Resources »  News

The World Data System (WDS) of the International Science Council (ISC) held its 2020 Members Forum online on September 23. CIESIN associate director of Science Applications Alex de Sherbinin, in his capacity as chair of the WDS Scientific Committee, helped organize and chair the Forum and gave a presentation on the issue of generalist versus domain-specific repositories. CIESIN director Robert Chen chaired a panel session, “Sustainability: Making the Case for Domain Repositories through Value of Information, Operational Use, and Web Services.” As manager of the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), which is a regular member of WDS, Chen also pre-recorded a lightning presentation on SEDAC′s strategic goals and plans. Other Forum participants included senior digital archivist Robert Downs and research scientist Susana Adamo, as well as representatives from several other NASA Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) and from NASA′s Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project, which is a network member of the WDS.

In conjunction with the Forum, the International Symposium: Global Collaboration on Data Beyond Disciplines was held September 23–25. A plenary session to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the hosting of the WDS International Programme Office (WDS-IPO) by the Japanese National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) included pre-recorded remarks given by de Sherbinin on behalf of the WDS Scientific Committee.

CIESIN remains active in several different WDS activities. For example, Downs is a member of the WDS Harvestable Metadata Services (HMetS) Working Group and de Sherbinin co-leads the joint CODATA-WDS Citizen Science for the SDGs Task Group. He also chaired the virtual meeting of the WDS Scientific Committee on October 13–15.

Alex de Sherbinin, CIESIN associate director for Science Applications, Susana Adamo, research scientist, and Tricia Chai-Onn, senior geographic information specialist, are co-authors of a new study on the link between environmental challenges and religion, published in the Journal of Religion and Demography. Vegard Skirbekk of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health is lead author. The paper, “Religious Affiliation and Environmental Challenges in the 21st Century,” builds on a growing body of research carried out at the Columbia Aging Center, where researchers analyzed religious affiliation together with a variety of environment and climate change-related indicators at the country level.

The Global COVID-19 Viewer map from September 25 shows the prevalence of COVID-19 cases, defined as the total number of cases per 100,000 people, for the United States and parts of Canada and Mexico since early in the pandemic.

The latest update to the Global COVID-19 Viewer: Population Estimates by Age Group and Sex features enhanced capabilities for visualizing the status and reach of the pandemic around the world, daily and over time since its beginning, and to identify at-risk populations. A pop-up trends graph illustrates daily and 7-day moving averages of COVID-19 cases and deaths for a range of select time scales—one month, three months, six months, and beyond. The graph may be accessed by simply clicking on a country. User-friendly mapping tools let users define a custom area or fly to a location of interest. Users may also easily move up or down administrative levels in many countries and view demographic and urbanization estimates relevant to possible risk factors for the virus. The Viewer was developed by the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) managed by CIESIN. The underlying population data are from SEDAC′s Gridded Population of the World (GPW) Basic Demographic Characteristics, v4.11, for the year 2010, with estimates to 2020. The COVID-19 data are from Johns Hopkins University & Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center. 

During August and September, CIESIN scientists contributed to numerous online meetings and Webinars focused on diverse issues related to citizen science data, data quality and stewardship, geospatial data development and applications, and climate migration modeling and data.

Senior digital archivist Robert Downs gave the presentation, “Improving Data Stewardship Based on the TRUST Principles for Digital Repositories,” at the #WeMissiPRES virtual meeting on 23 September. The annual International Conference on Digital Preservation (iPRES) was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and was replaced by a virtual event consisting of three half-day sessions September 22–24. Downs′ presentation focused on the ongoing implementation of the TRUST Principles (transparency, responsibility, user focus, sustainability, and technology) at the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) operated by CIESIN. Downs also presented, “NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC): Current Status, Road Map and Challenges,″ during a virtual meeting of the World Data System (WDS) Harvestable Metadata Services (HMetS) Working Group on September 9.

