanding of human settlement, infrastructure, and population patterns and trends over time, drawing on an increasing array of remote sensing and other data sources. In particular, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) has led development of the Atlas of the Human Planet, published in 2016 and 2017; the 2018 edition is due to be released soon, together with data that the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) operated by CIESIN helped develop. Chen also gave an overview of other HPI activities, including new resources being developed by the POPGRID Data Collective, an international collaboration supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Chen is a co-chair of the DSWG, representing the International Science Council, and co-leads the HPI with Martino Pesaresi of the JRC.

CIESIN research scientist Susana Adamo attended the 2018 Population Conference of the Latin American Population Association (ALAP) in Puebla, Mexico, October 23–26, where she presented a paper, “Livelihood Diversification and Environmental Change in Argentina’s Drylands.” With Landy Sanchez, professor and researcher at the College of Mexico (Colmex) and chair of the Steering Committee of the Population-Environment Research Network (PERN), she co-organized a workshop on socioeconomic and remote sensing data integration, sponsored by PERN and ALAP’s Environment Working Group. Adamo, a co-cordinator of PERN, was also a speaker at the Plenary session, “Challenges in Monitoring the SDGs: a Regional Dialogue on Demographic Data and Indicators,” jointly organized by ALAP and IUSSP (International Union for the Scientific Study of Population), where she presented “Remote Sensing Data for Monitoring SDGs Environmental Indicators in Latin America and the Caribbean.″

Photos by IISD/ENB | Kiara Worth Robert Chen, CIESIN director, far right, served as a panelist for the session, “Earth Observation Applications for the Sustainable Development Goals: Opportunities for Scaling Successful Methods,” at the Second United Nations World Data Forum October 23 in Dubai. The other panelists were (L-R): Argyro Kavvada, Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Earth Observations for the Sustainable Development Goals Initiative; Robert Ndugwa, UN Human Settlements Programme; Jillian Campbell; UN Environment; Enrique Ordaz, National Institute of Statistics and Geography, Mexico; and Marc Paganini, European Space Agency.

CIESIN director Robert Chen, deputy director Marc Levy, and associate director for Science Applications Alex de Sherbinin joined nearly 2,000 delegates from around the world in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) October 22–24 for the second United Nations (UN) World Data Forum. The Forum brought together representatives from national statistical offices, UN agencies, development organizations, civil society groups, industry, academia, and other stakeholders to assess critical data challenges in efforts to meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to collaborate in applying rapidly evolving data science approaches to meet these challenges. Chen co-organized two parallel sessions on population monitoring and geospatial data issues, including one focused on the Geo-Referenced Infrastructure and Demographic Data for Development (GRID3) project for which CIESIN is the coordinating partner. He also discussed the growing use of remote sensing and population data in sustainable development applications in two panels, highlighting new data and services available from CIESIN and other organizations. In a session on data innovation for migration and development interventions, de Sherbinin reported on recent efforts led by the World Bank to model climate-induced migration and displacement.

The Forum served as a focal point for a range of complementary meetings and networking opportunities. On October 21, Chen, de Sherbinin, and Levy participated in a pre-meeting of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data (GPSDD), in which CIESIN is an Anchor Partner. Chen remained in Dubai through October 26 to co-chair a meeting of the Thematic Research Network on Data and Statistics (TReNDS) of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). TReNDS provides an important avenue for facilitating involvement and knowledge sharing by the global academic community in addressing sustainable development data challenges.

Both the Forum and the TReNDS meeting were hosted by the UAE’s Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Agency (FCSA). The First World Data Forum was held in January 2017 in Cape Town, South Africa; the next Forum is expected to be held October 18–21, 2020, in Bern, Switzerland. Summaries of the discussions at the Forums have been provided by the Earth Negotiations Bulletin.

CIESIN geographic information specialist Linda Pistolesi at the 2018 EFGS conference, where she described efforts to advance the use and impact of population and infrastructure data in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The 11th Annual European Forum for Geography and Statistics (EFGS) was held in Helsinki, Finland, October 16–18, with participation by approximately 200 representatives of national statistical offices and geospatial agencies and other relevant experts from around the world. CIESIN geographic information specialist Linda Pistolesi gave an oral presentation on CIESIN′s efforts to advance the use and impact of population and infrastructure data in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the formation of the POPGRID Data Collaborative. POPGRID is bringing together the international community of data producers, data users, donors, and other stakeholders interested in fundamental geospatial data on population distribution, human settlements, administrative boundaries, and built infrastructure. Such data are highly dependent on the efforts of national statistical offices and geospatial agencies, who may also benefit from advances in data collection, quality control, data integration, and other methods, such as the use of remote sensing and crowd sourcing. EFGS is an organization that advocates for the integration of geography and statistics, to improve quality, efficiencies, and analysis, and to encourage greater understanding between the statistical and geography communities.

