To provide quantitative metrics for evaluating a country's environmental performance in different policy categories relative to clearly defined targets.

To provide a gridded version of existing SeaWiFS data in GIS-compatible formats in order to determine concentrations of chlorophyll-a in the coastal water column and to facilitate the integration with other data.

To provide tabular data on the trends of chlorophyll-a concentration on a pixel by pixel basis for identifying areas with improving, declining, and stable coastal water quality that can provide guidance for decision making in the context of coastal management.

To provide an assessment of potential climate change impacts on world crop production.

To provide information on global land use for research on human-environment interactions.

To provide quantitative metrics for evaluating a country's environmental performance in different policy categories relative to clearly defined targets.

To provide tabular data on environmental conditions (elevations, climate, coastal) in which people reside.

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

To provide geographical portraits of vulnerability designed to incorporate both exposure to climate change and national capacities to adapt.

To provide quantitative metrics for evaluating a country's environmental performance in different policy categories relative to clearly defined targets.

To make the acquisition, comparison and analysis of sustainability indicators easier by compiling them in a single database, incorporating multiple country codes, and condensing the indicator descriptions into short methodological summaries in an accompanying data dictionary.

To help assess a country's demand on and supply of biological capital.

To provide population estimates, gross domestic product, and surface area data to be used in conjunction with the sustainability indicators included in the compendium.

To provide a means of assessing the relative distribution and frequency of global flood hazard.

To provide a means of assessing global landslide mortality risks and distribution.

To identify areas of the world that are at greater risk of multihazard total economic loss.

To provide insight into the frequency and distribution of multihazard events.

To provide a means of assessing the relative distribution and frequency of global cyclone hazard.

To provide a means of assessing the relative distribution and frequency of global volcano hazard.

To provide a spatial surface of the total economic impacts of global drought hazard.