Alex de Sherbinin, associate director for Science Applications, gave the talk, “Data for the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa: The role of citizen-generated data,” at a Technical Validation Workshop on September 16 for the project, Standardizing City-Level Data-Gathering for Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 11 in Africa (SCiLeD). On 14 September, he also served as a panelist during the 2020 Global Shifts Colloquium, organized by the Perry World House at the University Pennsylvania, where he presented work on climate migration modeling and data sources. 

August 26–27 and September 4, CIESIN participated as an observer organization in the virtual Tenth Session of the United Nations Group of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM). CIESIN′s delegation was led by director Robert Chen. The UN-GGIM promotes international collaboration on geospatial  data and information and reports on all matters relating to geography, geospatial information, and related topics to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). CIESIN has been a non-governmental organization with special consultative status recognized by ECOSOC since 1995.

At the 2020 Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Summer Meeting Highlights Webinar on August 13, Robert Downs gave a lightning talk summarizing the ESIP Information Quality Cluster session, “Citizen Science and Data Quality.” The Webinar provided an overview of plenary and breakout sessions from the Summer Meeting, and is available for viewing on YouTube.

Users of the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) are invited to participate in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) survey for the NASA Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS). This annual survey assesses user satisfaction with the data, tools, and support provided by EOSDIS data centers and services. SEDAC, which serves a wide range of basic and applied users interested in the integration of remote sensing and socioeconomic data, is one of the data centers evaluated by the survey. Survey results enable SEDAC to address problems, improve data and services, and identify high priority user needs and concerns. It also helps justify NASA′s continuing investment in EOSDIS data services and support.

All SEDAC users are encouraged to participate in the survey by early October. Users with an Earthdata user name registered with SEDAC will receive an e-mail invitation from the CFI Group on behalf of NASA, requesting participation in the brief survey (10–15 minutes to complete). The identity of respondents is not shared with SEDAC or NASA.

Alex de Sherbinin, associate director for Science Applications, is guest editor of a special Issue of the journal Sustainability on climate risk and vulnerability mapping, with co-editor Stefan Kienberger of the University of Salzburg. He is also a co-author of one of the papers in the special issue, on using flood disaster data to validate components of social vulnerability to floods. The paper’s lead author is Earth Institute Fellow Beth Tellman.

The article, “Still in Need of Norms: The State of the Data in Citizen Science,″ has been published in the journal Citizen Science: Theory and Practice. Anne Bowser of the Wilson Center is lead author, and de Sherbinin is a co-author. The article is a major output of the CODATA-World Data System (WDS) Task Group on Citizen Science and the Validation, Curation, and Management of Crowdsourced Data, which de Sherbinin co-chaired in 2016-2018.

Senior digital archivist Robert Downs is a co-author of the report, “Laying the Groundwork for Developing International Community Guidelines to Effectively Share and Reuse Digital Data Quality Information—Case Statement, Workshop Summary Report, and Path Forward,” published in Open Science Foundation (OSF) Preprints. Ge Peng of the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Information Quality Cluster is lead author. The report, which stems from a pre-workshop held in July 2020 prior to the ESIP Summer Meeting, describes the approach that will be taken to develop community guidelines for preparing and sharing data quality information.

The Geo-Referenced Infrastructure and Demographic Data for Development (GRID3) program managed by CIESIN has released the white paper, “Harmonizing Subnational Boundaries,” on GRID3 efforts to support the harmonization, production, and use of digitized legal/administrative units, operational units, and statistical areas. This work addresses three primary areas: improving and harmonizing operational units; fostering improved collaboration on boundary harmonization among disparate government bodies; and using boundaries harmonization to support census efforts. The paper focuses on case studies in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Zambia.