Humans have altered the Earth′s land surface over many millennia, with the most dramatic changes coming in recent decades as population has grown, urban areas have spread, and technology and environmental changes have transformed ecosystems worldwide. A unique data set, Historical Urban Population, v1 (3700 BC‒AD 2000), is now available that documents the location and size of urban populations over the past 6,000 years. Developed by Meredith Reba of Yale University, Femke Reitsma of the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and Karen Seto of Yale, the data set was assembled by digitizing, transcribing, and geocoding historical, archaeological, and census-based urban population records from diverse sources. The data set illuminates long-term urbanization trends and patterns, supporting better understanding of both current and future urbanization trends and associated implications for population, land use and land cover change, and environment.

In 2002, the first Human Footprint/Last of the Wild (HF/LOW) data sets, developed by the Wildlife Conservation Society in collaboration with CIESIN, were released through the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). Version 1 mapped human influence on the planet′s land surface drawing on spatial data for population, settlements, roads, railroads, agriculture, power infrastructure, and other factors, mostly dating from the early 1990s. The least influenced or “wild” areas in each biome were identfied in the LOW data set. In 2005, version 2 of the data set was released, with more complete and consistent data from about the year 2000.

Version 3 of the Human Footprint data sets, providing snapshots of human influence circa 1993 and 2009, is now available through SEDAC. The Human Footprint, 2018 Release (1993) and Human Footprint, 2018 Release (2009) were developed by an international team of scientists led by Oscar Venter of the University of Northern British Columbia. The team included Eric Sanderson of the Wildlife Conservation Society, who led development of the first HF/LOW data sets, and CIESIN deputy director Marc Levy. The new HF data sets are based on a modified methodology and more recent data inputs on built-up environments, population density, electric power infrastructure, crop lands, pasture lands, roads, railways, and navigable waterways. The data are available at a spatial resolution of about 1 kilometer and may be downloaded as a GeoTIFF file or accessed through open online web map services.

A screen capture from the updated Population Estimator mapping tool for an area along the coast of Wilmington, North Carolina, affected by Hurricane Florence in fall 2018, displays estimates of the distribution of males and females by 5-year age group. The tool accesses data from the Gridded Population of the World version 4 (GPWv4.10) data collection via the Population Estimation Service (PESv3).

The Population Estimation Service (PES) and associated Population Estimator mapping tool have recently been updated to provide users with the ability to visualize changes in total population over multiple decades together with basic demographic characteristics (age and sex) in the year 2010, for a user-defined geographic region. Version 3 of the Population Estimator enables users to draw a circle or polygon on a world map, which then produces a graph of estimated population for the years 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015, and a projection to the year 2020. The Population Estimator also provides a “population pyramid” for the year 2010, with estimated population counts by five-year age groups for males and females. Users may save the graphs in selected image formats and download the tabular data for further analysis.

These detailed demographic estimates may be highly useful to those interested in assessing how different areas of the world vary in terms of their population growth between 2000 and 2020, and in comparing the relative shape and structure of their population pyramids. The data may be used to estimate important demographic characteristics such as the sex ratio, median age, dependency ratios, and the number of women of child-bearing age. Estimated totals for specific age  groups (children under five or the elderly) may be useful as indicators of potential vulnerability to natural, technological, or human health hazards or of the type and level of specific social or health services needed in an area. However, it should be noted that in many parts of the world, censuses have been infrequent, and detailed demographic data at subnational levels are not always available; therefore, population and age-sex data for small subnational areas should be used with caution and the documentation should be consulted.

Behind the scenes, the PESv3 draws on the latest version of the Gridded Population of the World data collection (GPWv4.10), which is based on the most current national census data available. Through open web service protocols, any client developer can send queries to the PES to obtain customized estimates for a specified circle or polygon. Links to the service descriptions are available online. Further information is available through SEDAC User Services. PESv3 and the Population Estimator are supported by the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), operated by CIESIN as part of the NASA Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS).