NASA recently published an article on its Earthdata web site about the continued flow of NASA Earth science data during the global COVID-19 pandemic. The article describes how the overall Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) was able to continue processing and distributing many terabytes of data each month even though NASA centers had closed and almost all staff had to shift to remote work. The article also highlights how two of the twelve NASA Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs)—the Alaska Satellite Facility DAAC operated by the University of Alaska, and the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) operated by CIESIN—have adapted to the changing work environment. CIESIN director Robert Chen, who has served as SEDAC's manager for more than 20 years, noted that this is not the first time that SEDAC has faced major disruptions (9/11 in 2001 and Superstorm Sandy in 2012). Among other efforts, SEDAC has worked to increase virtualization of its systems to strengthen flexibility and reliability.

NASA recently exercised another option year in CIESIN's contract to continue operating SEDAC (through July 2021). CIESIN received an “exceptional″ performance rating from NASA for the option year that ended in July 2020. 

Cascade Tuholske has joined CIESIN for a two-year appointment as an Earth Institute postdoctoral research scientist. Tuholske is a geographer specializing in the integration of global-scale human and environment geospatial data to examine the relationship between urbanization and climate change. At CIESIN, he has begun working with director Robert Chen and associate director for Science Applications Alex de Sherbinin to construct a globally extensive, longitudinal, and fine-scale synthesis of extreme heat events, urban population growth, and the urban heat island effect. His goal is to inform adaptation strategies that reduce the harmful and inequitable impacts of urban exposure to extreme heat. He will also contribute to another NASA-funded project on the use of gridded population and settlement datasets to assess progress towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Tuholske received his PhD in geography from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he focused on the nexus of climate change, urbanization, and food security in Africa under the guidance of Prof. Kelly Caylor.

The Population-Environment Research Network (PERN) has released several online training modules in English and Spanish on the fundamentals of spatial data integration, geared towards demographers and other population researchers. Developed by Susana Adamo, CIESIN research scientist, and Professor Landy Sanchez of the Center for Demographic, Urban, and Environmental Studies at El Colegio de Mexico (COLMEX), the video-based tutorials draw on pre-packaged data and open source geographic information system (GIS) and Web-based tools. The goals of the online training are to review the fundamentals of spatial data integration, with an emphasis on remote sensing; present an overview of relevant datasets and services (platforms and tools); develop basic skills for linking demographic and environmental data; and expand the use of specialized data sources. Production was supported by the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) through a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. PERN is a scientific panel of IUSSP and a sustained partner of Future Earth, and is hosted by the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) managed by CIESIN. Adamo is co-coordinator of PERN and SEDAC′s lead project scientist; Sanchez is former chair of the PERN Scientific Committee.

Former CIESIN scientist Deborah Balk has assumed the directorship of the Institute for Demographic Research (IDR) at the City University of New York (CUNY). She had served as IDR′s associate director since 2006. Balk is also professor of public affairs at the Austin W. Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College. She serves on several noteworthy committees, including the National Research Council (NRC) Committee on Population, the U.S. Census Bureau’s Scientific Advisory Committee, and the New York City Panel on Climate Change, for which she is a co-chair. She was an Andrew Carnegie Fellow 2016–2018. Her research focus is urbanization in the developing world, using a spatial framework to explore the demographic implications of climate-change issues. Balk is currently working with Kytt MacManus, senior systems analyst/GIS developer at CIESIN, and with Gordon McGranahan of the Institute of Development Studies in the United Kingdom, on updates to the low-elevation coastal zone estimates developed in a 2007 study. She was lead project scientist for the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) operated by CIESIN from 1998 to 2006, spearheading the development of many widely-used population-related data products and services. She later served as a member of SEDAC′s User Working Group (UWG) 2015–2018.

Established in 2011, the World Wide Human Geography Data (WWHGD) Working Group provides a platform for the discussion of human geography issues and sharing of human geography data. In recognition of its long track record of conferences and webinars, the WWHGD organized a 50^th Retrospective Symposium on the topic of planetary health, an all-day online event on July 29 that brought together many of the experts who had presented at one or more prior WWHGD events. CIESIN associate director for Science Applications Alex de Sherbinin was invited to speak about climate and human geography in the session, “A Conversation on Environmental Change Impacts.” CIESIN director Robert Chen participated in the closing panel on strategic human geography perspectives and solutions for future challenges. The Symposium highlighted a diverse set of data and information resources related to human security and planetary health, including a number of data sets and tools provided by CIESIN through the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) and other CIESIN projects. Co-led by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the US Department of State, the WWHGD Working Group has nearly 5,000 members spread across more than 150 countries.

The 2020 Summer Meeting of the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) was held virtually July 14–24, rather than in Burlington, Vermont, as originally planned. The meeting theme was “Putting Data to Work: Building Public-Private Partnerships to Increase Resilience & Enhance the Socioeconomic Value of Data.” In line with the theme, CIESIN collaborated with ISciences LLC, CASE Consultants international, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to organize two linked sessions July 23 on open source environment-security analytics. The first session featured talks by CIESIN alumnus Tom Parris, president of ISciences; Mark Wahl of the USACE Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC); and CIESIN director Robert Chen. Chen highlighted numerous public-private partnerships involving CIESIN over more than two decades, including diverse initiatives dealing with environment-security crises, disaster risk management, climate change, and population data. In the second session, senior systems analyst/GIS developer Kytt MacManus led a hands-on subgroup, “Employing Python and R for Explorations of Gridded Demographic Data using Web Services.” Other technical subgroups were led by ISciences and ERDC staff, building in part on a USACE-funded Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) project to develop Data ANalytics and Tools for Ecosecurity (DANTE).

Senior digital archivist Robert Downs was also very active in the ESIP summer meeting. He co-organized the pre-meeting workshop, “Developing Community Guidelines for Consistently Curating and Representing Dataset Quality Information,” and gave a presentation, “GEOSS Data Management and Data Sharing Principles and TRUST,” on July 13. He co-organized the sessions, “Exploring New Perspectives and Formulating Best Practices for Data Uncertainty Information (Parts 1 & 2)” offered July 15, and “Citizen Science Data and Information Quality” and “Challenges of Consistently Curating and Representing Fair Dataset Quality Information,” held July 22. During the Live Research Showcase sessions July 17 and 23, he presented the poster, “Meeting the Challenges of the TRUST Principles for Digital Repositories.” He also arranged for a number of mapping tools developed by the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) to be demonstrated and reviewed by teachers in the 2020 ESIP Teacher Workshop, “Putting Data to Work for Earth Science Education,” July 14 and 15. SEDAC is a Type I member of ESIP.

“Active Hope in a World of Environmental Extremes” was the theme of the 45th Annual Natural Hazards Research and Applications Workshop, this year held online July 12–15. The theme was drawn from the book Active Hope, which provides a holistic perspective on strengthening capacity to respond to contemporary crises. For the July 13 panel session, “Out of Harm’s Way? Home Buyouts and Coastal Retreat,” Greg Yetman, CIESIN associate director for Geospatial Applications, presented progress on a CIESIN project supported by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to develop building footprint data for flood vulnerability assessment in New York. CIESIN director Robert Chen also participated in the workshop, including a July 12 meeting of the North American Alliance of Hazards and Disaster Research Institutes (NAAHDRI). CIESIN is a founding member of NAAHDRI, which recently issued a statement on systemic racism and disasters. 

CIESIN has joined the Council on Data Facilities (CDF), an organization of data facilities established to coordinate and facilitate geoscience data management in support of the EarthCube initiative of the US National Science Foundation. At the CDF′s Summer General Assembly held virtually on July 10, CIESIN′s application for membership was accepted, and senior digital archivist Robert Downs was elected as an at-large member of the CDF′s Executive Committee. Kerstin Lehnert of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory is the chair of the Executive Committee.