CIESIN director Robert Chen and senior digital archivist Robert Downs joined about 40 research data experts from across the U.S. at the Research Data Alliance–United States (RDA-US) Leadership Meeting in Troy, New York, September 24–25. The annual meeting was led for the first time by Dr. Leslie McIntosh, the new RDA-US executive director, and included participation by RDA′s current secretary-general, Hilary Hanahoe, and former Secretary General Mark Parsons. During the Community Updates portion of the meeting, Downs gave a brief update about the Repository Platforms for Research Data (RPRD) Interest Group (IG), which he co-chairs. The activities and plans of the Legal Interoperability IG, which Chen co-chairs, were also discussed. The meeting addressed RDA strategic initiatives and sustainability, encouraged awareness and coordination across the many different RDA data activities and those of partner organizations, and addressed plans for the RDA 12th Plenary to be held in Gaborone, Botswana, in November as part of International Data Week.

The NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) operated by CIESIN has released updates to two national-level, policy-focused indicator data collections. The 2018 Environmental Performance Index (EPI), produced every two years by a research team from the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and CIESIN, ranks country performance on high-priority environmental issues in two broad policy areas: protection of human health from environmental harm and protection of ecosystems. The 2018 EPI evaluated 180 countries on 24 performance indicators across 10 issue categories covering environmental health and ecosystem vitality.

The Natural Resource Protection and Child Health Indicators, 2017 Release (2010 – 2017), is the most recent update to a data set first released in 2010. It was created by CIESIN in support of the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), which has established selection criteria for the eligibility of countries for foreign assistance. This release includes a consistent time series of Natural Resource Protection (NRPI) scores for 234 countries from 2013 to 2017 and Child Health Indicator (CHI) scores for 199 countries from 2010 to 2017.

Both data sets are available for free download from the SEDAC web site. An Earthdata Login, available for free, is required to access the data.

New data on urbanization and the potential implications for cities will be the focus of a seminar held September 13 from 4 to 6 pm at the Population Council in New York City. United Nations (UN) Population Division staff members Francois Pelletier, Sara Hertog, and Danan Gu will give short presentations on the 2018 Revision to the UN′s World Urbanization Prospects, the Population Division′s city boundaries database, and exposure and vulnerability to natural hazards of the world’s major urban areas, respectively. John Wilmoth of the Population Division and Mark Montgomery of the Population Council will then join the presenters for a panel discussion.

The seminar is part of an ongoing series, “Population Dynamics and Environmental Change,” organized by CIESIN, the Population Council, the City University of New York (CUNY) Institute for Demographic Research (CIDR), and the UN Population Division. The free seminars aim to promote exchange and dialogue on interdisciplinary research concerning population dynamics in the context of rapid environmental and societal change. To attend, please register here.

Environmental changes and migration was the theme of the 2018 Environmental Diplomacy and Geopolitics (EDGE) Summer School, hosted by the Hugo Observatory at the University of Liège in Belgium September 4–8. The event included a keynote address, lectures and presentations, roundtable discussions, and workshop groups, aimed at an audience of approximately 30 PhD candidates from around the world who are studying different aspects of environmental migration and displacement. In his role as EDGE Chair for Environmental Diplomacy for 2018, Alex de Sherbinin, CIESIN associate director for Science Applications, gave the lecture, “Approaches to Modelling Climate-Change Induced Displacement and Migration.” EDGE is a joint project led by three European partners: Sciences Po in France, the University of Economics in Bratislava, and the University of Liège in Belgium, with support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. This was the last of three EDGE summer schools, which had previously been held in Paris in 2016 and Bratislava in 2017.

As part of the webinar, “Measuring and Assessing Socioeconomic Value,” sponsored by the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) September 4, CIESIN senior digital archivist Robert Downs described how the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) has used citation analysis to improve understanding of the scientific impact of its data products and services. SEDAC has developed a searchable Citations Database containing more than 4,000 citations of SEDAC data and information resources from the past two decades, primarily in peer-reviewed journal articles and books. This database of known citations serves as the basis for developing better metrics of the extent, type, and degree of use of SEDAC′s data across diverse scientific disciplines and application areas, including their integration with remote sensing data. SEDAC is one of the Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) in the NASA Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) and has been operated by CIESIN at Columbia University since 1998.