CIESIN has also become a member of the VALUABLES Consortium, a collaboration with NASA led by Resources for the Future (RFF) to measure how satellite information benefits people and the environment when used to make decisions. A key focus of the work is building an interdisciplinary community of organizations interested in valuing the societal benefits of earth science information, including groups within government, academia, and the private and nonprofit sectors. Alex de Sherbinin, associate director for Science Applications, serves on the VALUABLES Consortium Scientific Council.

Senior digital archivist Robert Downs has been elected as one of four co-chairs of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Data Working Group (Data-WG). Downs was nominated to the Data-WG by the International Science Council (ISC) World Data System (WDS). CIESIN director Robert Chen is also a member of the working group, representing the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UN SDSN). The new Data-WG replaces the previous GEO Data Sharing Working Group, for which Chen had been a co-chair, and the Data Management Principles effort, which Downs previously co-led.

GEO has also established new working groups on climate change and disaster risk reduction. CIESIN research scientist Susana Adamo is a member of the Climate Change WG, and associate director for Geospatial Applications Greg Yetman is a member of the Disaster Risk Reduction WG; both were nominated by the UN SDSN, which is a Participating Organization of GEO.

Alex de Sherbinin, CIESIN associate director for Science Applications, has recently been appointed to a four-year term on the U.S. National Committee for CODATA, part of the Board on International Scientific Organizations (BISO) of the U.S. National Research Council. The Committee on Data (CODATA) is an interdisciplinary scientific committee of the ISC working to improve the quality, reliability, management, and accessibility of data of importance to all fields of science and technology.

Several new interns have joined CIESIN this summer, working remotely due to closure of CIESIN offices along with the rest of Columbia University during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Alexandra Hays is working with senior systems analyst/GIS developer Kytt MacManus on the third version of the Urban-Rural Population and Land Area Estimates, which is part of the Low Elevation Coastal Zone (LECZ) data collection developed by the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). Hays is a senior at Columbia University majoring in economics, with a concentration in sustainable development. Interns Serena Killion and Caitlyn Linehan are also working with MacManus, on analysis of nighttime lights data and development of map services for SEDAC. Killion is a senior at Columbia, majoring in computer science; Linehan is completing her MS in geographic information systems (GIS) at City University of New York-Lehman College.

Four interns are working with Greg Yetman, associate director for geospatial applications, on a project supported by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to assess potential flood impacts on building infrastructure. Elizabeth Jackson and Elan Ganeles are juniors at Columbia; Jackson is majoring in sustainable development, and Ganeles is majoring in urban studies and earth science. Chris Mangnani is a senior at Columbia majoring in sustainable development. Siobhan Milán is a junior from the University of Virginia, majoring in economics with a minor in statistics.

Interns under CIESIN’s Geo-Referenced Infrastructure and Demographic Data for Development (GRID3) program include Mariem Ayadi, Zane Peycke, and Nancy Yun, who are completing their MS degrees in data science at Columbia′s Data Science Institute. Ayadi is working with data and program analyst Jolynn Schmidt and senior research associate Paola Kim-Blanco, creating a model that checks for errors in building footprints data. Peycke and Yun are both working with Schmidt; Peycke is is cleaning and compiling points of interest data for the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Yun is cleaning and compiling health facility data for countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

The NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) operated by CIESIN has released the 2019 annual update to the Natural Resource Protection Indicators (NRPI) and Child Health Indicators (CHI) together with two new spatial data sets developed by former SEDAC project scientists Christopher Small of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) and Deborah Balk of the City University of New York (CUNY).

Natural Resource Protection and Child Health Indicators, 2019 Release supports the annual country selection process conducted by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), which bases its selection criteria on a basket of governance, social, economic, and environmental indicators. For 2019, the NRPI covers 234 countries and is calculated based on the weighted average percentage of biomes under protected status. The CHI is a composite index for 195 countries derived from the average of three proximity-to-target scores.

Spatial Data from the 2011 India Census, v1 contains gridded estimates of India′s population at 1-kilometer resolution, with two spatial renderings of urban areas: one based on official tabulations of population and settlement type and the other based on the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL). The data set was developed by a team led by former CIESIN research scientist Deborah Balk, who is now associate director of CUNY’s Institute for Demographic Research. It is part of SEDAC′s India Data Collection.

VIIRS Plus DMSP Change in Lights, v1 provides changes in brightness and extent of global nighttime lights networks over two decades (1992, 2002, 2013). The nightime lights imagery was sourced from the U.S. Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS) and the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day-Night Band. It was developed by Christopher Small and several CIESIN geospatial experts. The data set was used to assess urban growth and development in Asian megadeltas, described in a paper published in 2018 in Global and Planetary Change. The data set is part of SEDAC's collection, Satellite-Derived Environmental Indicators.

All of these data are available for free download from SEDAC (registration with Earthdata required). The India and nighttime lights data may be visualized through the SEDAC Map Viewer or open web services.

The NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) operated by CIESIN has updated two of its online mapping tools with new data and functionality. The latest version of the tool, the SEDAC Global COVID-19 Viewer: Population Estimates by Age Group and Sex, provides new visualizations of COVID-19 data in relationship to population characteristics and other potentially relevant factors. Users may now view rates of COVID-19 cases and mortality per 100k people; age pyramids and population numbers for user-defined areas; trend data on cases at the country, state (province), or county level where available; and more.

The POPGRID Viewer, a tool designed to facilitate visualization and intercomparison of the many different global-scale gridded population data sets now available, has been updated with new and more complete versions of the six population data sets included. Data for two different time periods are now included for three data sets. Users may view any combination of data in a unique four-panel viewer, and then compare population estimates for all six data sets for a specific area of interest. The POPGRID Viewer was developed by SEDAC in support of the POPGRID Data Collaborative, an initiative launched by CIESIN in 2017 to bring together both the developers and users of global georeferenced population data. 

The User Working Group (UWG) of the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) operated by CIESIN met virtually June 25–26 to discuss recent SEDAC progress and plans for the coming year. The meeting was chaired by Barbara Ryan, former secretariat director of the Group on Earth Observation (GEO), and included participation by seven new UWG members as well as seven continuing members. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions on travel and meetings, the meeting utilized video conferencing technologies to facilitate presentations and discussions of key issues. The meeting was organized by CIESIN director Robert Chen and associate director for science applications Alex de Sherbinin, who serve as SEDAC manager and deputy manager, respectively, and by research scientist Susana Adamo, SEDAC's project scientist. UWG member Navin Ramankutty of the University of British Columbia gave a presentation, “Developing Global Data on Farm Size and Smallholder Agriculture.” NASA participants included SEDAC program scientist Nancy Searby from NASA′s Applied Sciences program, together with representatives from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and other NASA data centers. The UWG thanked four members whose terms ended in 2020: Guido Cervone of Pennsylvania State University, Audrey Dorélien of the University of Minnesota, Bill McConnell of Michigan State University, and Lela Prashad of NiJeL. The UWG advises SEDAC and NASA on user needs for socioeconomic and other human dimensions data, and regarding associated services in support of interdisciplinary research, applicaitons, and education.

The Population-Environment Research Network (PERN) held an online cyberseminar May 18–25 on analysis of the population-climate change-food security nexus. The cyberseminar was moderated by Raya Muttarak of the University of East Anglia and included statements by seven expert panelists from a range of disciplines. A webinar launching the cyberseminar May 18 was led by Alex de Sherbinin, associate director for Science Applications. He and CIESIN research scientist Susana Adamo are co-coordinators of PERN, which is a panel of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) and a sustained partner of Future Earth. PERN is supported by the NASA Socioeonomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) operated by CIESIN. A YouTube video of the webinar is available online, and background materials from the cyberseminar are posted on the PERN website.