The webinar was organized by Arika Virapongse of Middle Path EcoSolutions; Erin Robinson of ESIP; and Françoise Pearlman and Jay Pearlman of FourBridges. Robinson gave the introduction and closing remarks, and Jay Pearlman served as moderator. Other presenters included Yusuke Kuwayama of Resources for the Future and Miriam Murambadoro, researcher at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in South Africa. Available online, the webinar is the third in a six-part series on the socioeconomic value of earth science data, information, and applications.

CIESIN research scientist Susana Adamo joined a select group of researchers from Europe and the U.S. at the International Workshop on Migration and the Environment, held September 3–4 at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH-Zurich) in Zurich, Switzerland. At the workshop, she gave an overview of current issues relating to data relating to migration/displacement and the environment, with examples and a discussion of the role of data integration. Her presentation, “An Assessment of Data Issues in Environmental Migration Research,” was co-authored with Alex de Sherbinin, associate director for Science Applications; Emilie Schnarr, staff associate; and Tiago Nascimento, visiting scholar. The workshop was organized by the Center of Economic Research at ETH Zurich.

Prof. Sophie Vanwambeke of the Department of Geography at the Université catholique de Louvain in Belgium is visiting CIESIN until May 2019.

Prof. Sophie Vanwambeke of the Department of Geography at the Université catholique de Louvain in Belgium has recently arrived at CIESIN for a visit until May 2019. She will work with CIESIN geospatial experts and with Maria Diuk-Wasser of the Columbia University Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology (E3B) Department on issues related to integrating spatially heterogeneous data on population, vector-borne disease, and natural hazards to better understand exposure, vulnerability, and risk. At the Université catholique de Louvain, Prof. Vanwambeke is affiliated with the Earth and Life Institute and with the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED). She received her master’s and PhD in geography from the Université.

Greg Yetman, associate director for Geospatial Applications, led a two-day training workshop August 14–15 for partners in the West Africa hub of the SERVIR project, a joint venture between NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The workshop included attendees from Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, and Niger.

Greg Yetman, CIESIN associate director for Geospatial Applications, led a two-day geographic information system (GIS) training workshop August 14–15 in Niamey, Niger, for partners in the West Africa hub of the SERVIR project. Attendees from Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, and Niger learned about applications of GIS technologies to studies in hydrology, desertification, and environmental change in tropical forests and rangelands. SERVIR, a joint venture between NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development, provides satellite-based Earth monitoring data, geospatial information, and tools to help improve environmental decision-making in developing countries. CIESIN and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) are contributing to the development of applications of NASA data products to support regional decision-making and are conducting technical training for regional partners. CIESIN and IRI are subcontractors to Tetra Tech/ARD, who manages the West Africa hub for USAID and NASA.

Scientists, data managers, and systems professionals gathered at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, August 7–9 for the Geoscience Digital Data Resource and Repository Service (GeoDaRRS) Workshop. Robert Downs, CIESIN senior digital archivist, was a member of the organizing committee and served as monitor for the August 8 plenary session, “What is Realistic/Doable With Constraints?″ The workhop sought to establish geoscience community expectations and requirements for digital data management support, and in particular to determine if new services are needed to complement existing data facilities funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). The workshop was sponsored by NSF, with additional support from Globus Computation Institute, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and DDN Storage.  

The NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), one of 12 Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) in the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS), will continue to be operated by CIESIN from its offices at the Lamont campus of Columbia University for one year and up to four additional option years and 6 additional option months (through January 2024). The new contract took effect on August 1, immediately after the expiration of the previous five-year contract.

SEDAC plays a unique role in EOSDIS, supporting the integration of remote sensing data with socioeconomic and other geospatial data to facilitate research, applications, and education. More than 52,000 users are currently registered to download and use SEDAC data, and SEDAC data have been cited in more than 500 new scientific articles each year across many different scientific disciplines. SEDAC data and services are widely used in real-world applications and decision-support systems.

Under the new contract, CIESIN director Robert Chen continues as SEDAC′s manager, and Alex de Sherbinin, associate director for Science Applications, remains SEDAC′s deputy manager. Sri Vinay, associate director for Information Technology, will also continue as SEDAC Systems Engineer. Columbia University has operated SEDAC since 1998. CIESIN has received an “Excellent” rating from NASA for its performance in managing the recently completed SEDAC contract. SEDAC is a regular member of the World Data System of the International Science Council (ICSU-WDS) and a Type I member of the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP).